midnight
President Buchanan hastily summoned from Arlington the foremost soldier of the Republic and despatched Colonel Robert E. Lee to the scene with the only troops available at the Capital , a company of marines . Lieutenant J. E. B. Stuart volunteered to act as his aide . The young cavalier was in the East celebrating the birth of a baby boy . When the marines arrived from Washington it was past midnight . The town swarmed with armed men from every farm and fireside . Five companies of militia from Maryland and Virginia were on the ground and Henry Wise , the Governor of Virginia , was hurrying to take command . Stuart had established Colonel Lee 's headquarters behind the brick wall of the Arsenal enclosure .