with another regiment. Early action The regiment arrived in Washington, D.C., on the evening of May 2. There, they completed additional training and performed picket duty throughout the district. While quartered on the floor of the United States House of Representatives, the enlisted men took it upon themselves to set up a mock session, passing a law first abolishing the House of Representatives, then the Union and reconstituting both in a manner of their liking. The more embarrassing and lawbreaking actions by the regiment included the burning of fences, which resulted in a letter of reprimand from Brigadier General Joseph K. Mansfield along with six enlisted men being removed and sent back to New York. On May 7, the 11th New York was officially sworn into Federal service by Brig. Gen. Irvin McDowell on the East Front of the unfinished Capitol in the presence of Lincoln, his son Tad and personal secretary John Hay. On May 9, the regiment had an opportunity to apply their experience as firefighters when asked to help extinguish a blaze at the Willard Hotel. Upon receiving word from General Mansfield, commander of the Department of Washington, Ellsworth dispatched ten men from each company to attend to the fire. Soon however, the entire regiment responded to the blaze. With Ellsworth having more men on the scene than the Washington Fire Department, he claimed the fire chief's trumpet and assumed command of the incident. When the fire was extinguished, Henry Willard, owner of the hotel, invited the regiment to breakfast and money was collected providing them with $500. After nine days quartered at the capitol, the men of the 11th New York were moved to the heights near the Insane Asylum to Camp Lincoln. This move would allow for easy transport across the Potomac and into Virginia when necessary. While just five miles (8 km) from the capitol, the standard of living the men were used to had changed dramatically, as their usual foodstuffs were replaced with beef steak, dry bread, and coffee. Ellsworth wrote to his fiance that they had not had butter in a week. When the Commonwealth of Virginia seceded from the Union on May 23, the regiment was ordered to assist in the occupation of Arlington Heights and Alexandria, Virginia, directly across the Potomac River from Washington. On May 24, the regiment boarded the steamers Baltimore and Mount Vernon and was transported across