In November 1861, Union Gen. Henry H. Lockwood led a force of about 4,500 army officers, infantrymen, cavalrymen, and artillerists to Snow Hill, including the 1st Eastern Shore Maryland Home Guard from nearby Dorchester County, and some of his men camped in the Worcester County Courthouse yard. On November 14, his command marched south through the Eastern Shore to Accomack and Northampton Counties in Virginia in a show of Union strength. Lockwood distributed a proclamation that his troops would support the local civilian population, restore lighthouses to working order, and disarm and disperse any Confederates they encountered in order to prevent invasions of Maryland from Virginia. The expedition followed the Pocomoke River to Newtown, present-day Pocomoke City, and then went overland into Virginia, where Lockwood encountered a few Confederate pickets, small cannons, and rudimentary earthworks at Newtown, Temperanceville, and Drummondtown, present-day Accomac. Many of the Confederates fled before they could be captured, often throwing aside their weapons as they escaped. Considered successful, the expedition ended in Drummondtown on November 22. Lockwood's men then constructed a telegraph line from Cape Charles near the southern end of the peninsula to Fort Monroe, and he left a detail to guard it. Federal forces occupied the Delmarva peninsula for the duration of the war. The courthouse, jail, and adjacent buildings had been erected after a devastating fire at the center of the county seat in 1834.