June 10, 1861 - Battle of Big Bethel; and Fort Monroe

June 10, 1861

Battle of Big Bethel; or the Battle of Bethel Church or Great Bethel

Hampton, VA; near Newport News 

Benjamin F. Butler > Ebenezer W. Peirce (leading seven infantry regiments - 4,400 men of the 4th Massachusetts, 1st Vermont, and 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 5th, and 7th New York)

vs.

Robert E. Lee > John B. Magruder (force included Col. Daniel H. Hill’s 1st North Carolina Infantry, Lt. Col. William D. Stuart’s 3rd Virginia Infantry, Maj. Edwin B. Montague’s Virginia Battalion, and Maj. George W. Randolph’s howitzer company)

* "Considered by many historians to be the first major land engagement of the American Civil War"

* "The first planned land engagement of the Civil War."

* "One of the earliest land battles of the American Civil War"

* "The first land battle in Virginia"

* "The first land battle of the Civil War in present-day Virginia." Winning quote for Most Accurate!

* "The first Regular Army officer and West Point graduate killed during the war."

* "The first Confederate enlisted man who died in combat during the Civil War" (An officer, Marr, was killed a few days earlier in Fairfax.)

* Several references to the Confederates quickly abandoning Little Bethel to concentrate at Big Bethel. Thus the Little Bethel earthworks, way off the marked path, were some of the most in-tact earthworks I have ever seen; and I've seen a lot. 

* "When the Confederates arrived at Big Bethel Church, they found it marked with writings on the walls such as "Death to traitors," which were left by Union soldiers during an earlier reconnaissance and which greatly annoyed the Confederates" :)

* Union marches through the night for a supposed surprise attack at dawn, but the Confederates are dug-in and the Union bungles it, including friendly fire incidents (uniforms were not uniform - yet).

* Judson Kilpatrick is here too as a Captain and captures three Confederate pickets before dawn. He'll be a brigadier general later and is all over the lead-up to and Confederate retreat from Gettysburg. 

"This is the site of the first land battle of the Civil War in present-day Virginia. During the spring of 1861, Federal officials took steps to secure Fort Monroe, which occupied a strategically vital position at the mouths of the Chesapeake Bay and the James River. West of the fort, the river and roads provided access to Richmond, the Confederate capital. President Abraham Lincoln appointed Gen. Benjamin F. Butler to command at Fort Monroe and to control the lower Peninsula.

On June 6, 1861, Confederate Col. John B. Magruder led 1,404 men here from Yorktown, about fifteen miles southeast, to block key roads and isolate the fort. They entrenched around Big Bethel Church, now under the reservoir in front of you (then a marshy creek). They also built outlying works, one of which survives, on this side of the creek. Magruder’s force included Col. Daniel H. Hill’s 1st North Carolina Infantry, Lt. Col. William D. Stuart’s 3rd Virginia Infantry, Maj. Edwin B. Montague’s Virginia Battalion, and Maj. George W. Randolph’s howitzer company. 

To protect Fort Monroe, Butler decided to drive off the Confederates. At night, on June 9, Gen. Ebenezer W. Pierce led seven infantry regiments (4,400 men of the 4th Massachusetts, 1st Vermont, and 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 5th, and 7th New York) toward Big Bethel, as well as several guns of the 2nd U.S. Artillery. Two Federal columns collided in the darkness and fired at each other. At 8 A.M., the expedition clashed with Confederate pickets. The shooting alerted Magruder, who prepared for an attack."

https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=181040

"On 10 June 1861, the first land battle of the Civil War in present-day Virginia took place here at Big Bethel Church. Maj. Gen. Benjamin F. Butler, commanding at Fort Monroe, sent converging columns at night from Hampton and Newport News for a dawn attack against Confederate outposts there. The 1,408 Confederates, led by Cols. John B. Magruder and D. H. Hill, fell back to their entrenchments behind Brick Kiln Creek, near the church. Some 4,400 Federals under Brig. Gen. Ebenezer W. Pierce pursued, launched two disjointed attacks, and were repulsed. They then retreated to Fort Monroe, leaving the Confederates in control of most of the Peninsula."

https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=103835

"As the Confederates here tried to burn the Zouaves out of the buildings that stood in front of you, the last act of the battle unfolded to your left across the creek. The "New England Battalion” (1st Vermont, 4th Massachusetts, and 7th New York Infantry) found a ford and crossed the creek to attack the left flank of the main Confederate redoubt at Big Bethel Church.

Maj. Theodore Winthrop, Gen. Benjamin F. Butler's military secretary, led the 7th New York forward and rushed the Confederate line. When effective musket fire from the 1st North Carolina Infantry forced the Federals back, Winthrop tried to rally the wavering soldiers for another assault and was cut down.

A Confederate wrote that Winthrop, "a fine looking man, reached the fence, and leaping on a log, waved his sword crying, ‘Come on, boys; one charge, and the day is ours.’" The words were his last, for a Carolina rifle ended his life the next moment, and his men fled in terror. Col. Daniel H. Hill wrote that Winthrop "was the only one of the enemy who exhibited even an approximation to courage that day." The New Yorkers fell back across the creek. At about the same time, Lt. John Greble, 2nd U.S. Artillery, was killed while “nobly fighting his guns." Greble was the first Regular Army officer and West Point graduate killed during the war.

The battle ended, and the Federals began their march back to Fort Monroe."

https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=181046

                    On this spot June 10, 1861 fell

Henry Lawson Wyatt Private Company A.

1st North Carolina Regiment

This stone placed here

by the courtesy of

Virginia, is erected by

authority of the State

of North Carolina,

June 10, 1905.

E.J. Hale,

W.E. Kyle,

John H. Thorpe,

W.B. Taylor,

R.H. Hicks.

Commissioners

https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=161318

"On June 10, 1861, Confederate forces under Colonel John Bankhead Magruder engaged numerically superior Federal forces under Brigadier General Ebenezer W. Pierce in what is recognized as the first planned land engagement of the Civil War.

After a hotly contested struggle of four hours duration near Big Bethel Church, the Federal assault was repulsed and Pierce withdrew his men to Fort Monroe and Camp Butler. The Federals sustained 76 casualties, the Confederates 8. The South was jubilant over this signal victory."

https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=103832

"In the spring of 1862, Union Gen. George B. McClellan led his 100,000-man Army of the Potomac west from Hampton past Big Bethel in a campaign to capture Richmond. The battlefield of June 9, 1861, soon faded into obscurity.

Little remains of the Big Bethel Battlefield today; this is the last publicly accessible segment. The U.S. Army flooded Brick Kiln Creek in the 1890s to provide drinking water for Fort Monroe. Many key portions of the battlefield, including the church site and most of the Confederate fortifications, are submerged beneath Big Bethel Reservoir.

In 1916, the National Advisory Council for Aeronautics searched for a site for a new airfield and proving ground for Army and Navy aircraft and determined that a location five miles east of here was ideal: near water, flat, and in an area sparsely populated for take-offs, landings, and expansion. The new proving ground was named for aviation pioneer Samuel P. Langley. In the years that followed, the growth of the airfield, Hampton, and Newport News profoundly changed this rural landscape.

Today, Langley Air Force Base occupies much of the remaining battleground, and housing covers the site where Maj. Theodore Winthrop made the final Union assault. A store was built where Lt. John Greble was killed. The first monuments, the obelisk and the marker noting the spot where Pvt. Henry L. Wyatt was killed, were erected here in 1905. Another Confederate memorial was erected when the Civil War Centennial began in 1961, as was the 1st Vermont Infantry monument."

https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=103833

"During the Federal attack, the first Confederate enlisted man who died in combat during the Civil War was killed here.

Union Gen. Ebenezer W. Pierce began his assault at about 9 A.M. on June 10, 1861. Capt. H. Judson Kilpatrick led the 5th New York Infantry (Duryée's Zouaves) in the first attack, but Confederate artillery fire stopped it. Kilpatrick, wounded, was carried to a nearby house as the Zouaves retreated. Col. Abram Duryée himself led his regiment and the 7th New York in a second attack, as the 3rd New York under Col. Frederick Townsend moved through this area to assault the Confederate right flank. When Townsend saw a glint of bayonets in the sun through the woods on his left, however, he thought that the Confederates were about to flank his regiment. He ordered a withdrawal and then discovered too late that the bayonets were those of some of his own men.

To your right, meanwhile, several of Duryée's Zouaves were deployed as sharpshooters in a house and blacksmith shop in front of the one-gun battery ahead of you. When Confederate Col. Daniel H. Hill ordered the buildings burned, Pvt. Henry L. Wyatt and four other soldiers leaped over the earthwork and dashed for the buildings. Pvt. John H. Thorp recalled, "A volley was fired at us as if by a company, not from the house, but from the road to our left." Wyatt was shot and killed here. Sgt. Felix Agnus, 5th New York, however, later claimed that Kilpatrick fired the fatal shot from the house where he lay wounded."

https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=181098

“'As a political question and a question of humanity can I receive the services of father and mother and not take the children? Of the humanitarian aspect I have no doubt; of the political one I have no right to judge.'—Gen. Benjamin F. Butler

Union Gen. Benjamin F. Butler assumed command at Fort Monroe on Thursday morning, May 23, 1861. That night, three slaves belonging to Confederate Col. Charles Mallory came to the fort. The next day, Butler interviewed them and learned that they were about to be sent south “for the purpose of aiding secession forces,” he wrote Gen. Winfield Scott. Butler decided to detain them, put them to work, and give Mallory a receipt, as he would treat "any other property of a private citizen … about to be used against the United States”—so-called contrabands of war. On Saturday, May 25, Butler met with Confederate Maj. John B. Cary, who inquired about the slaves’ return. Butler replied that in Maryland, a loyal state, escaped slaves were returned to their masters, and that Mallory could have his slaves back if he took the oath of allegiance. "To this Major Cary responded that Colonel Mallory was absent,” and Butler kept the men. Secretary of War Simon Cameron endorsed Butler's policy on May 30.

Dozens of slaves fled to "Freedom's Fortress" daily from rural areas such as Big Bethel. The human flood included not only able-bodied men and women, but also their children, raising complicated military, political, and humanitarian issues. Butler established a "Slab-Town" camp in present-day Phoebus, seven miles southeast of here just outside Fort Monroe. After the Confederates burned Hampton in August, a larger Slabtown was created there, and the contrabands scavenged lumber and bricks from the ruins for houses."

https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=181096

"Confederate Col. John Bankhead Magruder (1807-1871) graduated from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point in 1830. He served in the Second Seminole War (1835-1842) and the Mexican-American War (1846-1848), and commanded an artillery battery in Washington, D.C., when the Civil War began. He resigned his commission, was appointed a Confederate colonel, and was assigned to defend the Peninsula. Lauded for his success at Big Bethel, he failed at Malvern Hill under Gen. Robert E. Lee a year later. Magruder was reassigned to Texas, where he won the Battle of Galveston on January 1, 1863. After the war, he first fled to Mexico and served in the army of Emperor Maximilian I, and the settled in Houston, Texas, where he died.

Union Gen. Benjamin Franklin Butler (1818-1893) was a Massachusetts lawyer and politician. Appointed a general when the Civil War erupted, he secured the vital rail link between the North and Washington, DC by occupying Baltimore in May 1861. A grateful President Abraham Lincoln appointed him commander of Fort Monroe. Despite the debacle at Big Bethel, Butler continued in the service until November 1865. He refused to return escaped slaves (“contrabands of war") to their owners, and thereby set Federal policy. Butler insisted that black troops serve in combat. He led a successful expedition to eastern North Carolina, gained notoriety as military governor of Louisiana, and bungled at Bermuda Hundred and Fort Fisher. After the war, he served several congressional terms and was governor of Massachusetts."

"Battle of Big Bethel

Aftermath

For the Federals, the Big Bethel expedition ended in complete failure. Casualties totaled 76: 18 killed, 53 wounded, and 5 missing. The Northern press blamed Gen. Benjamin F. Butler for ordering his troops into battle with poor preparation and for remaining at Fort Monroe during the battle. Gen. Ebenezer W. Pierce, however, received most of the blame for losing "his presence of mind" during the engagement and failing to coordinate the attacks. Federal officers Theodore Winthrop and John Greble were lionized for their valor and sacrifice.

Southerners rejoiced. Confederate casualties were only 1 killed (Pvt. Henry L. Wyatt), 7 wounded, and 3 missing. Confederate President Jefferson Davis pronounced the battle to be a "glorious victory." Although Col. Daniel H. Hill directed most of the action on the battlefield, Col. John B. Magruder received most of the acclaim and was promoted to brigadier general a week later.

The Confederates, of course, had the advantage of secure earthworks, while the Federal commanders maneuvered green troops experiencing their first combat of the war. Ineptness and inexperience combined to produce an embarrassing Union defeat. Compared with the scale of future battles, Big Bethel was a small affair. However, the war had just begun, and few anticipated the slaughter to come."

I got to Big Bethel at the end of a long day and didn't necessarily get pictures of every historical marker, but it was a wonderful place to visit at dusk. The next day I got a tip and found the intact and abandoned earthworks of Little Bethel. These pictures do it no justice - it looked like a dirt castle in the woods. 

The empty cul-de-sac where I entered the woods. 

The creek mentioned in the battle overviews

Abandoned Confederate earthworks, close-enough to a reservoir to remain relatively preserved. 

 

So anyway here's Fort Monroe....

https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=166579

"...American Civil War

Remaining a Union stronghold during the war, three enslaved men known today as Frank Baker, James Townsend, and Shepard Mallory escaped the Confederate Army in Norfolk and fled in a small boat to Fort Monroe. Union commander Major General Benjamin Butler refused to return the men declaring them "contraband of war." During this time Fort Monroe earned the nickname "Freedom's Fortress" as thousands of enslaved people sought freedom here...

Casemate Museum, Fort Monroe
The Casemate Museum chronicles over 400 years of history at Old Point Comfort including that of Fort Monroe, the largest stone fort in the United States. the exhibits are housed in casemates or "fortified chambers" within the fort's walls and showcase the social and military of the site."

The room that Jefferson Davis was held prisoner in, including that big US Flag - ha!

Not historical markers (because indoors). Just me taking a picture of the signs, because this was actually the first time I heard about Big Bethel and I was like, "Big WHATNOW?!"

And Poe was here too!

Slave Population Map - 1860

https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=10357

"Fort Monroe is the largest stone fortification ever built in the United States. Construction began in 1819 and continued for 15 years. Second Lt. Robert E. Lee served as an engineer at Fort Monroe from 1831 to 1834.

During the Civil War, Fort Monroe played an important strategic role for the Union because of its proximity to the entrance to the Chesapeake Bay, and the James and York rivers. The fort also sat on the southern tip of the James/York Peninsula, a strategic route to Richmond. The North Atlantic Blockading Squadron used the fort as a base and several amphibious expeditions to capture Confederate ports were organized from Fort Monroe.

Fort Monroe was the only Union controlled fortified base in the Upper South and it soon became known as the “Freedom Fort” by blacks who sought escape from bondage. Brig. Gen. Benjamin F. Butler’s decision while commanding Fort Monroe in May 1861 to declare escaping slaves as “contraband of war” was the Civil War’s first step towards it becoming a war about freedom.

Maj. Gen. George B. McClellan used Fort Monroe as his primary base for the Peninsula Campaign’s first phase. President Abraham Lincoln came to the fort in May 1862 hoping to further cooperation between the Army and Navy and increase the campaign’s pace. While here, President Lincoln formulated the plans for the capture of Norfolk, which would cause the eventual destruction of the Confederate ironclad CSS Virginia (Merrimack).

Fort Monroe continued to serve as an important Union base throughout the war. The war’s last army-navy amphibious operation against Fort Fisher in North Carolina was launched from this fort. Lincoln returned to Fort Monroe once again in February 1865 to attend the Hampton Roads Peace Conference. This conference, actually held on board a steamer in Hampton Roads harbor, failed to restore peace. Jefferson Davis, the former Confederate president, was imprisoned at Fort Monroe following the war’s conclusion."

"Flagstaff Bastion and Pet Cemetery
The flag has been a welcoming symbol to mariners since the fort's early days. When walking along the ramparts, see more than 200 gravestones marking the final resting places of military service animals and pets belonging to military families. The practice is no longer permitted, but is said to have begun in 1928 and continued through 1988."

"Postern Bridge and Moat
Dating to the early construction period of the fort, the postern bridge has served as a pedestrian passageway across the moat. One of the fort's defensive features, the moat is fed by Mill Creek and was originally eight feet deep at high tide."

"Lee's Quarters 

Lieutenant Robert E. Lee and his wife Mary Custis Lee, great-granddaughter of Martha Washington, occupied these quarters from 1831-1834. An engineer by training, Lee supervised asignificant portion of the construction of the fort. The Lee's first child, George Washington "Custis" Lee, was born here in 1832."

https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=185101

"Cast in 1860, this was the first 15-inch Rodman Gun. Its range was more than four miles. Weight of the projectile was over 300 lbs. During Civil War it was used to bombard Confederate batteries on Sewells Point. The gun was named for President Lincoln in March 1862."

Sources:

https://www.battlefields.org/visit/heritage-sites/big-bethel

https://www.americanhistorycentral.com/entries/battle-of-big-bethel/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Big_Bethel