[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Despite the Civil War beginning in April there had been relatively little happening in the way of combat. Both sides had to raise armies, equip the troops and train them. That took time. Some southern states did not secede until months after as well and Virginia was among them, seceding on May 23.
There was a large Federal presence in the Washington DC area but a major area of concern for Virginia was the area around Fort Monroe. With a large naval base there as well as a Federal garrison it would need to be taken and quickly. Fortress Monroe was nearly impregnable and the garrison commander knew it and refused to surrender it. John Magruder was sent by the commander of the Virginia army Robert E. Lee to defend the Peninsula. He established his camps at Big Bethel and Little Bethel.
Nearby in his own camps were troops led by Benjamin Butler. Butler was a Democrat politician (and had cast a vote for Jefferson Davis to be nominated as president in 1860) and his star was on the rise. When Washington was cut off from the world early in the war he had devised a way to get troops to Annapolis and rebuild the railroad from there earning Abraham Lincoln’s praise. He was rewarded with quick promotions that would prove to be a problem later in the war.
Butler’s men had secured Newport News up to the Nansemond River and he was being reinforced everyday with new regiments. Magruder would have to act quickly. The 1st North Carolina under future general D.H. Hill and a battery of artillery was sent to Big Bethel to take an advanced position 8 miles from Butler’s men. They found the church in town marked by graffiti saying among other things Death to Traitors. Hill fortified his camp, which commanded a bridge over the Black River. Magruder brought up the rest of his men to Big Bethel and nearby Little Bethel.
Butler intended to drive Hill back since Hill’s men were harassing his and threatening to cut him off from Fortress Monroe. An escaped slave gave Butler valuable intelligence about Hill’s position at the Black River and Butler proposed to attack. His plan called for a night march with a surprise attack at dawn at Little Bethel, which he assumed would be the main Confederate force. Once defeated he could then move on Big Bethel if he needed to.
The march began on June 9 under the command of militia general Ebenezer Peirce who was too ill to ride his horse. The plan called for one regiment to cut the road between the two Bethels and to converge on Little Bethel from both sides. The march met with some delays but the force that was to cut the road led by Abram Duryea was in place at 4 AM capturing three Confederate pickets. The element of surprise was lost for Duryea as he approached the main picket line when the regiments behind his opened fire on each other.
One of the regiments behind him had not received blue unfiorms and wore their old gray militia uniforms. They had white armbands to signal to that they were Union men but the commander of the other regiment had not been informed of that fact. 21 men were down and several more fled spreading panic claiming that their regiment was being cut to pieces by the Confederates. At this point the element of surprise was lost and the senior officers implored Pierce to fall back.
Pierce did not. Magruder pulled his men back from Little Bethel to Big Bethel. The graffitid church was burned and the Union moved towards Big Bethel. Magruder’s men dug in and Butler was in the dark regarding the enemy’s strength or position but he was determined to attack, even after a slave told him the Confederates had as many as 5,000 men. Union cavalry under Judson Kilpatrick scouted and determined that this was not the case but revealed their presence by engaging with Confederate pickets.
As Butler deployed his men neither side could see the other. The Union view was blocked by the fortifications and the Confederate view was blocked by a woodlot. The first shot was fired by a Confederate howitzer killing one man at around 9:30. Skirmishing broke out as Butler tried to get a feel for the Confederate position but they were forced back. A heavier assault was tried but the Union troops couldn’t get closer than 500 feet. The Confederate commander though thought that he was being flanked and pulled back. Duryea’s men captured their position.
Magruder did not want to give up so easily so Hill’s regiment was sent to retake it and drove Duryea out. By 1:30 most of the fighting was ending. The Union troops were exhausted from the night march and were making no headway. One final assault was tried and was repulsed. The artillery continued to fire but the battle was over and the Union troops began to withdraw. One battery refused to leave and its commander John Greble worked his guns until a cannonball took off his head. He was the first West Pointer to be killed during the war.
The Union troops arrived back at Fort Monroe around 5 PM. Magruder ordered his cavalry to harass them but they made little progress in that regard. The battle was relatively small. Magruder lost about 20 men, Butler about 75 but the defense dissuaded any further Union advances on the Peninsula. Many of his men were soon transferred to Washington to reinforce the garrison there following the defeat at Bull Run. This forced Butler to abandon many of his advanced positions and Magruder seized them.
Butler was criticized for not leading the operation but despite that he was promoted to major general. The blame fell of Pierce who was in over his head. He would later command a regiment and later a brigade in the latter stages of the war. Not much of the battlefield remains outside of a small park. Most has been lost to development or is a part of the nearby Langley Air Force Base.[/vc_column_text][vc_media_grid element_width=”3″ grid_id=”vc_gid:1569687609070-b5b737b7-c89b-1″ include=”14698,14699,14700,14701″][vc_column_text][/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]