Qualla: Battle of Big Bethel

Battle of Big Bethel: Introduction

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit PghPhxNfk, CC BY-SA 3.0. Two hours before dawn on June 10, 1861, a Union column wearing gray uniforms walked into another Union column on a dark Virginia road. Colonel John Bendix's German-speaking 7th New York, never given the password or the white-armband recognition signal, mistook the gray-coated 3rd New York ahead of them for Confederates and opened fire. The friendly fire killed three of their own men and shattered any chance of surprise. The Union force kept advancing anyway. By 1:30 that afternoon, Lieutenant John T. Greble lay dead on a Virginia road with a bullet wound to the right temple - the first regular U.S. Army officer killed in the Civil War - and a battle that should have been a footnote had become a sound-and-fury introduction to four years of catastrophe.

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Image: PghPhxNfk | CC BY-SA 3.0

Battle of Big Bethel: The Bait at Big Bethel

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Robert Underwood Johnson and Clarence Clough Buel (book authors). A list of artists and engravers can be found on p. 23 of the PDF., Public domain. Virginia had voted to secede on May 23, 1861. Confederate Colonel John B. Magruder pushed down the Virginia Peninsula to slow any Union advance on Richmond, and Major General Benjamin Butler - a Massachusetts lawyer commanding the Union garrison at Fort Monroe - took the bait Mag...

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Image: Robert Underwood Johnson and Clarence Clough Buel (book authors). A list of artists and engravers can be found on p. 23 of the PDF. | Public domain

Battle of Big Bethel: Shooting Each Other in the Dark

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Dadadata, Public domain. The plan unraveled before any Confederate fired a shot. The 3rd New York Infantry wore gray uniforms. The 7th New York, marching behind them, had not been given the password or the armband signal. In the pre-dawn dark Colonel Bendix saw gray-coated men ahead and ordered his regim...

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Image: Dadadata | Public domain

Battle of Big Bethel: Greble and Winthrop

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Matthew W. King, CC BY-SA 4.0. The fight at Big Bethel began at 9 a.m. and lasted four and a half hours. Union skirmishers reported Confederate strength as 3,000 to 5,000 men - the actual number was around 1,500 - but accurately described the position as well fortified. Lieutenant John T. Greble of the 2nd U.S...

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Image: Matthew W. King | CC BY-SA 4.0

Battle of Big Bethel: First Officer, First Enlisted Man

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Tim Menzies from Morgantown, West Virginia, CC BY-SA 2.0. Henry Lawson Wyatt, a private in the 1st North Carolina Volunteer Infantry, volunteered with three others to burn a house on the field that Union skirmishers were using for cover. They were turned back by fire from the road. Wyatt did not get up. He was the only Confederate kille...

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Image: Tim Menzies from Morgantown, West Virginia | CC BY-SA 2.0

Battle of Big Bethel: What Was Left Behind

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit American Battlefield Protection Program, Public domain. Magruder withdrew to Yorktown within hours of the victory. The Union forces did not attempt another peninsula advance until McClellan's Peninsula Campaign of 1862. Southern newspapers exaggerated the win until it sounded like a war-deciding blow; six weeks later the Confederate v...

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Image: American Battlefield Protection Program | Public domain