508

BATTLE AT BIG BETHEL.

Union soldiers seemed inevitable. The Zouaves were then advancing through the wood to the morass, but, believing it to be impassable, their commander

ordered them to retire. Townsend was pressing vigorously on toward the right of the foe, but was, suddenly checked by a fatal blunder. In the haste of starting, two companies of his regiment had marched unobserved on the side of a thickly hedged ditch opposite. the main body, and, pushing rapidly forward, came up a gentle slope at some distance in the front, where the smoke, was thick, to join their companions. Their dress, as we. have observed, was similar to that worn by the insurgents, and they were mistaken for a party of Magruder's men out flanking the New Yorkers. Townsend immediately halted, and then fell back to the point of departure. At that moment, General Peirce had placed himself at the head of the Zouaves, to lead them. to an attack, and Bendix and

the rest of the Newport-Newce detachment were pressing forward, in obedience to orders. Some of them crossed the morass, and felt sure of victory, when they were driven back by a murderous fire. The insurgents, having been relieved on their right by the withdrawal of Townsend, had concentrated their forces at the battery in front of this assaulting party. Major Winthrop was with the Newport-Newce troops at this time, and had pressed eagerly forward, with private Jones of the Vermont regiment, to a point within thirty or forty yards of the battery. He sprang upon a log to get. a view of the position, when the bullet of a North Carolina drummer-boy penetrated his brain, and he fell dead.

Townsend's retirement, the repulse on the right, and the assurance of Colonel Duryée, that his ammunition was exhausted, caused General Peirce, with the concurrence of his colonels, to order a retreat. Greble was still at work, but with only one gun, for he had only five men left. On receiving the order, he directed Corporal Peoples to limber up the piece and take it

At that moment a shot from the insurgents struck a glancing blow upon his right temple, and he fell dead, with the exclamation, "Oh! my God!" Thus perished, at the very opening of the civil war, one of the most promising of the young officers who had hastened to the field in obedience to the call of the President. He was the first officer of the reg lar Army

DEATH OF LIEUTENANT GREBLE.

509

who gave his life to his country in the great struggle; and was one of a class of graduates of the West Point Military Academy, which furnished several distinguished general officers for DIT OF 1970D BE the war that ensued.' Generous, brave,

and good, he was greatly beloved by all th
who knew him, and was sincerely mourned
by the nation. His name will forever be
associated, in the minds and hearts of his bd T
countrymen, with all the brave men who
fought in that struggle for Nationality
and Right, as the beloved young martyr.
So, too, will the memory of Winthrop, the
gentle, the brilliant, and the brave, be
cherished by a grateful people.

General Butler, as we have observed, had 'sent Colonel Allen with the First, and Colonel Carr with the Second New York Regi

JOHN TROUT GREBLE.

1 There were forty-six graduates of his class of one hundred, of whom twenty-three remained true to the Union, and fourteen joined the insurgents when the war broke out. At that time, seven of them were known to be dead. Ten of the fourteen disloyal ones became generals in the "Confederate" army, namely, G. W. C. Lee, Jas. Deshler, John P. Pegram, J. E B. Stuart, Archibald Gracie, S. D. Lee, W. D. Pender, J. B. Villepigue, J. T. Mercer, and A. B. Chapman. Only four of the loyal graduates were raised to the rank of general, namely, Henry L Abbot, Thomas E. Ruger, O. O. Howard, and S. H. Weed. Of the forty-six graduates, it is known that twelve were killed in battle, and, up to this time (December, 1865), eight have died.

'Lieutenant Greble's body was borne to Fortress Monroe by the sorrowing Zouaves, in the chapel of which it was laid, and received the administration of funeral rites before it was conveyed to his native city of Phila. delphia. His father, accompanied by an intimate friend, had just arrived at Fortress Monroe, on a visit to his Bon, taking with him delicacies from home and tokens of affection from his young wife, when news of the battle, and the death of the hero, was communicated to him. Sadly they returned, bearing with the body the following touching letter to his wife, daughter of the Rev. J. W. French, his senior Professor at West Point:-" May God bless you, my darling, and grant you a happy and peaceful life. May the good Father protect you and me, and grant that we may live happily together long lives. God give me strength, wisdom, and courage. If I die, let me die as a brave and honorable man; let no stain of dishonor hang over me or you. Devotedly, and with my whole heart, your husband." This was written with a pencil, and evidently after arriving on the field. He 'seemed to have had a presentiment that he should not survive the expected battle. To a brother officer he said, on starting, "This is an ill-advised and badly arranged movement. I am afraid no good will come of it; and as for myself, I do not think I shall come off the field alive."

"Lieutenant Greble's body received military honors in Philadelphia. It lay in state in Independence Hall, it the request of the City Councils, on the 14th of June, where it was visited by thousands of citizens. It was then borne in solemn procession to his father's residence, escorted by Captain Starr's company of militia, and followed by officers of the Army and Navy, the city authorities, and a large body of military and citizens. From there it was conveyed to Woodland Cemetery, in the vicinity of Philadelphia, when his father-in-law read the final funeral service, and he was buried with military honors. Over his remains his family erected a beautiful and unique monument of white marble, bearing the following inscriptions:-On the concave side, "John T. Greble, First Lieutenant, U. S. A. Born January 12, 1834; killed at Great Bethel, June 10, 1861." On the convex side, seen in the engraving, "John T. Greble, First Lieutenant, U. 8. A. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God."

The City Councils of Philadelphia adopted a series of resolutions relative to his death; and a portrait of the martyr, painted by Marchant, was presented to the corporation. The officers at Fortress Monroe had already, by resolution, on the 11th of June, borne testimony of their appreciation of their companion-in-arms; and Lieutenant-Colonel (afterward Major-General) Warren said: "Ilis efficiency alone prevented our loss from being thrice what it was, by preventing the opposing batteries from sweeping the road along which we marched; and the impression which he made on the enemy deterred them from pursuing our retreating forces, hours after he had ceased to live."

GREBLE'S MONUMENT.

510

EFFECT OF THE BATTLE AT BIG BETHEL.

ment, as re-enforcements. These arrived while the battle was going on. Peirce ordered them to the front, as if to renew the conflict, and they served as a cover to the wearied troops in their retreat. That retreat was in good order. The dead and wounded, and arms and munitions were all borne away. Lieutenant-Colonel Warren carried off the body of Lieutenant Greble, but that of Winthrop remained for a time with the insurgents.' Kilpatrick, who was badly wounded by a shot through his thigh, was rescued and borne away by Captain Winslow. The insurgent cavalry pursued about six miles, when they returned; and on the same day Magruder and his whole party withdrew to Yorktown. The loss of the National troops was reported at sixteen killed, thirty-four wounded, and five missing. That of the insurgents was trifling. The number of the National force at Great Bethel was about twenty-five hundred, and that of the insurgents eighteen hundred.

As soon as General Butler was informed of the action he proceeded to Hampton, for the purpose of sending forward wagons and ambulances for the sick and wounded, and to join, the expedition in person. His horse swam Hampton Creek, while he crossed in a boat. Tidings soon came that the battle was over, and he remained at Hampton to receive the disabled, who were sent by water to the hospital at Fortress Monroe.3

The battle at Bethel, with its disastrous results, surprised and mortified the nation, and the assurance of the Department Commander, that “we have gained more than we have lost," was not accepted at the time as a fair conclusion. "Our troops," he said, in support of his inference, "have learned to have confidence in themselves under fire; the enemy have shown that they will not meet us in the open field, and our officers have learned wherein their organization and drill are inefficient." But the people were not satisfied. Their chagrin must be appeased. It was felt that somebody was to blame, and the offender on whom to lay the responsibility was earnestly sought. The Department Commander, the chief leader on the field, and the heads of regiments, were all in turn censured, while the bravery of the troops was properly extolled. So thoroughly were Butler's services at Annapolis and Baltimore overshadowed and obscured by this cloud of disaster, that the confirmation of his appointment to a major-generalship was secured in the Senate by only two votes, and these through the exertions of Senator Baker, who was soon to fall a sacrifice to incompetency or something worse. The heaviest weight of responsibility finally rested, in the public comprehension of the affair, on General Peirce; but, we are satisfied, after careful investiga

1 The bravery of Winthrop was extolled by the foe. They gave his body a respectful burial at Bethel, and it was disinterred a few days afterward and taken to New York. "On the 19th of April," says his friend George W. Curtis, in a beautiful sketch of his life, he left the armory-door of the Seventh, with his hand upon a howitzer on the 21st of June, his body lay upon the same howitzer, at the same door, wrapped in the flag for which he gladly died, as the symbol of human freedom."-The Fallen Brave: edited by J. G. Shea, LL. D.. page 41.

2 In his report, Kilpatrick said, after speaking of the engagement, and of a number of men being killed :— "Having received a grape-shot through my thigh, which tore off a portion of the rectangle on Colonel Duryée's left shoulder, and killed a soldier in the rear, I withdrew my men to the skirts of the wood. . . . I shall ever be grateful to Captain Winslow, who rescued me after our forces had left."

3 This account of the battle at Bethel is prepared from a written statement of General Peirce to the author, in February, 1865; Report of General Butler to the General-in-chief, June 10, 1861; Reports of Colonels Duryée and Allen, and Captain Kilpatrick, June 11, 1861; Orders of General Peirce, June 9, 1861, and letter of the same to the editor of the Boston Journal, August 3, 1861; Report of Colonel D. H. Hill to Governor Ellis, of North Carolina, June 11,1861; and Report of Colonel Magruder, June 12, and correspondence of the Richmond Despatch, June 11, 1861.

A CENSURED OFFICER JUSTIFIED.

511

tion, without justice. During the remainder of his three months' service, when he held command at Hampton, he bore the load of odium with suffering that almost dethroned his reason, but with the dignity of conscious innocence. Then he entered the service for three years as a private soldier. He arose quickly to the position of a commander of a regiment, and performed signal service in Maryland, Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, and Mississippi. In one of the severe battles fought on the Virginia Peninsula, which we shall consider hereafter, he was chosen by General Richardson to perform most perilous duty in front of a heavy battery of the foe, then hurling a hundred shot a minute. Whilst waving his sword, and shouting to his regiment, "At the double-quick! Follow me!" his right arm was torn from his shoulder by a 32-pound ball, that cut a man in two just behind him. Peirce was a gallant and faithful soldier during the whole war, and deserves the grateful thanks of his countrymen.

In contemplating the battle at Bethel in the light of contemporary and subsequent events, the historian is constrained to believe that the disaster on that day was chargeable more to a general eagerness to do, without experience in doing, than to any special shortcomings of individuals.

1864.

The writer visited the battle-ground at Great Bethel early in December, 1864, in company with the father of Lieutenant Greble and his friend (F. J. Dreer), who was with him when he bore home the lifeless body of his son. We arrived at Fortress Monroe on Sunday morning," and after breakfasting at the Hygeian Restaurant, near the Baltimore December 11, wharf, we called on General Butler, who was then the commander of the Department of Virginia and North Carolina. He was at his quarters in the fortress, and was preparing to sail on the memorable expedition against the forts at the mouth of the Cape Fear River, and the town of Wilmington, so famous as the chief port for blockade-runners. We were invited by General Butler to accompany him, and gladly embraced the opportunity to become spectators of some of the most stirring scenes of the war. Whilst waiting two or three days for the expedition to sail, we visited the battleground at Big Bethel, the site of Hampton, and the hospitals and schools in the vicinity of Fortress Monroe.

This is a view from the main street, looking northwest toward the old church, whose ruins are seen toward the left of the picture, in the back-ground. The three huts in front occupy the sites of the stores of Adler, Peake, and Armistead, merchants of Hampton. The one with the wood-sawyer in front was a barber's shop

512

a 1848.

THE DESOLATION OF HAMPTON.

Sixteen years before," the writer, while gathering up materials for his Pictorial Field-Book of the Revolution, visited Hampton and the fortress, and traveled over the road from Yorktown to the coast, on which the battle at Great Bethel occurred. The aspect of every thing was now changed. The country, then thickly settled and well cultivated, was now desolated and depopulated. The beautiful village of Hampton, which contained a resident population of about fourteen hundred souls when the war broke out, had been devoured by fire; and the venerable St. John's Church, built in far-back colonial times, and presenting a picturesque and well-preserved relic of the past, was now a blackened and mutilated ruin, with the ancient brick wall around the yard serving as a part of the line of fortifications cast up there by the National troops. The site of the town

was covered with rude cabins, all occupied by negroes freed from bondage; and the chimney of many a stately mansion that was occupied in summer by some of the wealthiest families of Virginia, who sought comfort near the seaside, now served the same purpose for a cabin only a few feet square. Only the Court House and seven or eight other buildings of the five hundred that comprised the village escaped the conflagration lighted by General Magruder just after midnight on the 7th of August, 1861, when the National troops had withdrawn to the opposite side of Hampton Creek. In that Court House, which had been partly destroyed, we found two young women from Vermont earnestly engaged in teaching the children of the freedmen. In the main street of the village, where we remembered having seen fine stores and

dwellings of brick, nothing was now to be seen but miserable huts, their chimneys composed of the bricks of the ruined buildings. It was a very sad sight. The sketches on this and the preceding page, made by the writer at the time, give an idea of the desolate appearance of the once flourishing town, over which the chariot of war rolled fearfully at the beginning of the struggle.

On Monday, the 12th of December, a cold, blustering day, we visited the Bethel battle-field, in company with Doctor Ely McClellan, of Philadelphia, then the surgeon in charge of the hospitals at Fortress Monroe, and Assist ant Medical Director of the post. In a light wagon, drawn by two lively horses belonging to the doctor, we made a journey of about twenty-five miles during the short afternoon, attended by two armed outriders to keep off the "bushwhackers" or prowling secessionists with which the desolated country was infested. The road was fine, and passed over an

CABIN AND CHIMNEY.

This is a view from the Yorktown Road, and shows the front entrance to the church. Close by that entrance we observed a monument erected to the memory of a daughter of the Rev. John McCabe, the rector of the parish when the writer visited Hampton in 1858.

J