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five to a hundred. Other accounts assured us that our men were on the point of taking the battery, when an order came from some unknown source to retire.

The whole truth about Great Bethel does not appear to have been anywhere published. Mr. Pollard's rebel account is a little nearer the truth than any other which I have seen; though, of course, it is distorted by the insanity of hatred common to all our "Southern brethren."* Our "Southern brethren" excel in the business of hating through constant practice. Mr. Pollard would have been a man of honor and truth if he had been reared five degrees north of Richmond. As it is, he only escapes being one, when certain imaginary beings, whom he names Yankees, are the theme of his vigorous pen.

The affair of Great Bethel happened thus:

The forced inaction of General Butler had the effect of making the enemy bolder in approaching his lines. They would send parties from Yorktown, who would come down within sight of the Union pickets near Hampton, and seize both Union men and negroes, conscripting the former, using the latter on their batteries. Major Winthrop, always on the alert, learned from a contraband, George Scott by name, that the rebels had established themselves at two points between Yorktown and the fort, where they had thrown up intrenchments, and whence they nightly issued, seizing and plundering. George Scott described the localities with perfect correctness, and Winthrop himself, accompanied by George repeatedly reconnoitered the road leading to them. On one point only was the negro guide mistaken: he thought the rebels were two thousand in number; whereas, when he saw them, five hundred was about their force. They had eleven or twelve hundred men in the two Bethels on the day of the action, but not more than five hundred took part in it; the rest having arrived, on a run, from Yorktown while the "battle" was proceeding, and, before they had recovered breath, it was over.

Major Winthrop reported to General Butler, who resolved to at tempt the capture of the two posts. His orders restricted him to advances of half a day's march. Great Bethel being nine miles distant, might be considered within the limit.

"First year of the war." New York Edition. p. 77.

Now, all was excitement and activity at head-quarters-no one so happy as Winthrop, who threw himself, heart and soul, into the affair. The first rough plan of the expedition, drawn up in his own hand, lies before me; brief, hasty, colloquial, interlined; resembling the first sketch of an "article" or a story; such as, doubtless, he had often dashed upon paper at Staten Island.

PIAN OF ATTACK BY TWO DETACHMENTS UPON LITTLE BETHEL AND BIG BETHEL

A regiment or battalion to march from Newport News, and a regiment to march from Camp Hamilton-Duryea's. Each will be supported by sufficient reserves under arms in camp, and with advanced guards out on the road of march.

Duryea to push out two pickets at 10 P. M.; one two and a half miles beyond Hampton, on the county road, but not so far as to alarm the enemy. This is important. Second picket half as far as the first. Both pickets to keep as much out of sight as possible. No one whatever to be allowed to pass out through their lines. Persons to be allowed to pass inward toward Hampton-unless it appears that they intend to go roundabout and dodge through to the front.

At 12, midnight, Colonel Duryea will march his regiment, with fifteen rounds cartridges, on the county road towards Little Bethel. Scows will be provided to ferry them across Hampton Creek. March to be rapid; but not hurried.

A howitzer with canister and shrapnel to go.

A wagon with planks and material to repair the Newmarket Bridge. Duryea to have the 200 rifles. He will pick the men to whom to intrust them.

Rocket to be thrown up from Newport News. Notify Commodore Pen dergrast of this to prevent general alarm.

Newport News movement to be made somewhat later, as the distance is less.

If we find the enemy and surprise them, men will fire one volley, if desirable; not reload, and go ahead with the bayonet.

As the attack is to be by night, or dusk of morning, and in two detachments, our people should have some token, say a white rag (or dirty white rag) on the left arm.

Perhaps the detachments who are to do the job should be smaller than a regiment 300 or 500, as the right and left of the attack would be more easily handled.

If we bag the Little Bethel men, push on to Big Bethel, and similarly bag them. Burn both the Betheis, or blow up if brick.

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trusted with the lives of men and the honor of a country. The day before Bethel, General Butler had the brains of a general, the courage of a general, the toughness of a general, the technical knowledge of a general; but to fit him for independent command, he still needed some such harsh and bitter experience as now awaited him. The day after Bethel, he had made a prodigious stride in his military education, for he is a man who can take a hint. The whole secret of war was revealed in the flash and thunder, the disaster and shame, of that sorry skirmish.

All went well until near the dawn of day, June 10th, when the forces were to form their junction near Little Bethel. There Colonel Bendix's regiment saw approaching over the crest of a low hill what seemed, in the magnifying dusk, a body of cavalry. It was Colonel Townsend's regiment which they saw. Knowing that General Butler had no cavalry, Colonel Bendix concluded, of course, that they were a body of mounted rebels. The fatal order was given to fire, and ten of Colonel Townsend's men fell; two killed and eight wounded. The fire was returned in a desultory manner, without loss to the regiment of Colonel Bendix. Of the confusion that followed, the double-quick counter-marching, the alarm to friends and foes, I need not speak. The dawn of day revealed the error, and then the question arose, whether to advance or to return to the fortress. A surprise was no longer possible, and the inhabitants of the country concurred in stating the force of the enemy at four or five thousand, with formidable artillery. Colonel Duryea had already captured the picket at Little Bethel. The enemy, therefore, fully warned, must be concentrated at Great Bethel. Major Winthrop and Lieutenant Butler, both of the commanding general's staff, united in most earnestly advising an advance, and General Pierce gave no reluctant assent. He had sent back for re-enforcements which were soon on the march to join him. At half past nine, he had arrived within a mile of the enemy, with two regiments and four pieces of cannon of small caliber, one of which was the gun of Lieutenant Greble of the regular artillery. Two other regiments were approaching. The ground may be roughly described thus: An oblong piece of open country, sur rounded on three sides by woods, General Pierce entering at the end where there was no wood. The enemy's position was near the upper end, but behind a strip of wood which concealed it. It

was, in some slight degree, protected in front by a creek twelve feet wide and three deep. Their battery consisted of four pieces of field artillery, one of which becoming disabled through the disarrangement of the trigger-apparatus, was useless. The earthworks, hastily thrown up in front of the guns, added scarcely any strength to the position, for they were less than three feet high on the outside. A boy ten years old could have leaped over them; a boy ten years old could have waded the creek. The breastworks were, in fact, so low that the wheels of the enemy's guns were embedded in the earth, in order to get the carriages low enough to be protected. These facts I learn from a Union officer of high rank, who afterward became familiar with the ground. Behind these trivial works were five hundred rebel troops, who were re-enforced while the action was going on with six hundred more from Yorktown, thoroughly blown with running. This was the real strength of the enemy, whom General Pierce firmly believed to consist of four or five thousand troops strongly posted, and well supplied with artillery.

General Pierce and his command then stood, at half-past nine, on the high road leading from Hampton to Yorktown, a mile from the enemy, whose battery commanded the road. That battery was so placed that it could have been approached within fifty yards. without the attacking party leaving the woods. Nor was there any serious obstacle to turning it either on the right or on the left. This not being immediately perceived, Colonel Duryea and Lieutenant Greble marched along the high road into the enemy's fire, and soon the cannon balls began to play over their heads, falling far to the rear. The men gave three cheers and kept on their way. Soon, however, the enemy fired better, and some men were struck; not many, for the total loss of Colonel Duryea's regiment that day was four killed, and twelve wounded. To these troops, in their inexperience, it seemed that work of this kind could not be down in the programine. They also received the impression that the enemy's three pieces of cannon were thirty at least, and that, upon the whole, this was not the right road to the battery. So they sidled off into the woods, and there remained waiting for some one to tell them what to do next. Greble kept on to a point three hundred yards from the enemy, where he planted his gun, and maintained a steady and effective fire upon them for an hour and a haif.

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