I say effective. It did not kill a rebel; but it had the effect of keeping them within their works, and giving them the idea that they were attacked.

After Colonel Duryea had retired to the woods, there was a long pause in the operations, during which a good plan was matured for turning the enemy's battery, and getting in behind it. It was agreed that Colonel Townsend should keep well away to the left, near the wood, or through the wood, and go on to the Yorktown road beyond the battery; then turn down upon it, and dash in. Colonel Duryea and Colonel Bendix were to march through the woods on the right, and penetrate to the same road below the bat tery, and then rush in upon it simultaneously with Colonel Townsend. It was an excellent and most feasible scheme, certain of success if executed with merely tolerable vigor and resolution. Colonel Duryea again advanced, this time through the woods. He went as far as the creek, and concluding it to be impassable by his "Zouaves," retired a second time, with some trifling loss; LieutenantColonel Warren, and a few brave men remaining long enough to bring away the body and the gun of poor Greble, shot by the enemy's last discharge. Meanwhile Colonel Townsend was making his way far on the other side of the road. He was going straight to victory; Major Winthrop among the foremost, full of ardor and confidence, and the men in good heart. In five minutes more he would have gained a position on the Yorktown road beyond the battery, from which they could have marched upon the enemy, as in an open field. Then occurred a fatal mistake. In the haste of the start, two companies of the regiment had marched on the other side of a stone fence; and, anxious to get forward, were coming up to the front at some distance from the main body in the open field. Colonel Townsend seeing these troops, supposed that they were a body of the enemy coming out to attack him in flank. He ›rdered a halt, and then returned to the point of departure to Laeet this imaginary foe. Winthrop, as is supposed, did not hear the order to retire. With a few troops he still pressed on, and when they halted, still advanced, and reached a spot thirty yards from the enemy's battery. With one companion, private John M. Jones of Vermont, he sprang upon a log to get a view of the position, which he alone that day clearly saw. A ball pierced his brain. He almost instantly breathed his last. His body being left on the

field fell into the hands of the foe. In their opinion, he was the only man in the Union force who displayed "even an approximation to courage," and they gave his remains the honorable burial due to the body of a hero, and returned his watch and other effects to his commanding officer.

General Pierce, with the advice of all the colonels except Col Duryee, gave the order to retire! and so the "battle" of Great Bethel ended. Some of the companies retired in tolerable order. But there was a great deal of panic and precipitation, though the pursuit was late and languid. The noble Chaplain Winslow and the brave Lieutenant-Colonel G. K. Warren,* with a few other firm men, remained behind; and, all exhausted as they were, drew the wounded in wagons nine miles, from the scene of the action to the nearest camp.

Lieutenant-Colonel Warren reports:

"I remained on the ground about an hour after all the force had left. As Colonel Carr retired, Captain Wilson, of his regiment, carried off the gun at which Lieutenant Greble had been killed, but left the limber behind. I withdrew this along with Lieutenant Greble's body, assisted by Lieutenant Duncan and twelve men of the N. Y. First, and sent it on to join the piece. I remained with Chaplain Winslow, and a few men of the N. Y. Third, Fifth, and Seventh, getting the wounded together, whom we put into carts and wagons, and drew off by hand. There were three or four mortally wounded and several dead, whom we had to leave from inability to carry them. I sent several messengers to get assistance; and as we moved slowly, finding no one, I pushed ahead as fast as I could go on foot (having given the animal I rode to a wounded man). I overtook none but the worn-out stragglers till I came up to Captain Kapff, of the N. Y. Seventh, who with seven or eight men stopped, as also did Captain McNutt of the Second, detailed by Colonel Carr. They both rendered essential service in checking the advance of the enemy's horsemen, who finally came on and pursued up to New Market Bridge.

"The noble conduct of Chaplain Winslow, and the generoushearted men who remained behind to help the wounded, deserves the highest praise; and the toilsome task which they accomplished

Since brigadier-general and chief of staff to General Meade-distinguished on many fields, particularly at the battles in Pennsylvania in June, 1863.

of dragging the rude vehicles, filled with their helpless comrades, over a weary road of nine miles in their exhausted condition, with the prospect of an attack every minute, bespeak a goodness of heart and a bravery never excelled. Besides the wounded and dead left behind, there were a number of canteens and haversacks, and a few muskets and bayonets, all of which I think was caused by a misunderstanding. Our regiment did not think we were going back more than a few hundred yards to rest a little, out of fire, and then make another attack. There was no pursuing force, or the least excuse for precipitancy. No shots were fired at the little party who carried away the limber of Lieutenant Greble's gun, and the long while which elapsed without any one appearing in front of the enemy's lines, would indicate that he was very weak in numbers, or perhaps had begun to retire. The force which the enemy brought into action was not, I think, greater than 500 men. His great advantage over us was artillery protected from our fire. I still am of the opinion that the position, as we found it, was not difficult to take with experienced troops, and could have been turned on our left. The trees protected our approach, and sheltered us from their battery till we were quite close, and the march in front was practicable for footmen. We labored under great disadvantage in want of experience in firing, and in the exhaustion of our men from want of sleep, long marching, and hunger.

"The enemy had a rifled gun or two, shooting bolts of about the caliber of four-pounders, and eight inches long, with soft metal base; some of them were hollow, with a Boarman fuse at the point, and all did not burst. Some of their twelve-pounder shells also failed to explode. There were probably three to five guns sheltered by a breastwork, and one or two that were moved around to different points.

:

"The breastwork was placed so that the guns enfiladed the little bridge. The gun placed to sweep the long reach of road before you came to the bridge was driven away by Lieutenant Greble's fire, which prevented our loss from being far greater than it was. The skill and bravery displayed by Lieutenant Greble could not have been surpassed; and the fortune which protected him from the enemy's fire only deserted him at the last moment. The discharge which killed him was one of the last made by the enemy's guns. His own guns were never silenced by the enemy's

fire, and the occasional pauses were to husband his ammuni tion."

The Union loss in killed and permanently disabled was twentyfive. The rebel loss, one man killed and three wounded. A few hours after the action, Great Bethel was evacuated. If General Pierce had withdrawn his men out of tire, and caused them to sit down and eat their dinner, it is highly probable the enemy would have retreated; for they were greatly outnumbered, and were perfectly aware that one regiment of steady and experienced troops, led by a man who knew his business, could have taken then all prisoners in twenty minutes. For the most part, our men, I am assured, behaved as well as could have been expected. All they wanted was commanders who knew what was the right thing to do, and who would go forward and show them how to do it. One well-compacted, well-sustained rush from any point of approach, and the battery had been theirs.

CHAPTER VIII.

CONSEQUENCES OF GREAT BETHEL.

GREAT BETHEL was a trifling skirmish; but, occurring just when it did, it was a calamity. It was the first shock of arms between the belligerents, and gave the key-note to at least the overture of the war-the first campaign. Splendid fighting has since been done, and a great deal of it. There has, also, been much bad fighting, many ill-concerted movements, much misconduct on the part of officers, some shameful flights and panics. It does not appear certain that we have yet learned to comply with all the fundamental conditions of successful war. We still seem capable, occasionally, of starting back in affright from phantoms, instead of marching forward and preventing phantoms from becoming realities. We all know what allowances were to be made for these Bethel regiWe knew how they had left their counting-rooms and shops for a long frolic at soldiering, with officers who were, per

haps, more ignorant of their new profession than if they had never shone on parade, or distinguished themselves in the drill room. There is a kind of knowledge which deludes more than total ignorance, since it seems to conceal our ignorance from ourselves and from others.

It was rather surprising than otherwise that the first fighting of the war was done as well as it was done, since all the influences of our education and business had long tended to abate that exuberance of spirit, that confidence in our strength, which makes men mighty to dare and to overcome. The training which diminishes a man's fighting power is not culture, but effeminacy.

But if we had not learned the true secret of successful warfare, we are learning it; we shall learn it. Much creditable fighting has been done by the Union armies. But, contending as we are with a desperate foe, our armies must acquire the coherency which is only obtained by supplying them with officers whose superiority of knowledge will command the confidence of the men in critical moments. For many a year to come, perhaps, the élite of the young men of America will have to be bred to arms as a profession. The day after Bethel was a sad one at Fortress Monroe. Lieutenant Greble's father was on his way to visit his son, and arrived only to take back his remains to his family, followed by the sorrow of the whole command. The fate of Winthrop was not yet known; he was reported only among the "missing." Before leaving headquarters he had borrowed a gun of the general, saying, gayly, "I may want to take a pop at them." In the course of the morning, this gun was brought in, with such information as led to the conclusion that he must have fallen; perhaps, thrown his life purposely away. During his short residence at head-quarters he had endeared himself to all hearts; to none more than to the general and Mrs. Butler. He was mourned as a brother by those who had known him but sixteen days.

As Mr. Curtis beautifully says in his fine sketch of his friend's career, "Theodore Winthrop's life, like a fire long smoldering, suddenly blazed up into a clear bright flame, and vanished. Descended from John Winthrop and Jonathan Edwards, numbering among his ancestors seven presidents of Yale College, of which he was himself a distinguished graduate, with fine gifts, powerful friends, good opportunities, he lived thirty-three years without finding work that