Battle of Big Bethel

Battle of Big Bethel is a Virginia historical marker in Hampton County, dedicated 2000.

Entrance to Bethel Park, just off Big Bethel Road (Rte. 600)

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On 10 June 1861, the first land battle of the Civil War in present-day Virginia took place here at Big Bethel Church. Maj. Gen. Benjamin F. Butler, commanding at Fort Monroe, sent converging columns at night from Hampton and Newport News for a dawn attack against Confederate outposts there. The 1,408 Confederates, led by Cols. John B. Magruder and D. H. Hill, fell back to their entrenchments behind Brick Kiln Creek, near the church. Some 4,400 Federals under Brig. Gen. Ebenezer W. Pierce pursued, launched two disjointed attacks, and were repulsed. They then retreated to Fort Monroe, leaving the Confederates in control of most of the Peninsula.

TodayHistorical map

Slide toward Today to fade the historical sheet and see the modern map underneath.

Digital Commonwealth, Boston Public Library

Historical maps covering this location

1859 · Virginia (Herman Boye, 1859) (Barry Lawrence Ruderman Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
1861 · Official map of the state of Virginia (Digital Commonwealth, Boston Public Library)
1862 · Map of the battle ground near Richmond, showing plainly, every point of interest of the… (Digital Commonwealth, Boston Public Library)
1891 · (Virginia, N. Carolina) Railroad Map of the United States. (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
1907 · Hampton, Virginia (USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection)

Map of the battle ground near Richmond, showing plainly, every point of interest of the…, 1862, covering the location of Battle of Big Bethel, with a pin at the marker's coordinates — Map of the battle ground near Richmond, showing plainly, every point of interest of the…, 1862, covering this location. Digital Commonwealth, Boston Public Library. The pin is ours, placed from the marker's coordinates.

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