The Battle of Big Bethel (or Great Bethel) was fought on Monday, June 10, 1861 between Union forces commanded by Brig. Gen. Ebenezer Peirce and Confederate forces commanded by Col. John B. Magruder and Col. Daniel Harvey Hill in what is today Hampton, Virginia. It was among the American Civil War’s first pitched battles. Until the Battle of Big Bethel, Confederate forces in Virginia had been on the retreat. Finally, they inflicted a clear loss on the Yankee “invaders”.
The following is a print of a hand-drawn 1861 sketch of the Battle of Bethel. This item, held at the University of Virginia Library, is marked “From John Freeman, Esq.” A print held by the Library of Congress is marked “Presented to Mrs. E. Taylor with Filial respect by her son Wm. B. Taylor.” The original, possibly held by the State Archives of North Carolina, is described as a “Map of the Battle of Bethel from a Survey and Drawing by Lt. William Gaston Lewis with Notes and Additions by E. J. Hale and Capt. C. B. Denson”. It was thought to be so accurate that it was used as a basis for the Big Bethel map that appeared in the U.S. War Department’s Atlas to Accompany the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies.
Lt. William Gaston Lewis (1835-1901), from Edgecombe County, was a member of Company A, 1st North Carolina Infantry – the “Bethel Regiment.”
Spirit of '61 