At about one o’clock, A. M., the three companies under Captain Kilpatrick reached New Market Bridge—at about three o’clock they were joined by the main body and started for Little Bethel. The pickets of the enemy were surprised, the officer in command captured, and the Union forces, flushed with success, were pushing forward, when the sound of heavy firing in their rear checked them.
Meantime, the force from Newport News came up the road from that place, and took the road from Hampton to Bethel, not far behind the Fifth; but they left at the junction of the roads, under Colonel Bendix, a rear guard of one hundred and seventy men and one field piece, with the order to hold this position at all hazards, where they were to be joined by Colonel Townsend’s regiment from Hampton. Almost immediately after, the Third New York regiment came up the Hampton road. It was still dark, and their colors could not be seen. Their approach also was over a ridge, and as General Pierce and staff, and Colonel Townsend and staff, in a body, rode in front of their troops, and without any advance guard thrown out, as customary, to reconnoitre, they appeared from Colonel Bendix’s position to be a troop of cavalry. It was known that the Federal force had no cavalry, and the fire of this rear guard was poured into the advancing body, at the distance of a quarter of a mile. But the road in which the Third was marching was a little below the level of the land along the edge, and was bordered on either side by fences, forming a partial cover, and rendering the fire comparatively harmless. Fifteen men, however, were wounded and two killed. The Third then fell back and formed upon a hill, and the force again moved in the following order: Colonel Duryea with the New York Fifth; Lieutenant-Colonel Washburne with the companies from Newport News, and Greble’s battery; Colonel Townsend, with the New York Third; Colonel Allen, with the New York First; and Colonel Carr, with the New York Second.
The advance was made with great rapidity and fearlessness, and soon the lurid flames of Little Bethel shot upwards in the murky air, and lighted up the country far and wide. Great Bethel was reached next, and our troops received their first intimation of the location of the enemy that was pouring hissing shot upon them from a masked battery. But they were not to be stayed by the iron rain. Steadily, unflinchingly, though death was threatening them every instant, they marched on and gained a position within two hundred yards of the enemy’s works. For two hours the whirl and clash and roar of the battle was terrific. Every soldier fought as if upon his individual efforts rested the chances of the day. Charge after charge of the greatest gallantry was made by the infantry against their invisible foemen, and though suffering terribly from the deadly fire, still pouring fiercely upon them, no one thought of retreat. At length, however, General Pierce deemed the exposure too great, and the chances of success too small to warrant a more persistent struggle, and the troops were withdrawn in good order.
Where all fought so nobly, it would be simply invidious to particularize. But one brave heart there was called home from amid the smoke and tumult of battle that cannot be forgotten. Theodore Winthrop, Major, and formerly of the New York Seventh, there gave his life for his country—his blood as an offering of sacrifice. A gentleman and scholar as well as a soldier—rich in the rare gifts of genius, he had earned fame in literature before he found that glorious death upon the battle field. He had been one of the foremost to press forward in the hour of his country’s need, and breathed his last, nobly struggling for her honor, with wild battle notes ringing in his ear, and the starry flag waving unconquered above him.
Lieutenant Greble, also, an officer of great promise—of coolness, energy and discretion, won for himself a deathless name and a soldier’s grave in this battle. Many others, too, of whom fame will not always be silent, men of noble hearts and fearless courage, hallowed the cause with their blood, and when the records of a nation’s jewels shall have been perfected, will be found side by side with the hero-author of Great Bethel.
THE AMBUSCADE AT VIENNA, Va.
June 17, 1861.
Information that an attempt would be made to destroy the bridges on the Loudon and Hampshire railway, between Alexandria and Vienna, having been conveyed to General McDowell, he dispatched the First Ohio regiment, Colonel McCook, under the direction of Brigadier-General Schenck, to guard the road.
The train of seven cars, backed out by a locomotive, left Alexandria about noon, and proceeded on its way, dropping detachments all along the road, and meeting with no interruptions until entering a straight line near Vienna. Then a man stepped out upon the road and waved his hand, beckoning the train to stop, and warned them “for God’s sake not to go on,” as they were dead men if they proceeded; that there was a battery and strong force of the enemy ahead.
The officer in front of the Federal troops paused a moment with his hand on his forehead, as if turning the matter over in his mind, and then beckoned to the engineer to go on.