Benson J. Lossing, Pictorial Field Book of the Civil War. Volume 1.

[506] supposing they had fallen into an ambush of insurgents, retreated to the fork of the road, when the dreadful mistake was discovered. Townsend lost two men killed and several wounded in the affair. Captain Haggerty, the officer who forgot to give the order for the badges and the watchword, was greatly distressed by the consequences of his remissness, and exclaimed, “How can I go back and look General Butler in the face!” ¹

Hearing the firing in their rear, both Duryee (who had just surprised and captured an outlying guard of thirty men) and Washburne, and also Lieutenant Greble, thinking the insurgents had fallen upon the supporting columns, immediately reversed their march and joined the sadly confused regiments of Townsend and Bendix. In the mean time, General Peirce, who knew that the insurgents at Great Bethel had been warned of the presence of National troops by this firing, had sent back for re-enforcements. The First New York, Colonel William H. Allen, and the Second New York, Colonel Carr, were immediately sent forward from Camp Hamilton, the former with directions to proceed to the front, and the latter to halt for further orders at New Market Bridge. The insurgents at Little Bethel, not more than fifty in number, had fled to the stronger post at Big Bethel, four or five miles distant, and the National troops speedily followed, after destroying the abandoned camp of the fugitives.²

From Pig Point to Big Bethel.

The insurgents at Big Bethel, about twelve miles from Hampton Bridge, were on the alert. Their position was a strong one, on the bank of the northwest branch of Back River, with that stream directly in front, which was there narrow and shallow, and spanned by a bridge, but widening on each flank into a morass, much of the time impassable, according to the testimony of George Scott, the negro guide. They had erected a strong earthwork on each side of the road, which commanded the bridge, and a line of intrenchments along the bank of the wooded swamp on their right. Immediately in the rear of their works was a wooden structure known as Big Bethel Church. Behind these works, which were masked by green boughs, and partly concealed by a wood, were about eighteen hundred insurgents³ (many of them cavalry), under Colonel Magruder, composed of Virginians and a North Carolina regiment under Colonel D. H. Hill. They were reported to be four thousand strong, with twenty pieces of heavy cannon; and such was Kilpatrick's estimate, after a reconnoissance.⁴