June 10 1861 Monday
Battle of Big Bethel, VA (CWSAC Limited Battle – Confederate Victory)
Chesapeake Bay Blockade
McClellan’s West Virginia Campaign
France. Napoleon III proclaimed French neutrality in regard to the American Civil War.
CSA. Lieutenant John Mercer Brooke CSN was ordered to design and build an ironclad warship on the hull of the burned USS Merrimack which was salvaged at the Norfolk Navy Yard. The resulting vessel was to be named the CSS Virginia.
Georgia. USS Union, Commander J R Goldsborough, captured the brig Hallie Jackson off Savannah with a cargo of molasses.
Maryland. Expedition to Rockville began. Union Colonel Charles Pomeroy Stone (14th US Infantry), led a force from Washington, DC, to Edwards’ Ferry on the Potomac River. The expedition ended on 7 July after establishing Union control of the northern bank of the Potomac and identifying possible crossing points and enemy positions.,
Missouri. Union Brigadier-General Nathaniel Lyon met pro-Confederate Governor Claiborne Jackson and Missouri State Guard Major General Sterling Price at St Louis’ Planter’s House hotel in a last attempt to resolve conflicting claims for state and Federal sovereignty. The conference proved futile and after four hours, Lyon abruptly ended the meeting. Jackson and Price retreated to Jefferson City, ordering the railroad bridges to be burned behind them. Lyon moved elements of his St Louis garrison up the Missouri River by steamer to capture the state capital at Jefferson City.
Texas. Governor Harris authorised the raising of troops for the Confederate army.
Battle of Big Bethel, Virginia, also known as Bethel Church or Great Bethel. This was the first substantial land battle in Virginia. Confederate defences had been built at Little Bethel Church and at Big Bethel Church a short distance further north, along a tributary of Back Creek called Marsh Creek. Confederate Colonel John Bankhead Magruder’s force of 1,200 to 1,400 men included Colonel Daniel Harvey Hill’s 1st North Carolina Infantry, Lieutenant-Colonel William D Stuart’s 3rd Virginia Infantry, a cavalry battalion under Major E B Montague, and part of the Richmond Howitzers artillery under Major George Wythe Randolph (later Confederate Secretary of War). Union Major-General Benjamin Franklin Butler at Fortress Monroe ordered State Brigadier-General Ebenezer Weaver Pierce to lead an attack from Fortress Monroe with 3,400 men in seven regiments against Big Bethel Church to prevent the continuous harassment by Confederate scouts. At 1 am the 7th New York Infantry (Colonel John E Bendix) moved to occupy New Market Bridge on the road from Hampton to Big Bethel. An hour later six more regiments (1st New York Infantry, 2nd New York Infantry, 3rd New York Infantry, 5th New York Infantry (Colonel Abram Duryée’s Zouaves), 1st Vermont Infantry, 4th Massachusetts Infantry, and a battery of the 2nd US Artillery) advanced by two columns to rendezvous at a road junction about a mile and a half south of Little Bethel. They were to make a surprise attack on Big Bethel, three miles distant on the Yorktown Road. The two converging columns encountered each other on the way and there was a mistaken discharge of a volley by the 7th New York on the grey-clad 3rd New York, resulting in two killed and 19 wounded. The Confederate 1st North Carolina was alerted and abandoned Little Bethel. They fell back to their entrenchments behind Brick Kiln Creek near Big Bethel Church. Pierce pursued and, after a poorly managed frontal attack along the road, was repulsed. Crossing further downstream, the 5th New York Zouaves attempted to turn the Confederate left flank but were also repulsed. Union Major Theodore Winthrop (7th New York serving on Pierce’s staff) led a detachment of troops from the 5th New York, 1st Vermont, and 4th Massachusetts in an attempt to turn the Confederate left flank. Attempting to cross downstream, this attack was also repelled and only the 1st Vermont under Lieutenant-Colonel Peter T Washburn managed to cross the creek. Winthrop, described as a brilliant young author, was killed in the attack. The disorganised Union forces retired, returning to Hampton and Newport News. Captain Hugh Judson Kilpatrick was the first Regular Army officer to be wounded in the Civil War; he was eventually promoted to Major-General of US Volunteers. The Union forces retired in poor order to Hampton and Newport News. Within hours of the battle, Magruder withdrew his forces to Yorktown where he had established a defensive line protected by the Warwick River. The Confederates reported one man killed and seven wounded. The Union reported 76 to 79 casualties. Although only a minor skirmish, it was proclaimed by the Southern press as a significant victory. (CWSAC Limited Battle – Confederate Victory).
Virginia. Confederate Brigadier-General Pierre Gustave Toutant Beauregard was placed in command of forces in Prince William, Fairfax, and Loudoun counties, opposing the Union army gathering on the south bank of the Potomac River. This extended his authority from the region immediately facing Washington, DC, further up the southern shore of the Potomac River.
Union Organisation
Commander in Chief: President Abraham Lincoln
Vice-President: Hannibal Hamlin
Secretary of War: Simon Cameron
Secretary of the Navy: Gideon Welles
Atlantic Blockading Squadron: Silas Horton Stringham
Gulf Blockading Squadron: William Mervine
Pacific Squadron: John Berrien Montgomery
West Indies Squadron: Garrett J Pendergrast
Western Gunboat Flotilla: John Rodgers
Potomac Flotilla: James Harmon Ward
General–in-Chief: Winfield Scott
Department of Annapolis: John Adams Dix interim Nathaniel Prentiss Banks awaited
Department of the East: John Ellis Wool
Department of Florida: Harvey Brown
Department of Kentucky: Robert Anderson
Department of New Mexico: Edward Richard Sprigg Canby
Department of Northeastern Virginia: Irvin McDowell
Department of the Ohio: George Brinton McClellan
Department of the Pacific: Edwin Vose Sumner
- District of Oregon: George Wright
Department of Pennsylvania: Robert Patterson
- Army of the Shenandoah: Robert Patterson
Department of Texas: Vacant
Department of Utah: Philip St George Cooke
Department of Virginia: Benjamin Franklin Butler
Department of Washington: Joseph King Fenno Mansfield
Department of the West: Nathaniel Lyon
Confederate Organisation
CSA: The Department of the Potomac was extended to include Prince William, Fairfax, and Loudoun counties of Virginia.
CSA: Matthew Fontaine Maury promoted Commander CSN.
Commander in Chief: President Jefferson Finis Davis
Vice-President: Alexander Hamilton Stephens
Secretary of War: Leroy Pope Walker
Secretary of the Navy: Stephen Russell Mallory
Military Adviser to the President: Robert Edward Lee
Department No 1: David Emanuel Twiggs
- “Forces in New Orleans” “Army of Louisiana”: Braxton Bragg
Department of Fredericksburg: Theophilus Hunter Holmes
Department of the Potomac: Pierre Gustave Toutant Beauregard
- Army of the Potomac: Pierre Gustave Toutant Beauregard
Department of Norfolk: Benjamin Huger
Department of North Carolina: Theophilus Hunter Holmes
- Defences of North Carolina: Theophilus Hunter Holmes
Department of the Peninsula: Daniel Harvey Hill temporary
- Army of the Peninsula: Daniel Harvey Hill temporary
Department of South Carolina: Daniel Harvey Hill
Department of Southwestern Virginia: William Wing Loring
Department of Texas: Earl Van Dorn
Department of West Florida: Braxton Bragg
- “Forces in Pensacola”: Braxton Bragg
Defences of Savannah: Alexander Robert Lawton
Indian Territory: Benjamin McCulloch
Forces in Harper’s Ferry”: Joseph Eggleston Johnston
Forces in Richmond: Thomas Turner Fauntleroy
Army of the Kanawha: Henry Alexander Wise
Army of the Northwest: Robert Selden Garnett
Union Generals
Note: Italics, awaiting confirmation of the commission
Major-General USA
Winfield Scott
George Brinton McClellan
John Charles Frémont
Major-General USV
John Adams Dix
Nathaniel Prentiss Banks
Benjamin Franklin Butler
Brigadier-General USA
John Ellis Wool
William Selby Harney
Edwin Vose Sumner
Joseph King Fenno Mansfield
Irvin McDowell
Robert Anderson
William Starke Rosecrans
Brigadier-General USV
Samuel Peter Heintzelman
David Hunter
Erasmus Darwin Keyes
Andrew Porter
Fitz-John Porter
William Buel Franklin
William Tecumseh Sherman
Charles Pomeroy Stone
Don Carlos Buell
Thomas West Sherman
Nathaniel Lyon
John Pope
George Archibald McCall
William Reading Montgomery
Philip Kearny
Joseph Hooker
John Wolcott Phelps
Ulysses Simpson Grant
Joseph Jones Reynolds
Samuel Ryan Curtis
Charles Smith Hamilton
Darius Nash Couch
Rufus King
Jacob Dolson Cox
Stephen Augustus Hurlbut
Franz Sigel
Robert Cumming Schenck
Benjamin Mayberry Prentiss
Frederick West Lander
Benjamin Franklin Kelley
John Alexander McClernand
Alpheus Starkey Williams
Israel Bush Richardson
James Cooper
Brigadier-General USA (Staff)
Montgomery Cunningham Meigs
Confederate Generals
Note: Italics, awaiting confirmation of the commission
General ACSA
Samuel Cooper
Albert Sidney Johnston
Major-General PACS
David Emanuel Twiggs
Brigadier-General ACSA
Robert Edward Lee
Joseph Eggleston Johnston
Pierre Gustave Toutant Beauregard
Braxton Bragg
Brigadier-General PACS
Alexander Robert Lawton
Milledge Lake Bonham
Benjamin McCulloch
William Wing Loring
Charles Clark
John Buchanan Floyd
William Henry Talbot Walker
Henry Rootes Jackson
Theophilus Hunter Holmes
Henry Alexander Wise
Earl Van Dorn
Robert Selden Garnett
American Civil War High Command 