This month, I crossed Big Bethel off my Civil War history bucket list.

There isn’t much of the small battlefield near Hampton, Virginia left today.

Much of it has been swallowed by the Big Bethel Reservoir and the sprawl of Langley Air Force Base.

But on June 10, 1861 – just two months after Fort Sumter – United States and Confederate forces clashed here in what became one of the first significant land battles of the Civil War.

By later standards, Big Bethel was a small fight. But in the spring of 1861, it was a wake-up call.

Soldiers on both sides were green volunteers, plans unraveled, friendly fire erupted – participants who thought the war might be a quick and easy got a big hint that there would be no easy victories in the conflict to come.

Walking the short trail at Bethel Park today, you can still see markers, monuments, and a remnant of an 1861 Confederate earthwork along Brick Kiln Creek.

It’s a relatively quiet place now – just the rush of traffic and the roar of occasional fighter jet flying overhead – but standing there, it’s not hard to imagine the loud, chaotic scenes that occurred here in the spring of 1861.

Read more about the Battle of Big Bethel here

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Read more Civil War stories from Jake Wynn – Public Historian

Life during the Civil War | An essay from 1861 describes life in turbulent times

Coal Region responses to the Confederate bombardment of Fort Sumter – April 1861

Newspaper office in Lykens sent four young printers off to fight the Civil War in 1861

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