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SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - A case of mistaken identity between two New York infantry regiments cost the Union the victory in the first land battle of the Civil War, the Battle of Big Bethel, Virginia, June 10, 1861.
Despite the use of white armbands and signals, the 7th and 3rd New York Regiments opened fired at each other, killing two soldiers and wounding nearly a score more as they tried to rendezvous for an attack on Confederate positions at Virginia's Little Bethel and Big Bethel Churches.
The 3rd New York Infantry Regiment, a unit from Albany, was still wearing militia gray uniforms, and the men of the 7th Regiment thought they were Confederate forces and opened fire. The leaders of the 5th New York Infantry Regiment, which was leading the surprise attack on the enemy fortifications, thought the enemy was in the rear of their unit and retreated.
"When the two Federal commands met one mistook the other for the Confederates, immediately swung into line of battle, opened fire, and killed two and wounded nineteen of their friends before the mistake was discovered, including four officers," a Richmond paper recounted forty years later. The element of surprise was lost for the Federals, along with the battle.
The New York regiments were among Union troops occupying the tip of the Virginia Peninsula, Hampton and Newport News in 1861. Rebels routinely used their twin church positions to launch raids against Union forces, so Union commander Maj. Gen. Benjamin F. Butler ordered 3,500 troops to attack the 1,200 confederates at daybreak, June 10.
Butler's plan, however, involved sending the 7th-- recruited from Germans living in New York City--and other units down one road, and the 3rd - clad in gray uniforms - down another other road to rendezvous at a fork about a mile and half from Little Bethel Church. The first column was led by Col. John Bendix and the latter was commanded by Col. Frederick Townsend.
"To prevent the possibility of mistake in the darkness," he ordered the 3rd to wear white armbands, and his forces to begin their attack by shouting the watchword "Boston," Butler recalled. In the hours after midnight, the two columns were ferried across a creek separately to begin their tandem advances to the rendezvous point.
But the 7th got there first, took the approaching 3rd, wearing gray uniforms, for Confederates maneuvering behind them and fired. The 5th New York Regiment, recruited mainly from New York City, which was ahead of the two elements, heard the shooting, thought they were cut off and retreated. IN the fight the unit lost 5 killed, 16 wounded and 2 soldiers went missing.
Alerted to Federals' presence by the shooting, Confederates consolidated their forces in the Big Bethel Church earthworks, easily repulsing the later, disorganized attacks of the Union troops, who finally fell back to Hampton and Newport News.
The Union forces suffered 60 wounded and 18 dead, including the friendly-fire casualties. By stark contrast, the Confederates suffered 7 wounded and one dead.
More than 500,000 New Yorkers enlisted in the Army and Navy during the four years of the Civil War and 53,114 New Yorkers died. Throughout the period of the Civil War Sesquicentennial observance, the New York State Division of Military and Naval Affairs will produce short articles about New York's Civil War experience researched by the New York State Military Museum in Saratoga Springs.
For more information, go the NewYork State Military Museum Civil War Timeline Website at http://dmna.state.ny.us/civilwar
| Date Taken: | 06.08.2011 |
| Date Posted: | 06.08.2011 13:16 |
| Story ID: | 71776 |
| Location: | SARATOGA SPRINGS, NY, US |
| Web Views: | 98 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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