Battle of Big Bethel

“A comprehensive study of the Civil War’s first major battle . . . well leavened with strategic and political context” (Robert E. L. Krick, author of Staff Officers in Gray ).   Battle of Big Bethel is the first full-length treatment of the small but consequential June 1861 Virginia battle that reshaped perceptions about what lay in store for the divided nation.   The successful Confederate defense reinforced the belief most Southerners held that their martial