Battle of Big Bethel - Background - Union Holds, Reinforces Fort Monroe

Union Holds, Reinforces Fort Monroe

After the American Civil War began with the formal surrender of Fort Sumter to Confederate forces on April 14, 1861 and President Lincoln's call for volunteers to suppress the rebellion on April 15, 1861, Virginia's political leaders quickly set in motion the process of seceding from the Union and joining the Confederacy. Even before secession was formally accomplished, Virginia agreed to coordinate its state military forces with the Confederacy and began to seize federal property. The United States Regular Army garrison under the command of Colonel Justin Dimick held Fort Monroe, a nearly impregnable fortress at Old Point Comfort on the southern tip of the Virginia Peninsula between the York River and the James River where they empty into the Chesapeake Bay. The bay was to the east of the fort and Hampton Roads was to the south. The fort was supported by the Union Navy at Hampton Roads and could be reinforced and resupplied by water without attack by shore batteries or harassment by the nearly non-existent Virginia or Confederate naval forces. The fort was nearly immune from attack from the land side since it could be approached only over a narrow causeway and a narrow isthmus and had massive walls and hundreds of cannons. An inlet called Mill Creek was the body of water that almost cut the fort off from mainland of the Peninsula.

Colonel Dimick refused to surrender the fort and the small and poorly equipped Virginia (soon to be Confederate) militia forces in the area had no hope of taking the fort by force, especially after April 20, 1861 when the small Union garrison was reinforced by two Massachusetts volunteer regiments within a few days of the Virginia convention voting to secede from the Union on April 17, 1861. This important fort would provide a base for the blockade of Norfolk, Virginia and the Chesapeake Bay and for the recovery of southeast Virginia and the Virginia Peninsula for the Union.

Because Massachusetts militia forces were ready to respond to President Lincoln's call for volunteers, two 90–day regiments, the 3rd Regiment Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry (3 Month Militia) commanded by Colonel David W. Wardrop and the 4th Regiment Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry (3 Month Militia) commanded by Colonel Abner B. Packard, were able to reinforce Fort Monroe's garrison of 415 regulars within five days of the President's call. The 4th Massachusetts Infantry was the first to arrive at Fort Monroe. These reinforcements helped assure that this strong point and base of operations would be fully prepared for defense and saved for the Union. On May 13, 1861, the 1st Regiment, Vermont Volunteer Infantry under Colonel J. Wolcott Phelps joined the garrison and several other volunteer regiments from New York soon followed.

On May 14, 1861 while Colonel Dimick was still in command of the garrison, Dimick seized a well just outside the fort in what was then Elizabeth City County because the fort did not have enough water even for its original small garrison. His forces also occupied the Mill Creek Bridge which was needed for access to the Peninsula from the fort and the nearby Clark farm. The fort soon could not hold all of the arriving reinforcements so the Union forces established Camp Troy, soon renamed Camp Hamilton in honor of an aide to General-in-Chief Winfield Scott, on the Segar farm on the Hampton side of Mill Creek, within range of the guns of Fort Monroe.