Hillsborough (NC) Recorder

June 19, 1861

Page 2

Brilliant Victory—Battle at Bethel Church

Soon after our paper went to press last week, a report reached here that an engagement had taken place between a portion of our troops and a party of Federal troops numbering four or five thousand, at Bethel Church, near Yorktown, Virginia. The report as it first reached us made the numbers of killed on either side so disproportionate, and our force so small compared with theirs, that we were in some doubt as to the accuracy of the account; yet subsequent statements have well sustained the facts, and we have to thank a superintending Providence for a most brilliant victory. It appears from the accounts which have reached us that the loss of the enemy may have been not much short of three hundred killed, and we know not how many wounded; while our loss was but one killed, Private Henry W. Wyatt, of the Edgecomb Guards, and seven wounded.

The force on our side was composed of the first North Carolina Regiment, consisting of 800 men, the Orange Light Infantry under the command of Capt. Ashe, being a portion, and 360 Virginians, opposed to some 4,500 of the Federal troops.

The following is a list of the companies composing the North Carolina regiment which has so well distinguished itself on this occasion:

1. 1^st Company, Edgecomb Guards, Capt. Bridgers
2. 2d Company, Hornet’s Nest Rifles, Capt. Williams
3. 3d Company, Charlotte Grays, Capt. Ross
4. 4^th Company, Orange Light Artillery, Capt. Ashe
5. 5^th Company, Bencombe Riflemen, Capt. McDowell
6. 6^th Company, Lafayette L. Infantry, Capt. Starr
7. 7^th Company, Burke Rifles, Capt. Avery
8. 8^th Company, Fayetteville Indep’nt Capt. Huske
9. 9^th Company, Enfield Blues, Capt. Bell

K. 10^th Company, Southern Stars, Capt. Hoke

One company from Edgecomb, two from Charlotte, one from Chapel Hill, one from Bencombe, two from Fayetteville, one from Burke, one from Enfield, and one from Lincoln county.