The Battle at Bethesda Church. 57
From the Times-Dispatch, August isth, 1905.
THE BATTLE AT BETHESDA CHURCH.
Graphic Description of It by Lieutenant Colonel C. B.
Christian.
THE COLOR BEARER KILLED.
One Among the Bloodiest Contests of the Great War of the
Sixties.
[For the privation of, and the list of the officers under fire on Morris Island, see Vols. XII, and XVIII, Southern Histori- cal Society Papers^ the latter by Hon. Abe Fulkerson, late Col- onel 63rd Tennessee Infantry. ED.]
The sharp combat at Bethesda Church, on the afternoon of May 30th, 1864, was the beginning of the series of battles at Cold Harbor, which wound up by the decisive repulse of Grant on June 3d. Our loss on that occasion, except in Pegram's brigade, was small, says General Early in his report, which is found in Vol. 51, Part i, Series i, of the War Records, Serial Number 107. He was at that time commanding Ewell's corps. Colonel Edward Willis,* of Georgia, and Col. J. B. Terrill, of the Thirteenth Vir- ginia, had both been named as Brigadier Generals, but were killed ere their commissions reached them. Willis was a brilliant young officer of great promise and of distinguished service. A West Pointer by training, he had won a name which will live in the annals of the Army of Northern Virginia.
Colonel J. B. Terrill was a graduate of the Virginia Military Institute; had commanded the Thirteenth Virginia with great courage and skill, succeeding James A. Walker and A. P. Hill as colonel of a regiment which had no superiority in the Confederate
- Son of Dr. Frances T. Willis, deceased, (of Virginia ancestry) late of
this city and formerly of Georgia. See Southern Historical Society Papers, Vol. XVII Lee Monument Memorial Volume, pp. 160-167 for further tes- timony as to the zeal and efficiency of this accomplished and intrepid young officer.
