Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 21.djvu/126

 118 Southern Historical Society Papers.

coolness, courage, judgment and power of prompt decision which others recognized in his favorites after they had led brigades and divisions to victory. On assuming command at Yorktown he soon discovered that the cavalry, which he looked upon as the " eye and the ear of the army," was inefficient, because the force was com- posed of a number of detached companies without a trained or efficient commander. In this emergency an officer of the old army, who had been commissioned lieutenant in the regular army of the Confederate States, reported for duty. Marking him as a man of promise, Colonel Hill at once caused an order to be issued placing "Major John B. Hood " in command of all the cavalry, and waited for the War Department to ratify the promotion and thus protect him in practicing a pardonable ruse on the volunteers. That officer ulti- mately succeeded Lieutenant-General D. H. Hill as the commander of a corps, and was still later placed in charge of the army of Ten- nessee. The Providence that has provided homes for his orphan children will in its own good time bring to light all the facts, and then John B. Hood will stand vindicated before the world as one of the best and bravest of all our leaders. It was this same gift that enabled General Hill to select from the lieutenants of his regiment Robert F. Hoke to be made major of his regiment over ten competent captains. It was this intuitive perception of persistent pluck, dash and coolness that prompted him to love and honor George B. Anderson, William R. Cox, Bryan Grimes, Stephen D. Ramseur and Robert D. John- ston, and led him later to urge the advancement of Gordon, Colquitt and Doles, of Georgia. In June, 1861 (a few days after the fight at Bethel), in a letter to his wife he said of Stonewall Jackson, then a colonel in command of a brigade, "I see that Jackson has had an engagement and taken many prisoners. I have predicted all along that Colonel Jackson would have a prominent place in the war."

BATTLE OF BETHEL.

On the 6th of June, 1861, Colonel Hill, then at Yorktown, was ordered to make a reconnoissance in force in the direction of Fortress Monroe, and moved down with his own regiment and four companies of Richmond Howitzers, under the command of Major G. W. Ran- dolph (afterwards Secretary of War) to Little Bethel Church. Receiving information that Butler's forces were preparing to move up the Peninsula, Colonel Hill fell back to Big Bethel Church, where,