main road between Yorktown and Hampton. Magruder's force of almost 1,500 men occupied the position at Big Bethel Church, while only around 50 cavalrymen manned the outpost at Little Bethel Church. On June 8 Hill sent detachments to drive Union foraging (or pillaging) parties back to the fort. Butler plans to drive Confederates back Butler wished to drive the Confederates back from their advanced positions at Little Bethel and Big Bethel because they had begun attacking and harassing his pickets and patrols with squads from these outposts, threatening his bases outside of Fort Monroe and his lines of communication with them and standing in the way of his plan to move up the Peninsula toward Richmond, the new capital of the Confederacy. An escaped slave, George Scott, who was working for the Union Army at Fort Monroe was able to scout the Confederate position at Big Bethel and give a good report to Gen. Butler, but Butler knew little about the Confederate position at Little Bethel, which he assumed was also a substantial installation manned by a large force. Along with his aide, Maj. Theodore Winthrop, already an accomplished author, Butler devised a plan for a night march and surprise attack on the Confederate position at Little Bethel at dawn by columns converging from Newport News and Hampton. Butler's main objective was Little Bethel, where he expected to find a large Confederate force. Only after Little Bethel was taken would the commander in the field proceed to Big Bethel, if he chose to do so. Opposing forces Union Confederate Battle Union plan, advance On the night of June 9–10, according to the plan devised by Gen. Butler and Maj. Winthrop, 3,500 Union soldiers were sent in two columns from Camp Hamilton at Hampton and Camp Butler at Newport News with orders to converge near the Confederate positions at Little Bethel after a night march and launch a surprise attack on the Confederate positions at Little Bethel at dawn. After taking Little Bethel, if the commander of the force chose to do so, he could go on to attack Big Bethel. The entire force was under the immediate overall command of Brig. Gen. Ebenezer W. Peirce, a Massachusetts militia general of apparent bravery but no regular army, military school or other formal military training or combat experience. Earlier in the day on June 9 Butler had summoned Peirce from Camp Hamilton