June 4, 1861, Massachusetts militia Brig. Gen. Ebenezer Peirce assumed command. Confederate response Maj. Gen. Robert E. Lee in charge of Virginia (soon to be Confederate) forces, which already were in league with the Confederacy, responded to the growing Union threat from Fort Monroe by sending Col. John Bankhead Magruder for the purposes of defending the southeastern area of the Peninsula and pushing Union forces back to the fort. Magruder was given the command on May 21, 1861. On May 24 he established his headquarters at Yorktown, Virginia and set up his defenses. Soon Magruder's original small Virginia force was increased to about 1,500 men by the inclusion of Col. Daniel Harvey Hill's 1st North Carolina Volunteer Infantry, Lt. Col. William D. Stuart's 3rd Virginia Infantry (Wythe Rifles), a cavalry battalion under Maj. E.B. Montague, and the Richmond Howitzer artillery battalion under Maj. George W. Randolph (grandson of Thomas Jefferson and future Confederate Secretary of War). On June 6 Col. Magruder sent Col. D.H. Hill and the 1st North Carolina Volunteers and Maj. Randolph and part of the Richmond Howitzer battalion with four artillery pieces to Big Bethel Church (or Great Bethel Church) within of the Union's camps at Newport News and Hampton to establish an advanced position at that location. When the Confederates arrived at Big Bethel Church, they found it marked with writings on the walls such as "Death to Traitors," which were left by Union soldiers during an earlier reconnaissance and which greatly annoyed the Confederates. Hill seized high ground just north of the west branch of the Back River and established a well-fortified camp which crossed the road between Yorktown and Hampton and commanded the bridge over the Back River. On the north side of the river Hill had his men dig entrenchments, laying out the position in the form of a square. He had an outlying position guarding an old ford on his left and a redoubt for a howitzer on his right and across the river. He also had some flank protection from heavy woods and marshes. Magruder's force also established an outpost at Little Bethel Church about from Hampton. The fortified position at Big Bethel Church was a short distance further north from Little Bethel Church, along and mainly north of Marsh Creek (now named Brick Kiln Creek), a tributary of Back Creek. The position at Big Bethel Church crossed and blocked the