Early Monday morning, an old acquaintance, John Quarstein, picked me up for a tour of "Big Bethel". I first met John, a renowned Civil War historian, when I invited him to speak at the Pender Civil War Roundtable several years ago. He has been back 2-3 times to speak and I went on two of his battlefield tours a few years ago. Big Bethel was the location of the first land battle of the Civil War (June 10 1861), which resulted in the mortal wounding of Pvt. Henry Wyatt, who was from Tarboro, NC our hometown. This event started the famous North Carolina boast "First at Big Bethel, farthest at Gettysburg, and last at Appomattox." Most of the battlefield is covered by housing developments, a reservoir, or Langley recreation facility, so there wasn't much to see except the monument to Wyatt and the general terrain. Afterwards we had breakfast and learned more about John's efforts with the preservation of Fortress Monroe, his Maryland farm, and his collection of decoys (many of which were displayed in the Hampton History museum.)
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