AUGUST 7, 1861.--The burning of Hampton, Virginia.
 Report of Maj. Gen. Benjamin F. Butler, U. S. Army.

 

HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF VIRGINIA,
Fortress Monroe, August 8, 1861.

SIR: I have the honor to report that the First Vermont Regiment were embarked on Monday morning for New Haven, their time expiring on the 9th instant, which would be the time of their arrival. I had arranged that Colonel Carr's regiment, the Second New York Volunteers, should be transferred from Old Point to strengthen Newport News.
   You may remember that I said to you, when I had the honor of an interview at Washington on Saturday, that a demonstration on the part of the enemy would be made within the coming week. On my return, Tuesday morning, I found various indications thereof. On Wednesday, about 2 o'clock p.m., the patrol of Colonel Weber's regiment discovered the enemy in force at New Market Bridge, about 2½ miles from Hampton. About 4 o'clock they took one Mayhew, a deserter, who had swum the creek near New Market Bridge and delivered himself up, and brought him to me for examination. From his statements I learned his name, Mayhew; that he is a native of Bangor, Me., who, having landed in Georgia as a seaman, was impressed in a Georgia regiment, known by the name of "Baker's Fire Eaters." He is intelligent, and appears to be truthful. He stated that five regiments, including two Louisiana; one Alabama regiment, under Colonel Ex-Governor Winston; one North Carolina and one Georgia regiment, with two portions of battalions of artillery, and 300 Louisiana Zouaves, a picked battalion, left Yorktown and Williamsburg on Sunday, and marched to the neighborhood of Big Bethel, where they encamped until Tuesday. On Wednesday, at 11 o'clock, they marched to New Market Bridge, where they formed in order of battle, expecting an attack from me. They had eight guns; one rifled gun, two 32-pounder howitzers, two long 24s, and three smaller guns. This force was under the command of General Magruder. The regiments had numbered in the neighborhood of 1,000 men each, but had been reduced by sickness at Yorktown; Mayhew's own regiment numbering but 650, 325 being sick with the measles. As near as I could gather, comparing his account with the notes I had from others, the enemy's force was a little rising 5,000 men, although Mayhew represented it at 7,000. He further stated that it was understood in camp that an attack was to be made on Newport News, the force being then bivouacked but 5 miles from that point.
   Dispositions were immediately made, such as seemed proper, for re-enforcing Newport News in case of an attack, or repelling an attack upon the troops encamped between the fortress and Hampton in case one was made. After riding through the camps and giving final instructions, I rode over to the bridge at Hampton, 30 feet of which nearest the town we had before removed, and at 11.20 o'clock, when I left, everything was still. A few minutes before 12 o'clock the enemy made an attempt to burn the bridge, and for that purpose attacked the guard thereon, who were protected by a barricade of planks. The enemy were driven back with the loss of 3 killed and several wounded. No casualties occurred on our side.

The enemy then proceeded to fire the town in a great number of places. By 12 o'clock it was in flames, and is now entirely destroyed. They gave but fifteen minutes' time for the inhabitants to remove from their houses, and I have to-day brought over the old and infirm, who by that wanton act of destruction are now left houseless and homeless. The enemy took away with them most of the able-bodied white men.

A more wanton and unnecessary act than the burning, as it seems to me, could not have been committed. There was not the slightest attempt to make any resistance on our part to the possession of the town, which we had before evacuated, as you were informed by my last dispatch. There was no attempt to interfere with them there, as we only repelled an attempt to burn the bridge. It would have been easy to dislodge them from the town by a few shells from the fortress, but I did not choose to allow an opportunity to fasten upon the Federal troops any portion in this heathenish outrage.
   The town was the property of the secession inhabitants of Virginia, and they and their friends have chosen deliberately to destroy it, and under circumstances of cruel indifference to the inhabitants, who had remained in their homes, entirely without parallel. Indeed, for two months past, since Hampton has been within the power of my troops, and during the month that we occupied it, every exertion was used by me to protect the property from spoliation and the inhabitants from outrage, and I can safely say that $100 would cover all the damage done there in occupied houses. That there has been some appropriation of furniture by the troops from unoccupied houses is most true, but it had been substantially all taken from them and stored in the Seminary building. I knew this course would meet the approval of the Commanding General, but in a single hour the rebel army devoted to indiscriminate destruction both public and private buildings, the church and the court-house, as well as the cottage of the widow.

 I confess myself so poor a soldier as not to be able to discern the strategical importance of this movement. I had fortified the churchyard with earth embankments, which were not destroyed by the fire, while the hymn of praise and the voice of prayer went up in the church on the last Sabbath of its occupation by Massachusetts troops. The poor citizens were told by their friends that this destruction was to prevent the use of their village as winter quarters for our troops. But I am sure it never entered my mind, and, I take leave to believe, the mind of the Commanding General, that there was the furthest intention of wintering any portion of the Federal troops at this point outside the garrison. We had believed that we were to follow the track of our Northern birds southward with the approach of frost.
    No demonstration was made by the enemy save the burning of a deserted village, and to-day nothing has been done by the enemy except to withdraw his troops across New Market Bridge. I regret the military necessity, to which I yield the cordial recognition of my judgment, which called for the withdrawal of the four regiments and a half, which caused the evacuation of Hampton; not for our sakes, but because of the loss which has thereby been brought upon the inhabitants. This act upon the part of the enemy seems to me to be a representative one, showing the spirit in which the war is to be carried on on their part, and which perhaps will have a tendency to provoke a corrresponding spirit upon our part, but we may hope not.

Most respectfully, your obedient servant,

 BENJ. F. BUTLER,

 Major-General, Commanding.

 Lieutenant-General SCOTT,
 Commanding, &c.

 

**************************