A hero dies at Bethesda Church

General James B. Terrill

Early Life

A Boy from Bath County

Education

Cadet "Bath" at VMI

Terrill entered the Virginia Military Institute in Lexington in October 1854. His classmates nicknamed him "Bath," after his home county. One of his professors there was Thomas J. Jackson, the future "Stonewall." Terrill was not a star student. When he graduated on July 5, 1858, he ranked sixteenth in a class of nineteen.

He stayed in Lexington to study law under Judge John W. Brockenbrough. In 1860 he opened a practice in Bath County, where his father was still prosecuting attorney. He also served as a major in the Virginia militia, a commission he held under Governor Henry A. Wise.

1861–1863

The 13th Virginia Infantry

When war came, Terrill asked Governor John Letcher for a military appointment and hurried to Harpers Ferry. In May 1861 he was named major of the 13th Virginia Infantry. The regiment's colonel was A. P. Hill, later a Confederate lieutenant general, and its lieutenant colonel was James A. Walker, later a brigadier general.

Terrill's regiment guarded fords along Bull Run during the First Battle of Manassas in July 1861. That summer and fall it skirmished in northern Virginia, sometimes alongside cavalry under J. E. B. Stuart. A Richmond newspaper praised Terrill for coolness under fire during those clashes, and he was singled out for his conduct at Lewinsville in September 1861.

In 1862 he marched with Stonewall Jackson in the Shenandoah Valley, including the battles of Cross Keys and Port Republic. He then followed Jackson east to join Robert E. Lee's army and fought in the Seven Days' Battles and at Second Manassas. That autumn he was promoted to lieutenant colonel. In December 1862 he helped turn back the Union assaults at Fredericksburg. On May 15, 1863, after the Battle of Chancellorsville, he became colonel of the regiment.

Over the war the 13th Virginia earned a reputation as one of the most dependable regiments in the army. Lee described it as a splendid body of men. Gen. Richard Ewell called it the one regiment in his command that never let him down. Gen. Jubal Early said the 13th never failed to take any position it was ordered to take or to hold any position it was told to hold.

Spring 1864

The Overland Campaign

When Grant crossed the Rapidan in May 1864, Terrill and his regiment were in the thick of the fighting at the Wilderness and at Spotsylvania Court House. By the end of the month the army was racing Grant toward Richmond. The 13th Virginia belonged to the brigade of Brig. Gen. John Pegram, in Early's old division, now commanded by Maj. Gen. Stephen Dodson Ramseur.

May 30, 1864

Killed at Bethesda Church

On the evening of May 30, 1864, Ramseur's division attacked Union lines near Bethesda Church. Pegram was wounded. Terrill, the senior colonel, stepped up to lead the brigade forward.

Accounts agree on what happened next. Terrill was shot through the body. He struggled back to his feet and shouted for his men to keep going. A second bullet struck him in the head, and he died on the field. He was 26 years old.

The attack failed. Early's corps withdrew, and the survivors of Pegram's brigade, having lost most of their officers, fell back with it.

By the time Terrill was killed, President Jefferson Davis had already nominated him to be a brigadier general to replace the wounded Pegram. The Confederate Senate approved the nomination the following day, May 31, 1864, to rank from June 1. Terrill never knew. He had commanded a brigade in battle, but he died a colonel.

His Family

"God Alone Knows Which Was Right"

The Civil War took three of the Terrill brothers.

The oldest, William Rufus Terrill (1834–1862), graduated from West Point in 1853 and stayed loyal to the Union. He became a brigadier general in the United States Army and was killed on October 8, 1862, at the Battle of Perryville, Kentucky, while commanding a brigade.

Two years later James fell at Bethesda Church. Their younger brother, Philip Mallory Terrill of the 12th Virginia Cavalry, was killed in November 1864 near Winchester. A fourth brother, Dr. George P. Terrill, a Confederate militia officer, survived the war.

According to family tradition, their father, Col. William H. Terrill, erected a monument to his sons that closed with the words "God alone knows which was right." Historians treat the story as legend, but it has endured because it captures how the war divided families.

Remembrance

Where He Lies

Union soldiers buried James Terrill near the church where he fell. His father later had the body reinterred, but Terrill's final resting place is now unknown. The ground at Bethesda Church, where he led his men, is the closest place remaining to his last moments.

That is one reason this ground matters. The 7.2 acres we are working to buy lie within the Bethesda Church battlefield, where men like Terrill fell and where unpaved ground still survives along Route 360.

Honor Terrill by Saving His Battlefield

A young Virginian who gave everything at Bethesda Church deserves a place where his story can be told. Your tax-deductible gift helps us buy this land and keep it unpaved forever.

SOURCES

Sanders, Stuart W. "James B. Terrill (1838–1864)." Encyclopedia Virginia, Virginia Humanities.

• Armstrong, Richard. "God Alone Knows Which Was Right": The Blue and Gray Terrill Family of Virginia in the Civil War. McFarland, 2010.

• Christian, C. B. "The Battle at Bethesda Church." Southern Historical Society Papers 37 (1909).

• Virginia Military Institute Archives, Historical Rosters Database.

• American Battlefield Trust, "Totopotomoy Creek."

• National Park Service, Cold Harbor battle summaries.