The Battle of Big Bethel was one of the earliest land battles of the American Civil War. It took place on the Virginia Peninsula, near Newport News, on June 10, 1861.

The Union forces commanded by Maj. Gen. Benjamin Butler suffered 76 casualties, with 18 killed, including Maj. Winthrop and Lt. John T. Greble, the first regular army officer killed in the war. The Confederates suffered only eight casualties, with one killed. Although Col. John B. Magruder subsequently withdrew to Yorktown and his defensive line along the Warwick River, he had won a propaganda victory and local Union forces attempted no further significant advance until the Peninsula Campaign of 1862. While small in comparison to many later battles, Big Bethel attracted exaggerated importance because of the general feeling that the war would soon be over.

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