4. At Big Bethel, on the 10th, they found the regiment of Colonel Hill supporting a battery of the "Richmond Howitzers." There were also present two infantry and three cavalry companies belonging to Virginia. This force was assailed by the Federal army, but the attack was repelled and the assailants retired in disorder to Old Point Comfort. Only one Confederate soldier was killed in the action, and that was private Henry Wyatt, of Edgecombe county. He belonged to Captain J. L. Bridgers' company, and was the first Southern soldier slain in the war between the States. 5. The whole affair was insignificant, both as to the number engaged and the results achieved, but was hailed as a happy omen by the South. North Carolina, with all her deliberation in taking part in the struggle, was thus to afford the first martyr of the South, and was present with her troops to arrest the first Federal invasion of Southern soil. 6. On the 18th and 21st days of July occurred much greater and more serious conflicts at Manassas and Bull Run, also in Virginia. Another Federal army, commanded by General Irvin McDowell, and numbering more than forty thousand men, left Washington with orders to attack the Confederates under General G. T. Beauregard. The Fifth, Sixth and Twenty-first Regiments of North Carolina troops were present, and gallantly aided in the Federal defeat. 7. Colonel Charles F. Fisher was especially valuable in the aid he rendered in restoring a ditched train to the track, and thus making possible the timely approach of the reinforcements under General E. Kirby Smith, which so speedily resulted in the flight of General McDowell's army. It is mournful to add, that, after performing this signal service, and after gallantly capturing the celebrated Rickett's Battery, Colonel Fisher was slain in the battle. He fell at the head of his regiment, beyond the battery and still in pursuit of the enemy. This memorable victory was very grateful to the South, but it did not delude the people into the belief that the war was at an end; it was useful, too, in that it gave them time to prepare for the greater conflicts still to come. 8. It had been hoped by Mr. Lincoln and his advisers that all Southern opposition would be overcome in ninety days, but at Bull Run and Manassas they were convinced that only by a great and prolonged struggle were such adversaries to be subdued. The short periods of enlistment were abandoned by both sides, and the winter was spent in preparation for a gigantic struggle in the spring. 9. It was early seen in North Carolina that fortifications were necessary at Hatteras for the defence of the many broad waters covering so large a portion of the eastern counties. A small sand-work, known as Fort Hatteras, with an outlying flank defence, called Battery Clark, was the only reliance for the protection of Albemarle and Pamlico Sounds.