Battle of Honey Hill
Jasper County, South Carolina | Nov 30, 1864
The Battle of Honey Hill, the only Confederate victory in General William T. Sherman’s March to the Sea from Atlanta, demonstrated the strength of resistance in the heartland of the Confederacy late in the war. The battle also marked the full acceptance by Union officers of the value of the African-American fighting man as the equal of his White counterparts. It thus strengthened the foundation for the rights of citizenship and equality under the law that accompanied post-war freedoms for the formerly enslaved, rights which were tested during Reconstruction and the Jim Crow period.
As he leaves Atlanta, Sherman calculates he will reach the outskirts of Savannah around the first of December. Though he knows the strength of his army is far superior to that of the Savannah garrison, other large concentrations of Confederate troops are within about two-three hours’ travel by train. Technically, the Union depot at the Department of the South, under Gen. John G. Foster, is not in Sherman’s chain of command. Protocol thus demands he request support from Foster via General-in-Chief Henry Halleck in Washington.
Halleck orders Foster to send an expeditionary force to “cut the Charleston-Savannah rail line on or about Pocotaligo on or about December 1” in support of Sherman’s advance. The order is received in mid-November. Scrambling to assemble a force large enough to mount the operation, Foster gathers roughly 5,500 soldiers, sailors, and Marines into a unit dubbed the "Coast Division."
Early on the morning of November 29, Army and Navy transports, accompanied by seven warships, proceed in heavy fog from Port Royal. They sail to a rendezvous at the mouth of a deepwater creek which leads to Boyds Landing, about nine miles east of their target: the rail depot at Gopher Hill near Grahamville. The subsequent overland march is intended to reach the target and cut the line later that evening. Little or no Confederate opposition is expected due to the poor state of Union intelligence about the area.
On the Confederate side, Col. Charles Colcock is in command of roughly 300 troopers of the 3rd South Carolina Cavalry, spread between the Combahee and Savannah Rivers. Defenses originally prepared by Robert E Lee in 1862 are manned by those troops at two principal locations, each about five miles apart, which guard the main avenues of communication and transportation on the land route from Savannah to Charleston in that area. These defenses are unknown to the Union command.
At 0800 on November 29, a Confederate picket sights warships emerging from the morning fog as they come upstream to the landing. Issuing the alarm, telegrams are sent from their field HQ in Grahamville to Augusta, Charleston, and Savannah to send reinforcements at once. The Federal column advances inland in the wrong direction, reversing its march twice, missing the turn to Grahamville, and finally at 0200 on November 30, nearly 16 hours after beginning its approach, camping for the night at the crossroads leading to the railroad depot. Despite marching nine miles that day the column ends its journey only three miles closer to the objective than where it landed.
A stream of Confederate reinforcements begin to arrive at Gopher Hill at 0800 the morning of November 30 and are immediately routed east to the main defensive line atop a ridge named "Honey Hill." The Federal column begins marching west toward Gopher Hill Depot at about the same time. Two Confederate units are sent forward about 1.5 miles as skirmishers, falling back twice in delaying maneuvers before rejoining the main defenses. This action delays the Union column’s advance for approximately one hour. That hour allows additional Confederate reinforcements to arrive before the general engagement begins.
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November 30. About 1100. As the vanguard of the advancing Union column rounds a sharp curve in the road on the causeway that crosses swampy ground, a withering barrage of cannon and canister fire opens from unseen Confederate positions, forcing the column off the road and into line of battle. As the Federals form and extend their lines to the left and right of the main road, small arms fire erupts from a concealed line of skirmishers behind a dam. Mounting pressure from the Federal advance forces the skirmishers to retreat to the high ground behind the swampy creek to their west. The Union commander, Gen. John P. Hatch, establishes his field HQ about 500 yards to the rear of the Union line.
Attempts to possess the main Confederate redoubt fail repeatedly. Valiant charges by United States Colored Troops (USCT) units, under the command of Col. Alfred Hartwell and Gen. Edward Potter, move boldly up the narrow causeway in the face of the murderous lead hailstorm, but fail with heavy loss. Senior officers in the Union regiments are killed or badly wounded, in several cases leaving only one Colonel, with no staff, in command of each regiment toward the end of the battle. Some Union units suffer 25 to 40 percent casualties within a ten-minute period. Three brave regiments, the 144th New York, 25th Ohio, and 32nd USCT attempt an enfilading attack at the Confederate left flank and are viciously repelled. Four Medals of Honor are earned along a one-hundred yard cleared area of the causeway in front of the Confederate defenses.
As the 55th Massachusetts Regiment charges up the causeway, the 127th New York manages to cross the swamp and come within 50 yards of the Confederate line. Fearing his line will be broken, Col. Colcock sends forward the 47th Georgia, who had been held in reserve. They drive back the Federals who break and run. Some Rebels leave their defenses to pursue, in the process unleashing slave-tracker dogs who attack the fleeing USCT men. Running low on ammunition and with darkness falling, hearing the whistles of trains signaling the arrival of more reinforcements, and realizing his men have not been able to break the Rebel defenses, Gen. Hatch gives the order to withdraw. As the Union rear guard fades into the night, Col. Colcock orders scouts to monitor Rebel movements and report back.
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Union troops withdraw after 6 hours of fighting. Outnumbered about three to one, the Confederates withstood numerous, repetitive attacks in their strong defenses atop a 25-foot high ridge known as Honey Hill. The absence of senior Federal commanders on the core battleground led to an engagement fought at the brigade level, depriving the Union of the use of concentrated and coordinated attacks by their superior numbers against the enemy. This allowed the Confederates to make good use of their interior lines to shift reinforcements to threatened areas of their defensive line. Shortages of ammunition and the coming of darkness, along with the arrival of Confederate reinforcements from Augusta and Charleston, forced the Union forces to retreat.
Battle of Honey Hill: Featured Resources
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