Honey Hill was a Civil War engagement fought in South Carolina, 1864. It was a Confederate victory.
Leaving Hilton Head on November 28, a Union expeditionary force under Maj. Gen. John P. Hatch steamed up the Broad River in transports to cut the Charleston & Savannah Railroad near Pocotaligo. Hatch disembarked at Boyd's Landing and marched inland. On November 30, Hatch encountered a Confederate force of regulars and militia under Col. Charles J. Colcock at Honey Hill. Determined attacks by U.S. Colored Troops (including the 54th Massachusetts) failed to capture the Confederate entrenchments or cut the railroad. Hatch retired after dark, withdrawing to his transports at Boyd's Neck.
On November 30, 1864, Union and Confederate forces clashed at Honey Hill, the third engagement of the Savannah campaign in the American Civil War. Sherman's main army, then advancing from Atlanta toward Savannah, Georgia, took no part in this fight. Instead, the action grew out of a separate Union effort led by Brig. Gen. John P. Hatch, whose troops set out to sever the Charleston and Savannah Railroad as a means of assisting Sherman's anticipated approach to Savannah. That expedition ended in failure.
On November 28, Hatch set his expeditionary force in motion from Hilton Head, South Carolina, bound for Boyd's Neck, just above Beaufort. The column numbered 5,000 men, drawn from two brigades of the Coast Division within the Department of the South, a naval brigade, and elements from three light artillery batteries. Transports carried them up the Broad River, the goal being to sever the Charleston and Savannah Railroad near Pocotaligo. A thick fog delayed matters considerably, keeping the men aboard ship until late the next afternoon. Once ashore, Hatch pushed his troops forward at once, aiming now to strike the railroad closer to Grahamville.
The maps and guides accompanying the expedition turned out to be useless, and as a result Hatch could not locate the correct route until the morning of November 30. Near Grahamville, at a place called Honey Hill, his men ran into a mixed Confederate force of regular troops and militia under Colonel Charles J. Colcock, backed by seven pieces of artillery positioned squarely across the roadway. Union Colored Troops pressed the assault with determination, among them a brigade under Alfred S. Hartwell containing the 54th Massachusetts and 55th Massachusetts regiments. The ground the Federals occupied allowed them to bring only one artillery section into action at any given moment, and the Confederate defenses proved too strong to break. Combat continued until nightfall, at which point Hatch concluded that neither a direct assault nor a flanking maneuver could succeed, and he pulled his men back to the transports waiting at Boyd's Neck. His losses totaled 89 killed, 629 wounded, and 28 missing, while the Confederates suffered far fewer casualties, eight dead and 39 wounded.
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