The Battle At Honey Hill: /"The Order to Advance"



Posted: Friday, July 18, 2008

by
Charleston Perlo

"The Order to Advance "

(Honey Hill was the thrid largest battle fought in South Carolina during the Civil War. It was one of the first battle that Black Union troops engaged in combat, equiting themselves with gallantry and bravery, a largfe number of causalities, due to Confederate troops having superior positions. --wr)

At Honey Hill (strained honey), a fierce civil war battle clogged a stream with causalities from both sides. People living near Boyd's Creek and Grahamville reported the bodies of soldiers jamming the opening to the Broad River had to be removed for more than a year after the battle. After the battle, soldiers "could walk on the dead for over a mile without touching the road." The Savannah Republican noted :

" We made a visit to the field the following day, and found the swamp and road literally strewn with their dead."

Before the battle, John Jenkins of the SC 35 th V Calvary sent telegrams to Gen. Hardee at Savannah and Jones at Charleston with early intelligence: Ten gunboats, with transports and barges at Boyd's landing, troops near Grahamville. Four gunboats coming up Broad River to MacKey's Point, which is the approach to Pocotaligo."

A letter to his brother from Lt. Col William Warren Marple, commanding officer of the 34 th USCT (a South Carolina regiment formed by African-American volunteers) describes South Carolina's third largest battle of the 1861 war:

We left Hilton Head at 2 O'clock A.M. Monday Morning - the 29th inst.- [Nov. 1864] and steamed up Broad River - but the Fog was so thick - and night so dark that the Boats got Scattered . . .

Now I will tell you what part the 34th took in the operations of the day . . . The enemy made an attack on me but was repulsed with considerable loss - He did not know that I had Artillery - . . . I was to hold a cross road near this Creek and prevent reinforcements from passing from Charleston to the Battlefield -

I at once ordered the skirmish line to advance . . . In ten seconds the Air was full of Shrapnell and Grape & Canister thrown by the enemy . . . I had none killed - 6 of the Men were badly wounded, two mortal all were brought from the field . . .

Things were in great confusion that night - . . .The Next morning - the good friend the Spade was brought into use & we now hold the position . We hear nothing from Sherman

Four other SC regiments, the 33rd, 34th, 35th, and the 102nd USCT, held positions near Bolan's Church or led charges. The wounded were carried on stretchers made from muskets and blankets. The "Secesh" used rice dikes as defensive perimeters. Twenty-one year old boatman, runaway slave, and Illinois volunteer Corporal Andrew Jackson Smith won the Medal of Honor for valor for saving the 55 th Mass. regimental colors.

The New York Times plainly erred: "Before evening, the Pocotaligo Bridge was destroyed."

Despite the 1861 war's enormous battles, losses, and gallantry, not one combatant stood in the way of freedom when the jubilee came "round the way" by hoof, and word and foot.

Walter Rhett Walter Rhett attended Ohio State and writes from Charleston, SC. He writes about national and global affairs with an eye on Southern history and culture and enjoys listening to his readers.

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