Freedom by the Sword - US Army Center Of Military History

The South Atlantic Coast, 1863 –1865 79
a force on their flank. We fired & shouted & got a volley or two in return. A rascally
bullet hit me just below the groin & ranged down nearly through my thigh. Then I
went back with my twenty to the road again, found 35th, 55th [Massachusetts], 54th
[Massachusetts] men all mixed together. 56
By late morning, Colonel Hartwell had come up with companies of the
54th and 55th Massachusetts. As they approached the Confederate position on
Honey Hill, the woods fell away and Hartwell’s command went into line in a
cornfield to the left of the road. Lt. Col. Stewart L. Woodford offered to lead
the 127th New York against the Confederate works if another regiment would
charge on the other side of the road. Hartwell led part of the 55th Massachusetts
forward until Confederate fire stopped them. He received a bullet wound
in the hand and a stunning blow in the side from a spent grapeshot. Neither
regiment reached the Confederate position. The 55th Massachusetts suffered
casualties of 27 killed, 106 wounded, and 2 missing. 57
With ammunition running out, Union soldiers rummaged the cartridge
boxes of the dead and wounded. About 1:00 p.m., Col. Henry L. Chipman
arrived on the field with his regiment, the 102d USCI. They had come ashore
just two hours earlier and had marched straight to the battle. Chipman posted
two companies on the road through the woods to round up stragglers. About
3:00 p.m., word reached him that men were needed to recover a pair of guns
belonging to Battery B, 3d New York Artillery. Two of the battery’s ammunition
chests had exploded, injuring one officer and three enlisted men. One of
its other officers had been killed and another wounded and eight enlisted men
killed or seriously wounded. Eight of the battery’s horses were out of action.
One company of the 102d USCI tried to recover the guns. In the attempt, its
commanding officer was killed and the only other officer wounded twice. The
ranking noncommissioned officer, not having been told what the objective was,
merely put the company in line of battle facing the enemy. Another company
then moved toward the guns and retrieved them. 58
By 4:00 p.m., the field artillery batteries had nearly run out of ammunition
and had to be replaced by the sailors’ twelve-pounder howitzers, which
continued firing until long after dark. A withdrawal began at dusk, with the
102d USCI, the last regiment to arrive, remaining on the field with the 127th
New York and two naval howitzers until 7:30 p.m. Striving to cast the day’s
events in a favorable light, General Hatch noted that the retreat “was executed
without loss or confusion; . . . not a wounded man was left on the field, except
those who fell at the foot of the enemy’s works . . . ; no stores or equipments
fell into the hands of the enemy.” General Foster called Honey Hill “a drawn
battle.” Nevertheless, the expedition had failed to reach the Charleston and Savannah
Railroad, let alone damage it. The day’s losses amounted to 89 killed,
56 J. C. Beecher to My beloved, 2 Dec 1864, J. C. Beecher Papers, Schlesinger Library, Harvard
University, Cambridge, Mass.
57 OR, ser. 1, 44: 415–16, 426, 428, 431–32, 911.
58 Ibid., pp. 432–36.