HONEY HILL, Battle of. On the night of 28 Nov. 1864, General Foster, commanding the Federal troops in the Department of the South, left Hilton Head, S. C. with 5,000 in fantry, cavalry and artillery, and about 500 sailors and marines, for Boyd's Neck on the south side of Broad River, the object of the movement being to cut the railroad connecting Savannah and Charleston and otherwise co-op erate with Sherman, who was marching to the coast. Owing to a thick fog many of the boats lost their way and it was late in the afternoon of the 29th before the troops got ashore. Gen Hatch was put in command, with orders to push forward and cut the railroad. Hatch marched immediately; the guides and snaps proved worthless, and, after marching and countermarching the greater part of the night, he went into bivouac about 2 o'clock on the morning of the 30th. Information of Foster's appearance at Boyd's Neck was carried to General Hardee at Savannah on the evening of the 29th, and next morning at 2 o'clock, the alivance of G. W. Smith's Georgia militia ar riving at Savannah, Hardee directed Smith to hasten it to Grahamsville Station on the Charleston and Savannah Railroad. The station reached at 8 A. M ., and the men marched
out on the road leading to Broad River landing, about three miles, where, on the crest of the north bank of a small stream, a work for light guns had been thrown up and trenches for in fantry prepared. These works were about 100 yards from the little stream and upon Honey Hill, 10 or 12 feet above the water level. On the, right of the battery of five guns was a dense forest, on the left an open pine wood. The ground in front was open. Preparations. were completed by 10 o'clock, at which hour about 1,000 militia filled the trenches on the' right and left of the battery. Early in his march Hatch encountered the Confederate out posts, drove them in and soon after 10 o'clock came under fire of the guns. Hatch attempted a flanking movement, but failed, and made several direct assaults during the day, all of which were repulsed, and at dusk he began his retreat to Boyd's Neck. His loss was 711 killed and wounded and 43 missing. During the ac tion Smith was reinforced by the 47th Georgia, but at no time did he have more than 1,400, men. He lost 8 killed and 42 wounded. Consult 'Official Records) (Vol. XLIV).