433 Series I Volume XLIV- Serial 92 - Savannah
Page 433 | Chapter LVI. ENGAGEMENT AT HONEY HILL, S. C. |
field and that I was in command of the brigade till 3 p. m., at which time the regiments of the brigade were in line of battle on the right of the road, but separated. Soon after dark the Fifty-fourth Massachusetts Volunteers were withdrawn by the direct order of General Potter, without coming through me. I received orders to withdraw my own regiment at 7. 30 p. m. The remainder of the night the regiments of the brigade acted independently. Eight companies of the Fifty-fourth Massachusetts Volunteers, under Lieutenant-Colonel Hooper, left the landing; six were in the engagement. Four companies (C, D, G, and K) were left at the cross-roads, under Captain Pope, and two (A and I) at the church. The two remaining companies, under Lieutenant-Colonel Hooper, moved forward and first entered the action on the left of the guns. The four companies under Captain Pope, having engaged and repulsed some 200 of the enemy's cavalry at the cross-roads, were relieved by four companies of the Thirty-fourth U. S. Colored Troops, and started immediately for the front, and went into action on the right of the road. The two companies under Lieutenant-Colonel Hooper, having been sent to the rear at about 5 p. m. with surplus ammunition, Lieutenant-Colonel Pope, and rejoined him just as the latter had received orders from General Potter to retire. Soon after these six companies were ordered to assist in carrying wounded to the rear, and rendered most efficient service; the two companies left at the church had been already so employed. The following is a list of the killed, wounded, and missing in that regiment. *
The Fifty-fifth Massachusetts Volunteers, under command of Lieutenant-Colonel Fox, came first into action at about noon. Marching up the main road until into the woods until the left of the regiment rested on the road, then marching by the left flank in line of battle. At this point the right and left wings of the regiment became separated-the left, under Colonel Hartwell, charging the battery up the road, the right pressing forward into the woods. About 3 p. m. Lieutenant-Colonel Fox, finding that he had but there companies and a part of a fourth with him, left them in command of Major Nutt and went in search of the remnant of his regiment. Finding a portion of the left wing, under Captains Thurber and Torrey, he returned with them to the position occupied by Major Nutt in the old rifle-pits to the right of our battery, which Major Nutt had held against every attempt of the enemy to dislodge him. This regiment remained at the front till after dark, and then withdrew and assisted in carrying wounded to the rear. The casualties in this regiment are as follows. +
Three hundred men of the One hundred and second U. S. Colored Troops were all of that regiment who were engaged on the 30th. This portion of the One hundred and second U. S. Colored Troops under my command reached the landing at Boyd's Point at about 11 a. m. of the 30th and started immediately for the front, which it reached at 1 p. m. The two left companies were at once deployed across the road as guards, to stop and return to their regiments all stragglers from the front.
Lieutenant-Colonel Ames, chief of artillery, having called for a details to haul off some guns belonging to Battery B, Third New York Artil-
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* Nominal list (omitted) shows 1 enlisted man killed, 3 commissioned officers and 36 enlisted men (wounded) and 1 commissioned officer and 4 enlisted men missing.
+ Nominal list (omitted) shows 2 commissioned officers and 25 enlisted men killed, 6 commissioned officers and 109 enlisted men wounded, and 2 enlisted men missing.
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Page 433 | Chapter LVI. ENGAGEMENT AT HONEY HILL, S. C. |