Combat· American Civil War
Honey Hill / Boyd's Neck Failed Attack
A failed attempt to cut the railroad ahead of Sherman's march to the sea.
As Sherman drove toward Savannah in late November 1864, a Marine battalion under Lieutenant George Stoddard, part of a naval brigade, was landed at Boyd's Neck in South Carolina to help sever the Charleston and Savannah railroad. For two days the Union column pushed inland against light opposition, but at Honey Hill the Confederates made a determined stand behind earthworks. The Marines slogged through a swamp, formed their ranks, and marched up into heavy fire, holding their ground through the afternoon, but the position could not be carried, and when the Union line began to waver the Marines were recalled. The attack failed and the railroad stayed open. The references do not give a Marine casualty figure for the action, though the fighting was sharp; the sheet's blank entry is consistent with that.
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Record no. 428