to "be transferred through, the city, to the depot ofthe Charleston and Savannah Railroad, and thereto await further orders from me. I at once calledon General Hardee, whom I found in bed, in hisroom at a private house, and showed him my con-ditional authority, from Governor Brown, to with-draw my command from the Confederate serviceproper. I said to him: “You know that the militiaof this State cannot be legally ordered beyond itslimits without a special act of the Legislature . Butif you can satisfy me that it is absolutely neces-sary that my command shall go into South Caro-
INCIDENT OF SHERMAN’S MARCH —THE FATEOF THE RAIL FENCE.
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lina I will endeavor to carry out your orders. Ifyou do not satisfy me, and persist in your orders,I will be under the disagreeable necessity of with-drawing the State forces from your control.”
General Hardee said that Governor Brown, be-ing cut off from eastern Georgia by the advancingFederal forces, had been superseded by GeneralRantz Wright, the presiding officer of the StateSenate ; and that the latter, in view of the allegeddisabilities of Governor Brown, had issued a proc-lamation from Augusta , declaring himself to beacting Governor of the State. The authority Iheld from Governor Brown was several dayslater in date than Wright’s proclamation. GeneralHardee then explained the condition of affairs;upon which I told him I was satisfied that, in theexisting emergency, it was right that the militiashould be moved into South Carolina , although thiswas contrary to the laws of the State of Georgia .And I added that when the emergency was overthe militia must be promptly brought back to theirown State. To this he acceded.
On reaching the depot I found the troops all onboard the cars. I called ai’ound me about a dozenrepresentative men of the command, briefly ex-plained the necessity for our going beyond thelimits of the State, and told them to communicatethis to the men, and let me know quickly whatthey said about it. The reply came in a fewminutes. Nearly if not quite all of the officers saidthey were willing to go anywhere General Smithwanted them to go. But nearly all the privates saidthat, whilst they would like to do what GeneralSmith wanted, they would not go into South Caro-lina even to please him, because the SouthCarolina militia for months remained on theheights of Hamburg, and refused to cross overto Augusta and relieve the home guards ofthat place, thereby enabling those guards to goto the front whilst Georgia was being invaded.
On receiving this message I told the repre-sentative men to go back and inform all con-cerned that they were going to South Carolina ,because it was my order; and that they wouldstart within ten minutes — would be engagedin a big fight before 12 o’clock—must win it —and would be brought back to Georgia withinforty-eight hours. This message was promptlydelivered. In a few moments I heard laughterfrom every car, and ordered the conductors toput both trains in motion immediately. The: men understood that they were to protect therailroad from raiding parties, and thus enablethe expected Confederate reenforcements toreach Savannah .
The leading train arrived at GrahamvilleStation on the Charleston and Savannah Rail-road about 8 A. M. The men were immediatelymoved out on the road leading to the BroadRiver landing, along which route the Federals,in large force, were reported to be steadily ad-vancing. The second train followed the firstwithin half an hour.
About three miles south of the station, onthe crest of the north bank of a small stream, aparapet for light guns had been previously con-structed, and short trenches for infantry had beenprepared. These earth-works were about one hun-dred yards from the little stream, and were locatedupon ground called Honey Hill, ten or twelve feetabove the water-level. On the right of the bat-tery there was a dense forest; on the left an openpine wood. The ground between the earth-worksand the small stream was mostly open, with a skirtof bushes near the water. The road on which theFederals approached was bordered closely, on bothsides, by dense forests.
There were five pieces of South Carolina lightartillery in the battery; and about one thousandmilitia, partly in the trenches, were formed in lineon the right and left. Dispositions to resist attackwere completed about 10 a. m. In my official re-port it is stated:
“Tlie 47tli Georgia [expected earlier from Charleston]had not yet reached the field. Within five or ten min-utes after these dispositions had been made, the battlebegan by an advance piece of our artillery firing uponthe enemy. Their line of battle was soon formed, and