Battle of Boykin's Mill

The 1865 battle of Boykin's Mill was the site of the last Union officer killed in action during the American Civil War. It was also the location of the final battle on South Carolina soil.

Brigadier General Edward E. Potter took command of the two Northern brigades—2700 men—recently landed at Georgetown. Colonel Edward N. Hallowell, former commander of the famed 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry Regiment and wounded at Fort Wagner, led one of the brigades including his former unit now consisting of over 700 men. Under orders to disable railroads in South Carolina, Potter's brigades were forced to contend with Kentucky's "Orphan Brigade" of mounted infantry from April 9 at Dingle's Mill through 18 April.

On April 18, 1865, Potter's troops met again with the Kentuckians in the quiet town of Boykin, South Carolina. The Confederates held a strong defensive position in an abandoned fort. Sergeant Major Joseph Thomas Wilson later wrote about this fort:^[1] "No better position could be found for a defense, as the only approach to it, was by a narrow embankment about 200 yards long, where only one could walk at a time."^[2] The 54th Massachusetts was given the job and sustained two killed and thirteen wounded before Confederate troops, heavily outnumbered, ran from the field. The dead men were Private James P. Johnson of Company F, a barber 21 years of age from Owego, NY, and First Lieutenant E.L. Stevens, the latter being the last Federal officer killed in action during the war.^[3] Stevens was killed by 14-year-old Burrell H. Boykin, a member of the Confederate Home Guard whose family owned the land the Union troops were moving through.^[4]

طاردت قوات الاتحاد جنود الجنوب الفارين دون جدوى، وأُحرقت الطاحونة بالكامل وفقًا لسياسة "الأرض المحروقة" التي انتهجها اللواء ويليام ت. شيرمان . كانت هذه المعركة الأكثر دموية في الحملة بالنسبة للكتيبة 54، التي تكبدت أعلى نسبة خسائر في العملية. ومع ذلك، استمرت المناوشات بين الوحدتين المتنازعتين (كتيبة بوتر وكتيبة كنتاكي) حتى 19 أبريل في طاحونة دينكينز، حيث خاضتا آخر معركة رئيسية في الجبهة الشرقية. أُعلن عن وقف مبدئي لإطلاق النار لكلا الجانبين بعد يومين، إلا أن الجنرال الكونفدرالي جونستون لم يستسلم رسميًا إلا في 26 أبريل.

• مجمع بوكين ميل

• كلينتون كوكس (1991)، المجد الخالد: قصة فوج ماساتشوستس 54 ، نيويورك: سكولاستيك.
• جوزيف توماس ويلسون (1892/1968)، الكتيبة السوداء: تاريخ الجنود الزنوج في الولايات المتحدة في حروب 1775، 1812، 1861 - 1865 ، طبعة جديدة، نيويورك: دار نشر أرنو.

34°07′44″ شمالاً 80°34′44″ غرباً / 34.129° شمالاً 80.579° غرباً / 34.129؛ -80.579