THE AFFAIR AT HONEY HILL <i> by Berry Fleming (The Permanent Press: $18.95; 93 pp.) </i>

Berry Fleming’s interest in the delicate mechanism of the human heart makes his historical novel about a Confederate soldier a timeless tale of the stress brought to bear on individual lives by war. Edwin Daws is a man no longer young, assigned in the grim days of winter, 1864, to protect the railroad leading to Savannah, Ga., from Union attack. The post is near Honey Hill Plantation, where he spent a month 18 years before, working for the Rev. Trezevant Ferebee. In that almost unimaginably distant summer, he gradually fell in love with the mysterious daughter of his patron.

While the confusion of battle rages, Daws’ memories and present experiences draw together as he executes his army assignment with the fervor of his desire to protect his old love. Fleming writes of the South, where the past is perhaps a stronger presence than in other parts of the country, with an intimacy that connects the world of the Civil War to universal human experience.