Resaca was a Civil War engagement fought in Georgia, 1864. The outcome was inconclusive.
Gen. Joseph E. Johnston had withdrawn from Rocky Face Ridge to the hills around Resaca. On the 13th, the Union troops tested the Rebel lines to pinpoint their whereabouts. The next day full scale fighting occurred, and the Union troops were generally repulsed except on the Rebel right flank where Sherman did not fully exploit his advantage. On the 15th, the battle continued with no advantage to either side until Sherman sent a force across the Oostanula River, at Lay's Ferry, towards Johnston's railroad supply line. Unable to halt this Union movement, Johnston was forced to retire.
Fought over three days in mid May of 1864, from the thirteenth through the fifteenth, the Battle of Resaca stood as one episode within the broader Atlanta campaign of the American Civil War. In it, Union forces commanded by William Tecumseh Sherman clashed with Joseph E. Johnston's Confederate Army of Tennessee. The fighting unfolded across Gordon and Whitfield counties in Georgia.
Before reaching Resaca, Johnston had dug in at strong positions along Buzzard's Roost Gap and Rocky Face Ridge, positions he hoped would draw Sherman into a costly frontal assault. Those hopes were undone on May 8, when James B. McPherson's Army of the Tennessee occupied the poorly guarded Snake Creek Gap, putting Resaca at risk from the west and forcing Johnston to give up Dalton. Johnston pulled his army back to Resaca, where reinforcements had begun to gather, all while Sherman gave chase. The bulk of Sherman's men trailed McPherson's route through Snake Creek Gap, and the rest advanced southward along the Western and Atlantic Railroad.
By May 14, Sherman had managed to establish a foothold on the western side of Resaca, though a Union push against Confederate defenses positioned to the north and northwest failed to break through. That same day, Johnston tried striking the Union left flank, and this attack likewise faltered. The following day brought more inconclusive fighting to the north, with both Sherman's advance and a Confederate counterstrike ending in stalemate. Elsewhere, however, Union troops managed to secure a bridgehead on the southern bank of the Oostanaula River. Facing the danger that his escape route might be cut off, Johnston chose to pull out of Resaca once night fell, withdrawing his forces south toward Adairsville, a movement that led to a skirmish there on May 17.
Visitors can explore the preserved grounds at 183 Resaca Lafayette Rd., Resaca, GA 30735, though the site only welcomes guests on Fridays and throughout the weekend. Preservation efforts have proven substantial: by mid-2023, the American Battlefield Trust, working alongside its partners, had secured and protected 1,044 acres of the historic ground. Separately, the Friends of Resaca Battlefield teamed up with the Georgia Battlefields Association to establish a 500-acre park stretching along Camp Creek.
Casualty figures for Resaca vary depending on the source. Castel put Union losses at 4,000, with 600 of those killed or mortally wounded, while placing Confederate losses near 3,000, a total that included 500 to 600 men taken prisoner along with four guns. Both the American Battlefield Trust and the National Park Service offered different numbers, listing 2,747 Union casualties against 2,800 on the Confederate side, and both described the engagement as inconclusive and indecisive.
Sherman succeeded in driving Johnston from two positions the source describes as tactically strong defensively, yet on both occasions the Confederate army managed to withdraw without being destroyed. Castel faulted Sherman's conduct during the fighting, pointing to his decision to order costly assaults, his neglect in guarding his left flank against a counterattack, his failure to bring artillery fire against the bridges, and his inability to make use of the bridgehead at Lay's Ferry to threaten Johnston's line of retreat. Johnston, for his part, also launched attacks that proved costly, though Castel credited his withdrawal as being carried out with good timing and skill. Even so, Sherman had accomplished something significant: he pushed Johnston's forces back in the direction of Atlanta and eliminated any chance that Johnston could spare troops to reinforce Lee.
Sherman's next aim was to overtake and destroy Johnston's retreating force somewhere in the stretch between the Oostanaula and Etowah Rivers, a span of roughly 30 to 40 miles. This region stands out as the most open ground found anywhere in northern Georgia, since below the Etowah the land turns rugged and thickly wooded once again. To pursue this goal, Sherman dispatched Garrard's cavalry toward Rome along the Oostanaula's western bank, with Jefferson C. Davis' division of the XIV Corps following behind. Meanwhile, McPherson led his two corps across at Lay's Ferry, forming the right wing of Sherman's advance, while Thomas' men were directed to move south along the rail line. On May 16 at one in the afternoon, Howard's corps started crossing the rebuilt wagon bridge and arrived at Calhoun by nightfall. Farther east, the corps under Schofield and Hooker marched across the Conasauga first and then the Coosawattee at Field's Mill, afterward turning south to make up the army's left wing. As all this unfolded, Johnston withdrew toward Adairsville, intending to make his next defensive stand there.
This page covers Resaca. A full Aubrey report for the area pulls together this battle alongside historic sites, land records, and everything else the record holds within a few miles:
Every location is different. Not every section appears for every place, only what the historical record actually holds turns up in a report.
The account on this page is written by Aubrey Research from cited sources. Wikipedia is cited as a reference; its text is not reproduced.
Aubrey generates in-depth historical research for any location in the US, drawing on NRHP records, battlefield archives, census history and geological data to tell the full story of a place.