Dalton and Resaca

[Nytram01]

Should the fighting in the Atlanta Campaign around Dalton and Resaca be classed as two seperate battles or as one battle?

I only ask because it seems as if it gets classed as two different battle when I dont think it was. I think Resaca was a continuation of the fighting at Dalton. There doesn't appear to have been any large scale movement of troops from one site to another over a significant period of time to class this as two seperate engagements and Johnston and Sherman's plans seem to have been based originally on the positions of the Army of Tennessee and Sherman's Army group, what information Johnston could get about it, around Dalton only to be changed as per the fighting around Resaca.

And was the engagement tactically a victory for Sherman or Johnston or inconclusive? It was definately a strategic victory for Sherman but tactically I'm not sure.

 

[oneplez]

Atlanta Campaign

Should the fighting in the Atlanta Campaign around Dalton and Resaca be classed as two seperate battles or as one battle?

I only ask because it seems as if it gets classed as two different battle when I dont think it was. I think Resaca was a continuation of the fighting at Dalton. There doesn't appear to have been any large scale movement of troops from one site to another over a significant period of time to class this as two seperate engagements and Johnston and Sherman's plans seem to have been based originally on the positions of the Army of Tennessee and Sherman's Army group, what information Johnston could get about it, around Dalton only to be changed as per the fighting around Resaca.

And was the engagement tactically a victory for Sherman or Johnston or inconclusive? It was definately a strategic victory for Sherman but tactically I'm not sure.

Interesting! I always considered them as one fight.

Thomas and Schofield were to demonstrate in front of Dalton to distract Joe Johnston and allow McPherson entry into Snake Creek Gap.

However, I just finished Benson Bobrick's "Master of War" and he writes of it as two separate fights.

I'm not sure I agree, but, he makes a compelling case for two separate engagements.

The ostensible distraction, ordered by Sherman, might be feasible as another failed Sherman effort at fighting a battle. He never did win one.

I'll have to check out the O.R.s.

Slowtrot​

 

[jkeith21]

Seems to me that if you want to look at it from the one-battle point of veiw, you could say the same about the whole campaign... each just another step beyond the last.

 

[civilwarbuglertn]

Seems to me that if you want to look at it from the one-battle point of veiw, you could say the same about the whole campaign... each just another step beyond the last.

I agree, the battles were part of the overall movement of the campign. However the reason they need to be classfied as two battles is the distantance between them. On Map they look close, but they are about 15 miles apart. They are little closer, if you know the back roads. But to me 10 miles is not realy in easy supporting distance. It can be done, but at what cost.

 

[TerryB]

Sam Watkins (Company Aitch) talks about the fighting from Rocky Face Ridge (May 3) and the next 100 days, saying that every one of those 100 days saw a fight of some kind. It's almost as if the whole campaign was one huge battle.

 

[lwhite64]

They were two seperate fights like the Wilderness and Spotsylvania were two seperate fights. You could also argue there were three. The fight at Dalton was mainly at Mill Creek Gap and Dug Gap between the Army of the Cumberland and the Army of Tennessee, the Battle of Resaca starts with the Army of the Tennessee running into the lead elements of the Army of Mississippi being sent to reinforce Johnston.

Lee

 

[oneplez]

Resacaa and SNG

I read Sherman's Memoirs and on p.496 he claims that Joe JOhnston had fortified the mountains on either side of Mill Creek. Sherman said "Therefore, I had no intention of attacking the position (Mill Creek) seriously in front , but depended on McPherson to capture and hold the railroad in its rear. which would force Johnston to detach largely against him . . ."

So, I think this confirms that the Mill Creek action was a diversion for the McPherson attack.

In Thomas original plan he said that Schofield and McPherson would be mounting a diversion while he attacked thru SNG. Instead he and Schofield were the diversion.

slowtrot

 

[lwhite64]

Mill Creek Gap

You can still see the Confederate defenses up on Rocky Face Ridge and it would have been a daunting sight, a series of Confederate Redoupts going down the side of the mountain made of limestone, earth, and logs, with deep ravines in front of them, add to that the flooded Mill Creek.

Lee