I have passed by The Battle of Reaca site on my way to and from Florida but never stopped to visit it. I am not sure there is much to see there but perhaps if I understood the battle better I would stop and spend a couple hours there. What do I need to understand to enjoy seeing the battle site?T
I think I read in the Resaca issue of Blue & Gray Magazine, before our Chickamauga gathering in 2018, that 160,000 troops were engaged in the Battle of Resaca. When we visited the battlefield, it was hard for me to wrap my brain around 160,000 troops packed into that ground.
Here's the website for the Resaca Battlefield Park:
http://resacabattlefield.com/FoRstart.html
I enjoyed my visit there and was able to take the long walking trail which runs north along the west side of Camp Creek, the back down the other side.
Would highly recommend a visit.
Is there much to see at the battle site?
Nope!!! I have visited Resaca twice. There is not much to see. Most battlefields have unit markers. Resaca does not. You are pretty much left on your own. For a Civil War battlefield, I was very disappointed.
When driving I-75, if you get off at GA 136 and head west, the battlefield park is right there -- a grass field with a creek running through it and a row of hills about 1/2 mile from the highway. I beleive there is evidence of trenches and there are trails with intepretive signs
... 3. The battlefield park is in the area in which Dodge’s men tangled with Polk’s men on the 9th and Logan’s men tangled with them on the 14th/15th
The trouble with most of you is that you're ONLY looking at the so-called
Battlefield Park; Bobby's right - you couldn't fit 160,000 men inside it! HOWEVER, the battle itself as Ned has rightly observed is actually located solely on the center of the Confederate lines where the principal - but scarcely the only - Union assault was made. That would be like my friend Doug
@1863surgeon who thought that because he had once long ago stopped at and looked for maybe fifteen minutes or so out over the field at Gettysburg where Pickett had made his Charge that he had "seen" Gettysburg! Like most Civil War battlefields, Resaca covers an area of several square miles, the principal sites consisting of:
1. Battlefield Park
I have visited Resaca twice. There is not much to see. Most battlefields have unit markers. Resaca does not. You are pretty much left on your own. For a Civil War battlefield, I was very disappointed.
Unfortunately I had a similar experience during a previous visit finding the gate locked; the park got off to a slow and bumpy start for several years but as Bobby can attest is now a nice self-contained unit though admittedly lacking a NPS-type Visitor Center.
Note the three historical markers at right, only the first of many spaced out along the park road or the trail that covers almost the entire length of the park.
Although not traditional unit markers
per se, they nevertheless give a good idea of what went on - from this one I was able to satisfy myself that I'd found the area held by my ancestor in Lowrey's Brigade of Pat Cleburne's Division. One problem here is that the actual Confederate position is partly taken up by the Interstate Highway that runs parallel to and just outside the area of the park.
Below positioned along the trail within the woods is what may be the only "real" unit marker showing the position reached by the 103rd Ohio during the assault.
2. Railroad Redoubt
Although not a part of the battle here, to the east of the highway are the remains of a Confederate earthwork built to protect the railroad bridge in the wake of the Andrews Raid aka the
Great Locomotive Chase. There's a parking area, picnic ground and trail leading to the earthwork; unfortunately nothing there is marked or explained, though there's a solitary marked gravesite.
3. Wayside Park and Resaca Confederate Cemetery
This beautiful cemetery is located off the old Dalton Road/U.S. Highway (pre-Interstate) and is about atop the Confederate defense line that runs through this area.
There is also a Wayside (like a typical Roadside Park) at the Cemetery turn-off with a large bronze relief map of the Atlanta Campaign.
Note all the BLUE area in the NE part of the map below; that's NOT part of the park but was the scene of heavy action and is now where the reenactment takes place. It's true there are few if any markers in this area, but a marked trail leads from there in front of a private residence to the location where Van Den Corput's Confederate battery was captured in a surprise night assault. Note especially that almost NONE of the Union positions are included in protected land - that would be the same as what BLM would do by eliminating the Confederate markers at Gettysburg! I STRONGLY suggest before visiting Resaca you at least pick up a copy of the old
Blue & Gray issue devoted to the battle.