The Battle of Resaca, what should I know about it?

Here's one more photo of us at a ceremony in the Resaca Confederate Cemetery

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I have been to Reseca a few times . I usually visit the north side of the battlefield where my 13th NJ fought under Ruger and Williams. That is the location where the 27th Indiana and 107th NY charged and grabbed a cannon and returned it back to Union lines at night. The CSA men got hammered pretty good the next day leaving thousands of rounds of artillery and ammo for the North to grab.
 
Resaca has a rather large area to the North of town, where you'll find a Confederate Cemetery, and the entrance to the annual reenactment site. This site is privately owned, but accessible. There will be a reenactment there this year May 14, 15, and 16. It might be a good time to come out and see what's there for yourself.
 
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

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.

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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.
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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.

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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.
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2. Railroad Redoubt
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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
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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.

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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.

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Very nice
 
My first visit to Resaca was for the reenactment in 2019, which is held on an unmarked portion of the second day's battlefield. I was interested in two XXIII corps regiments, the 103rd and 104th Ohio. While not in the same brigades, the both participated in the assaults on the 14th, and as the marker in the above post indicates, experienced the futility of those attacks in denting the main Confederate line. The reenactment takes place where many of those units ended up on day 2, though they were not as heavily engaged. We enjoyed the event and spent some time at the park but it was a long drive from NE Ohio to get there! My avatar was from that event as is the photo below.

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Sears Brigade arrived from Alabama just in time for the battle and it became the largest brigade in French’s Division. Much of it was comprised of Vicksburg parolees who had been in exchange camps at Enterprise. My g-grandfather and his brother were two of those in the 36th Miss.
I have a lot of for respect for General Sears and his Mississippians from my study, and exploration, of the Battle of Allatoona Pass. Those boys sure got into it there, that's for sure.
 
I visited the park in October 2021 and took the longer 2.6 mile Blue Walk (it's more a hike than a walk). I saw a volunteer doing a little bush cutting adjacent to the only monument on the battlefield--103rd Ohio Volunteer Infantry (picture courtesy of Colonel James N.). Since this picture was taken, park personnel put a small wooden structure over the monument). He claimed it was misplaced too far south. Schofield's 23 Corps attacked farther north at the "angle".
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There are additional areas of the battlefield to visit. One being Fort Wayne (east of Resaca) that protected the railroad along the Oostanaula River. This area contains a walking trail around two fortifications one being used by Confederates and the other by Union. A visit during winter allows for better viewing with less dense vegetation and less hostile mosquitoes.

A second area is largely owned by The Conasauga Outfitters a hunt club along Chitwood Rd. the first road north of the Confederate Cemetery. There are a few monuments and interpretive signs describing action at the northeast section of the battlefield.
 
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