On
Resaca BattlefieldSaturday, May 14, the fighting at Resaca escalated into a full-scale battle. Beginning at dawn, Union forces engaged the Confederates along the entire four-mile front. In the early afternoon Schofield's Army of the Ohio attacked the sharply angled center of the Confederate line. The assault was badly managed and disorganized, in part because one of Schofield's division commanders was drunk. As the Union attack unraveled and became a fiasco, Johnston launched a counterattack on Sherman's left flank. The counterattack collapsed, however, in the face of a determined stand by a Union artillery battery. In the evening Union forces pushed forward and seized the high ground west of Resaca, which placed the bridges leading south from the town within artillery range and threatened Johnston's line of retreat.
The
Benjamin Harrisonfollowing day Sherman renewed his assault on the Confederate center. In order to fire on the advancing Union troops, Captain Max Van Den Corput's artillery battery assumed an advanced position some eighty yards in front of the main Confederate line. The four-gun Confederate battery, protected behind an earthen parapet, became the center of a furious struggle. Union troops massed in a ravine directly in front of the battery, and the 70th Indiana Regiment, led by Colonel Benjamin Harrison (the future U.S. president), swarmed over the parapet and overwhelmed the Confederate gunners. However, Harrison's men were exposed to withering fire from the main Confederate line and had to take cover. For the rest of the day the abandoned guns sat in a deadly no man's land. After the sun set, Union soldiers dug through the parapet, slipped ropes around the four cannons, and dragged them back to the Union lines.
As the fighting raged on May 15, Johnston learned that a division of Union troops had crossed the Oostanaula River southwest of Resaca. Sherman had once again taken advantage of his numeric superiority to outflank the entrenched Confederates. Johnston's position had thus become untenable, and during the night his troops abandoned their defenses and retreated farther south. The Battle of Resaca demonstrated that the Atlanta Campaign would be hard fought and bloody. Johnston's army had suffered some 2,800 casualties, and Union losses were at least as high. But Sherman, with his superior forces, could continue pressing and outflanking the Confederate army, driving it farther south and ever closer to Atlanta.
Resaca BattlefieldSaturday, May 14, the fighting at Resaca escalated into a full-scale battle. Beginning at dawn, Union forces engaged the Confederates along the entire four-mile front. In the early afternoon Schofield's Army of the Ohio attacked the sharply angled center of the Confederate line. The assault was badly managed and disorganized, in part because one of Schofield's division commanders was drunk. As the Union attack unraveled and became a fiasco, Johnston launched a counterattack on Sherman's left flank. The counterattack collapsed, however, in the face of a determined stand by a Union artillery battery. In the evening Union forces pushed forward and seized the high ground west of Resaca, which placed the bridges leading south from the town within artillery range and threatened Johnston's line of retreat.
The
Benjamin Harrisonfollowing day Sherman renewed his assault on the Confederate center. In order to fire on the advancing Union troops, Captain Max Van Den Corput's artillery battery assumed an advanced position some eighty yards in front of the main Confederate line. The four-gun Confederate battery, protected behind an earthen parapet, became the center of a furious struggle. Union troops massed in a ravine directly in front of the battery, and the 70th Indiana Regiment, led by Colonel Benjamin Harrison (the future U.S. president), swarmed over the parapet and overwhelmed the Confederate gunners. However, Harrison's men were exposed to withering fire from the main Confederate line and had to take cover. For the rest of the day the abandoned guns sat in a deadly no man's land. After the sun set, Union soldiers dug through the parapet, slipped ropes around the four cannons, and dragged them back to the Union lines.
As the fighting raged on May 15, Johnston learned that a division of Union troops had crossed the Oostanaula River southwest of Resaca. Sherman had once again taken advantage of his numeric superiority to outflank the entrenched Confederates. Johnston's position had thus become untenable, and during the night his troops abandoned their defenses and retreated farther south. The Battle of Resaca demonstrated that the Atlanta Campaign would be hard fought and bloody. Johnston's army had suffered some 2,800 casualties, and Union losses were at least as high. But Sherman, with his superior forces, could continue pressing and outflanking the Confederate army, driving it farther south and ever closer to Atlanta.