Battle of Resaca
Gordon County, Gordon County, Georgia
Marker Inscription
Battle of Resaca. May 13, 1864. The 15th and the 16th A.C. [USA] deployed astride road on ridges W. of those next to and this side of Camp Creek, where Polk's Corps [CSA] was posted. May 14: The 15th and the 16th A.C. drove Polk's troops across creek from this ridge and occupied it. Polk established a line on a chain of hills just E. of creek. 5:30 pm: the 15th and the Veatch's (4th) Div. 16th A.C. [USA] moved across creek and carried Polk's position, holding it against repeated attempts to regain it. Polk withdrew E. to a line near the Dalton - Resaca road (U.S. Highway 41). 064-13 GEORGIA HISTORICAL COMMISSION 1953
Erected by Georgia Historical Commission
The Story
During the Battle of Resaca on May 13–14, 1864, Union corps deployed along ridges west of Camp Creek opposite Leonidas Polk's Confederate corps. On May 14 the Federals drove Polk's men across the creek and, by evening, carried and held his new position on the hills beyond, forcing Polk to fall back toward the Dalton–Resaca road.
Why it matters
The seizure of the Camp Creek heights was a key local success at Resaca, showing how Union numbers and persistence gradually pried the Confederates from strong defensive ground.
The story behind this marker
AI contextThe era
In the spring of 1864, the American Civil War entered a new and relentless phase in the mountains and river valleys of northwest Georgia. After three years of fighting, the Union high command had settled on a strategy of applying pressure everywhere at once, and in the western theater that pressure took the shape of a great blue army pushing south out of Tennessee toward Atlanta, the industrial and railroad heart of the Deep South.
The country around Resaca was made for defense: steep ridges, narrow creek bottoms, and thick woods that broke up any advance and gave a dug-in army every advantage. Camp Creek, running through this ground, was exactly the kind of natural line a defender wanted at his back and an attacker dreaded crossing.
By mid-May the two armies had come to grips here, and the fighting on May 13 and 14, 1864, was part of the opening act of the long campaign for Atlanta. It was terrain, not glory, that dictated the day — who held the high ground west of the creek, and who could pry the other side loose from it.
People & events
The action recorded on this marker unfolded over two days. On May 13, Union troops of the 15th and 16th Army Corps deployed along the ridges west of Camp Creek, facing the Confederate corps commanded by Leonidas Polk posted on the ground just beyond. The armies eyed each other across the creek, each measuring the strength of the other's position.
The next day the Federals moved. On May 14 the 15th and 16th Corps drove Polk's men back across Camp Creek and took possession of the ridge they had been holding. Rather than break, Polk pulled his line onto a fresh chain of hills just east of the water and dug in again — a defender trading one strong position for the next one behind it.
Then, at half past five in the evening, the Union corps came on again. Elements of the 15th Corps and Veatch's division of the 16th pushed across the creek and carried Polk's new position outright. What followed was as important as the assault itself: the Federals held the captured ground against repeated Confederate attempts to take it back. Unable to recover the line, Polk withdrew eastward toward the Dalton–Resaca road.
Its place in the American story
It is easy to look for a single decisive clash and miss how a campaign like this one was actually won — not in one grand stroke but in a hundred local shoves like the fight for the Camp Creek heights. Each ridge taken, each line that could not be retaken, moved the front a little farther south and wore down an army that could not replace what it lost.
The pattern on display here — Union numbers and persistence steadily prying Confederate defenders off strong ground they had every reason to hold — was the engine of the whole drive toward Atlanta. Polk's men fought well and gave up the position only when they could no longer hold it, then fell back to fight the same way again a little to the rear.
That grinding, methodical advance is what eventually delivered Atlanta to Union hands later that year, and the fall of that city reshaped the course of the war. The seizure of these unremarkable-looking ridges was one small link in that long chain.
If you visit
Stand here and let your eye follow the lay of the land toward the creek. The story on this marker is really a story about ground — ridges, a creek bottom, and the hills just beyond — so the landscape itself is the exhibit. Try to pick out which high ground the Federals held, where Camp Creek runs, and the rise to the east where Polk re-formed his line.
This is quiet, rolling Gordon County country now, and part of what makes such places moving is the contrast: the very ordinariness of the terrain is what men struggled and died over on a May evening in 1864. Reading the sequence slowly — deploy, cross, carry, hold, withdraw — helps you map the words onto the hills in front of you.
Resaca sits in a corridor rich with Atlanta Campaign markers and sites, so this stop pairs naturally with others tracing the armies' path south. Give yourself a moment to look, not just read; the shape of the ground is the whole point.
Written by AI to add context, grounded in the marker’s inscription and the historical record. The inscription above is the original, unaltered text.
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Related people
- · Leonidas Polk
Related events
- · Battle of Resaca
- · Atlanta Campaign
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Battle of Resaca
Gordon County, GA
On May 13, 1864, Union Gen. McPherson's corps emerged from Snake Creek Gap to open the Battle of Resaca, with Judson Kilpatrick's cavalry leading the advance until he was wounded by Confederate skirmishers. Over the next day Federal forces deployed along ridges overlooking Camp Creek as the battle opened in earnest against Hood's and Hardee's lines.
Battle of Resaca
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On May 16, 1864, Gen. Johnston's Confederate army slipped across the Oostanaula River on pontoon and railroad bridges, ending the Battle of Resaca. Union forces rebuilt the burned bridges and pursued southward while other columns fanned out toward Rome and the Coosawattee crossings, and the Army of the Tennessee forded the river downstream at Lay's Ferry.
Atlanta Campaign: Resaca
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On May 13–15, 1864, the opening major clash of the Atlanta Campaign unfolded near Resaca, where Confederate lines north and west of town held firm against Federal attacks. Unable to break the position by assault, Sherman executed a flanking movement to the west and south that rendered Johnston's line untenable. The Confederates were compelled to fall back deeper into Georgia, setting the campaign's pattern.
Battles of Tilton
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In 1864 the rail towns of northwest Georgia became a battleground during Sherman's drive on Atlanta. This spot saw a May delaying action as Confederates withdrew toward Resaca, and an October assault in which part of French's Division shelled a blockhouse held by some 300 men of the 17th Iowa Veteran Volunteer Infantry, forcing their surrender after a fight of several hours.