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| Battle-field of Resaca.1 |
May 16, 1864. |
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the Oostenaula, while Thomas, pressing along Camp Creek Valley, threw Hooker's corps across the head of that stream to the main Dalton road, close to Resaca.
Schofield came up on Thomas's left, and at that point the heaviest of the severe battle occurred.
Hooker drove his foe from several strong
hills, and captured a four-gun battery and many prisoners.
That night Johnston abandoned Resaca, fled across the Oostenaula, firing the bridges behind him, and leaving as spoils a four-gun battery and a considerable quantity of stores.
On the following morning,
the Nationals took possession of Resaca, when Sherman's whole force started in pursuit.
Thomas followed directly in the track of Hardee, who covered the retreat.
McPherson crossed on the right, at Lay's Ferry, and Schofield made a wide circuit to the left, across the considerable streams which form the Oostenaula.
General J. C. Davis's division, of Thomas's army, moved down the Oostenaula, to Rome, where they gave the Confederates a severe blow by destroying important mills and founderies there, and capturing nearly a dozen of their heavy guns.
Davis left a garrison to hold the place.
In the mean time, Sherman pressed on. He met slight opposition near Adairsville, the location of the Georgia State Arsenal, which he destroyed.
But Johnston made only a brief stand; he quickly moved on, closely followed by his implacable pursuers, and was found at Cassville, on the 19th, holding a strong position and apparently determined to fight.
Prudence told him to move on, and he did, so that night, under the friendly cover of darkness, and crossing the Etowah River, burned the bridges, and placed that stream between his army and the hosts of Sherman.
He halted near the Allatoona Pass, in a very strong position among rugged hills, where he was not molested for two or three days, because Sherman gave his army rest on the right bank of the Etowah, while supplies were brought forward to that point for the next stage of the campaign.
Sherman determined to flank Johnston out of his new position, by moving
1 this is a view of the battle-ground, eastward of Camp Creek, about two miles northwest of Resaca, as it appeared when the writer sketched it, on the anniversary of the battle, 1866. in the middle, on the hill, is seen the residence of Mrs. Margaret Wright, which was perforated with the bullets. The trees on the hill to the right, where General Judah made a charge on the Confederates, were nearly all dead, from the effects of bullet wounds.
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