What was the most significant event on May 14 during the U.S. Civil War?

Saturday, May 14, 1864 Resaca, Georgia: Company C of the 118th Ohio Voluntary Infantry was composed mostly of young men recruited from the Shelby County town of Berlin, now known as Ft. Loramie. Company I contained many soldiers from Sidney, including Cassius Wilson, a brother of Dr. Albert Wilson. Luck would play a strange role in the fate of the men the next day. The regimental officers decided to leave Company I to guard supply trains in the rear, away from the hostilities. Company C was not destined to be as lucky.
Confidence in battlefield leadership is crucial for success, and there were problems here as well. Judah's actions had been questioned by his superior, General Schofield, but he decided to give Judah a last chance to redeem himself at Resaca. That decision would lead to the loss of many good men that day.
As dawn greeted the eastern sky, final battle plans were made. The main Union attack would be made at a right angle where the Rebel line turned to the east. Unfortunately, Judah never had the ground reconnoitered before the battle. Author Mike Klinger, in an article on the action at Resaca entitled Botched Union Attack, described the terrain the Ohio boys would have to cross: "The valley floor was nearly flat and several hundred yards wide. The creek bed was deep in spring runoff and in many places unfordable, The muddy banks were tangled with brush; jagged limestone rocks made the footing treacherous." The Confederate troops and their artillery on the opposing ridge had an open field of fire. It was a recipe for disaster.
At about noon, the Union commanders launched their ill-fated charge. Because of a delay by other federal units, the attack lacked the necessary coordination. Judah's field commanders sought his permission to halt and coordinate the attack with the troops to their left. Judah refused the request, and ordered the men to press forward.
Below are several journal entries from 1862, 1863, 1864 and 1865 which shed light on what life was like for soldiers and civilians – the good, the bad and the ugly. … I am including journal entries from Sergeant Alexander G. Downing, Company E, Eleventh Iowa Infantry, Third Brigade, "Crocker's Brigade," Sixth Division of the Seventeenth Corps, Army of the Tennessee for each year. I have been spending some time researching Civil War journals and diaries and editing them to fit into this series of Civil War discussions.
Tuesday, May 14, 1862: Journal of Sergeant Alexander G. Downing, Company E, Eleventh Iowa Infantry, Third Brigade, “Crocker's Brigade,” “We cleaned up our camp today and had company drill twice. There was some heavy musketry firing on the front lines, and the artillery was in action on both sides, but not much damage was done.”
Wednesday, May 14, 1863: Journal of Sergeant Alexander G. Downing, Company E, Eleventh Iowa Infantry, Third Brigade “Crocker's Brigade,” “News came today that Richmond was taken. I took a walk and reviewed the rebels' works about here. They were strongly fortified with heavy ordnance on the high bluff, about two hundred feet above water, with the river for a distance of two miles running straight to the bluff. This made it a very dangerous place for our gunboats to approach. But after two days' shelling, our gunboats with two or three transports succeeded in running the blockade and landing below the fort. [1]
The river coming with such force is fast washing away the bank and we hope that we may soon move from this place. The Third Brigade of Blair's Division arrived late last night.
[1] At the time of the capture the first troops marched down and crossed the river onto high ground some two miles below, while our main army came into the rear of the enemy, who were compelled to surrender, leaving all their heavy guns. — A. G. D”
Friday, May 14, 1864: Journal of Sergeant Alexander G. Downing, Company E, Eleventh Iowa Infantry, Third Brigade, “Crocker's Brigade,” “The weather is quite warm and pleasant. A large fleet of transports arrived at Clifton this morning, loaded with troops and supplies, the wagons and teams of the Seventeenth Corps being on board. We also received a large mail.
News came that General Grant had defeated the rebels in a two days' battle before Richmond, though he lost about twenty thousand in killed and wounded. The news is almost too good to believe. All is quiet here in the West. We are still herding cattle, but think we shall soon be relieved.”
Sunday, May 14th, 1865: Journal of Sergeant Alexander G. Downing, Company E, Eleventh Iowa Infantry, Third Brigade “Crocker's Brigade,” “It is quite warm. We remained in bivouac until 1 p. m., when we started and covered ten miles before night. We crossed the Pamunky river at 2 o'clock, after which the army divided, in order to get better roads. The Fourteenth and Seventeenth Corps took a road on the left, while the Fifteenth and the Twentieth marched on a road to the right. The roads through the lowlands are fearfully muddy.”

Pictures: 1863-05-14 Harper's Weekly hand colored wood engraving showing The Battle of Jackson, Mississippi, May 14, 1863 -- Charge By General Crocker's Division in bottom; 05-14-1864_Resaca, Georgia May 14; 05-14-1864_battle-resaca

Since RallyPoint truncates survey selection text I am posting events that were not included and then the full text of each survey choice below:
A. Thursday, May 14, 1863: This is when Grant makes a risky decision: to march into enemy territory with no line of communications or supply. His men march and live off the land—that is, spoils of war taken from the countryside and the Southern populace. This campaign becomes the model for the Total War concept that Sherman uses in Georgia the following year.
B. Thursday, May 14, 1863: Battle of Jackson Mississippi. On May 9, 1863, Gen. Joseph E. Johnston received a dispatch from the Confederate Secretary of War directing him to “proceed at once to Mississippi and take chief command of the forces in the field.” As he arrived in Jackson on the 13th, from Middle Tennessee, he learned that two army corps from the Union Army of the Tennessee—the XV, under Maj. Gen. William T. Sherman, and the XVII, under Maj. Gen. James Birdseye McPherson—were advancing on Jackson, intending to cut the city and the railroads off from Vicksburg. Johnston consulted with the local commander, Brig. Gen. John Gregg, and learned that only about 6,000 troops were available to defend the town. Gen. Joseph E. Johnston ordered the evacuation of Jackson, but Gregg was to defend Jackson until the evacuation was completed. By 10:00 am, both Union army corps were near Jackson and had engaged the enemy. Rain, Confederate resistance, and poor defenses prevented heavy fighting until around 11:00 am, when Union forces attacked in numbers and slowly but surely pushed the enemy back. In mid-afternoon, Johnston informed Gregg that the evacuation was complete and that he should disengage and follow. Soon after, the Yankees entered Jackson and had a celebration, hosted by Maj. Gen. U.S. Grant who had been travelling with Maj. Gen. William T. Sherman’s corps, in the Bowman House. They then burned part of the town and cut the railroad connections with Vicksburg. Johnston’s evacuation of Jackson was a tragedy because he could, by late on the 14th, have had 11,000 troops at his disposal and by the morning of the 15th, another 4,000. The fall of the former Mississippi state capital was a blow to Confederate morale.
C. Saturday, May 14, 1864 Battle of Resaca, Georgia [May 14 -15]. On this day, Union and Confederate troops clash at Resaca, Georgia. This was one of the first engagements in a summer-long campaign by Union General William T. Sherman to capture the Confederate city of Atlanta. The spring of 1864 saw a determined effort by the Union to win the war through major offensives in both the eastern and western theaters. In the east, Union General Ulysses S. Grant took on Confederate General Robert E. Lee, while Sherman applied pressure on the Army of the Tennessee, under General Joseph Johnston, in the west.
The Atlanta campaign was dictated by the hilly terrain of northern Georgia. Sherman would try to outflank Johnston on one side, but Johnston would move to block him. Sherman tried the other side, and Johnston blocked again. Johnston was losing ground, but he was stalling Sherman’s advance, and fanning the discontent in the North as the election of 1864 loomed.
On May 9, part of Sherman’s army under James McPherson captured Snake Creek Gap. McPherson did not push further, however, because he ran into Confederates fortified at nearby Resaca.
The Union army would not assault Resaca until May 14, triggering two days of combat. On the first day, the Federal troops gained important ground but failed to break the Confederate lines. The second day also saw no result. But because the Confederates maintained their position and thwarted the Union offense, the Battle of Resaca was considered a tactical victory for the South.
In the days after the battle, Sherman sent McPherson’s men on another swing around Johnston’s left flank. When these troops crossed the Oostanaula River south of Johnston’s army, he had to withdraw further south. The armies inched closer to Atlanta.
D. Sunday, May 14, 1865: A three-day Federal expedition from Brashear City to Ratliff’s Plantation, Louisiana, marked the day.
1. Wednesday, May 14, 1862: Judith White McGuire, of Richmond, writes in her diary: May 14.—The anxiety of all classes for the safety of Richmond is now intense, though a strong faith in the goodness of God and the valour of our troops keeps us calm and hopeful. A gentleman, high in position, panic-struck, was heard to exclaim, yesterday: “Norfolk has fallen, Richmond will fall, Virginia is to be given up, and to-morrow I shall leave this city, an exile and a beggar.” Others are equally despondent, and, as is too frequently the case in times of trouble, attribute all our disasters to the incompetency and faithlessness of those entrusted with the administration of public affairs. Even General Lee does not escape animadversion, and the President is the subject of the most bitter maledictions. I have been shocked to hear that a counter-revolution, if not openly advocated, has been distinctly foreshadowed, as the only remedy for our ills.
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2. Wednesday, May 14, 1862—John Beauchamp Jones, a clerk in the C.S. War Department, writes in his journal: MAY 14TH.—Our army has fallen back to within four miles of Richmond. Much anxiety is felt for the fate of the city. Is there no turning point in this long lane of downward progress? Truly it may be said, our affairs at this moment are in a critical condition. I trust in God, and the chivalry and patriotism of the South in the field.
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3. Wednesday, May 14, 1862—Sarah Morgan of Baton Rouge considers her mixed feelings about the Yankees, the Southern cause, and the war in her diary: So yesterday the town was in a ferment because it was reported the Federal officers had called on the Miss Morgans, and all the gentlemen were anxious to hear how they had been received. One had the grace to say, “If they did, they received the best lesson there that they could get in town; those young ladies would meet them with the true Southern spirit.” The rest did not know; they would like to find out.
I suppose the story originated from the fact that we were unwilling to blackguard — yes, that is the word — the Federal officers here, and would not agree with many of our friends in saying they were liars, thieves, murderers, scoundrels, the scum of the earth, etc. Such epithets are unworthy of ladies, I say, and do harm, rather than advance our cause. Let them be what they will, it shall not make me less the lady; I say it is unworthy of anything except low newspaper war, such abuse, and I will not join in.
I have a brother-in-law in the Federal army whom I love and respect as much as any one in the world, and shall not readily agree that his being a Northerner would give him an irresistible desire to pick my pockets, and take from him all power of telling the truth. No! There are few men I admire more than Major Drum, and I honor him for his independence in doing what he believes right. Let us have liberty of speech and action in our land, I say, but not gross abuse and calumny. . . . These women may acknowledge that cowards have won battles in which their brothers were engaged, but I, I will ever say mine fought against brave men, and won the day. Which is most honorable?
I was never a Secessionist, for I quietly adopted father’s views on political subjects without meddling with them. But even father went over with his State, and when so many outrages were committed by the fanatical leaders of the North, though he regretted the Union, said, “Fight to the death for our liberty.” I say so, too. I want to fight until we win the cause so many have died for. I don’t believe in Secession, but I do in Liberty. I want the South to conquer, dictate its own terms, and go back to the Union, for I believe that, apart, inevitable ruin awaits both. It is a rope of sand, this Confederacy, founded on the doctrine of Secession, and will not last many years — not five. . . . The North will find herself burdened with an unparalleled debt, with nothing to show for it except deserted towns, burning homes, a standing army which will govern with no small caprice, and an impoverished land.
If that be treason, make the best of it!
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4. Thursday, May 14, 1863: General Robert E. Lee, Jefferson Davis, and the Confederate Cabinet meet to discuss the "Summer Strategy" for 1863.
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5. Thursday, May 14, 1863: Battle of Jackson Mississippi. After a brief fight, McPherson and Sherman's corps take Jackson, driving Joe Johnston off.
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6. Thursday, May 14, 1863 --- Ulysses S. Grant writes in his Memoirs of the campaign in central Mississippi at this point, and his reasoning in moving toward Jackson rather than straight to Vicksburg: When the news reached me of McPherson's victory at Raymond [battle on May 12] about sundown my position was with Sherman. I decided at once to turn the whole column towards Jackson and capture that place without delay.
Pemberton was now on my left, with, as I supposed, about 18,000 men; in fact, as I learned afterwards, with nearly 50,000. A force was also collecting on my right, at Jackson, the point where all the railroads communicating with Vicksburg connect. All the enemy's supplies of men and stores would come by that point. As I hoped in the end to besiege Vicksburg I must first destroy all possibility of aid. I therefore determined to move swiftly towards Jackson, destroy or drive any force in that direction and then turn upon Pemberton. But by moving against Jackson, I uncovered my own communication. So I finally decided to have none—to cut loose altogether from my base and move my whole force eastward. I then had no fears for my communications, and if I moved quickly enough could turn upon Pemberton before he could attack me in the rear.
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7. Thursday, May 14, 1863 --- Battle of Jackson – Grant’s troops dash towards Jackson, the Mississippi state capital. Gen. Joseph Johnston, who has hastened there with 10,000 men, decides that he cannot stop Grant, and so withdraws north of the city. Gen. John Gregg, with 6,000 Confederates, establishes a defensive line west of the city, unaided by Johnston, and McPherson deploys his Federal XVII Corps in line of battle. Sherman advances his corps from the south. Gen. Grant notes the opening movements of the battle in the midst of bad weather: It rained in torrents during the night of the 13th and the fore part of the day of the 14th. The roads were intolerable, and in some places on Sherman's line, where the land was low, they were covered more than a foot deep with water. But the troops never murmured. By nine o'clock Crocker, of McPherson's corps, who was now in advance, came upon the enemy's pickets and speedily drove them in upon the main body. They were outside of the intrenchments in a strong position, and proved to be the troops that had been driven out of Raymond. . . . McPherson brought up Logan's division while he deployed Crocker's for the assault. Sherman made similar dispositions on the right. By eleven A.M. both were ready to attack.
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8. Thursday, May 14, 1863 --- As the Federals launch the assault, Gregg is driven back to a second defensive line. Grant adds details: Crocker moved his division forward, preceded by a strong skirmish line. . . . the whole division charged, routing the enemy completely and driving him into this main line. This stand by the enemy was made more than two miles outside of his main fortifications. McPherson followed up with his command until within range of the guns of the enemy from their intrenchments, when he halted to bring his troops into line and reconnoitre to determine the next move. It was now about noon.
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9. Thursday, May 14, 1863 --- Just as the Federals launch a second attack, they find that Gregg has abandoned the position: I had directed Sherman to send a force to the right, . . . This force, Tuttle's division, not returning I rode to the right with my staff, and soon found that the enemy had left that part of the line. . . . Tuttle had seen this and, passing through the lines without resistance, came up in the rear of the artillerists confronting Sherman and captured them with ten pieces of artillery. I rode immediately to the State House, where I was soon followed by Sherman. About the same time McPherson discovered that the enemy was leaving his front, and advanced Crocker, who was so close upon the enemy that they could not move their guns or destroy them. He captured seven guns and, moving on, hoisted the National flag over the rebel capital of Mississippi.
Before the fighting is quite over, Frederick Dent Grant, the General Grant’s son, dashes (without paternal permission) into the state Capitol to help pull down the Rebel flag and hoist the Stars and Stripes. The boy also confiscates the governor’s pipe and tobacco. Young Grant is afterwards reprimanded by the General.
Losses: U.S., 300; Confederate, 850
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10. Saturday, May 14, 1864: Battle of Resaca, Georgia begins [May 14– 15, 1864]
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11. Sunday May 14, 1865: Slight skirmishing on the Little Piney River in Missouri.
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A Thursday, May 14, 1863 --- This is when Grant makes a risky decision: to march into enemy territory with no line of communications or supply. His men march and live off the land—that is, spoils of war taken from the countryside and the Southern populace. This campaign becomes the model for the Total War concept that Sherman uses in Georgia the following year.
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B Thursday, May 14, 1863: Battle of Jackson Mississippi. On May 9, 1863, Gen. Joseph E. Johnston received a dispatch from the Confederate Secretary of War directing him to “proceed at once to Mississippi and take chief command of the forces in the field.” As he arrived in Jackson on the 13th, from Middle Tennessee, he learned that two army corps from the Union Army of the Tennessee—the XV, under Maj. Gen. William T. Sherman, and the XVII, under Maj. Gen. James Birdseye McPherson—were advancing on Jackson, intending to cut the city and the railroads off from Vicksburg. Johnston consulted with the local commander, Brig. Gen. John Gregg, and learned that only about 6,000 troops were available to defend the town. Johnston ordered the evacuation of Jackson, but Gregg was to defend Jackson until the evacuation was completed. By 10:00 am, both Union army corps were near Jackson and had engaged the enemy. Rain, Confederate resistance, and poor defenses prevented heavy fighting until around 11:00 am, when Union forces attacked in numbers and slowly but surely pushed the enemy back. In mid-afternoon, Johnston informed Gregg that the evacuation was complete and that he should disengage and follow. Soon after, the Yankees entered Jackson and had a celebration, hosted by Maj. Gen. U.S. Grant who had been travelling with Sherman’s corps, in the Bowman House. They then burned part of the town and cut the railroad connections with Vicksburg. Johnston’s evacuation of Jackson was a tragedy because he could, by late on the 14th, have had 11,000 troops at his disposal and by the morning of the 15th, another 4,000. The fall of the former Mississippi state capital was a blow to Confederate morale.
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C Saturday, May 14, 1864: Battle of Resaca, Georgia. On this day, Union and Confederate troops clash at Resaca, Georgia. This was one of the first engagements in a summer-long campaign by Union General William T. Sherman to capture the Confederate city of Atlanta. The spring of 1864 saw a determined effort by the Union to win the war through major offensives in both the eastern and western theaters. In the east, Union General Ulysses S. Grant took on Confederate General Robert E. Lee, while Sherman applied pressure on the Army of the Tennessee, under General Joseph Johnston, in the west.
The Atlanta campaign was dictated by the hilly terrain of northern Georgia. Sherman would try to outflank Johnston on one side, but Johnston would move to block him. Sherman tried the other side, and Johnston blocked again. Johnston was losing ground, but he was stalling Sherman’s advance, and fanning the discontent in the North as the election of 1864 loomed.
On May 9, part of Sherman’s army under James McPherson captured Snake Creek Gap. McPherson did not push further, however, because he ran into Confederates fortified at nearby Resaca.
The Union army would not assault Resaca until May 14, triggering two days of combat. On the first day, the Federal troops gained important ground but failed to break the Confederate lines. The second day also saw no result. But because the Confederates maintained their position and thwarted the Union offense, the Battle of Resaca was considered a tactical victory for the South.
In the days after the battle, Sherman sent McPherson’s men on another swing around Johnston’s left flank. When these troops crossed the Oostanaula River south of Johnston’s army, he had to withdraw further south. The armies inched closer to Atlanta.
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C+ By May 14, Gen. Joseph E. Johnston’s Confederate army was positioned north and west of Resaca, stretching four miles, with its left on the Oostanaula River and the right extending to the Conasauga. Camp Creek cut across most of Johnston’s front, creating an additional obstacle for the Federals. As Sherman’s forces marching from Snake Creek Gap paralleled Rebel lines, Sherman ordered attacks to keep the Rebels occupied while Sweeny’s division of the Sixteenth Corps crossed the Oostanaula four miles downstream from Resaca, beyond the Confederates’ left, to threaten the railroad.
Starting around 11:30 a.m. Yankees from the Maj. Gen John Schofield’s Twenty-third and Maj. Gen. Oliver O. Howard’s Fourth Corps attacked across rough terrain; Camp Creek, “with quicksand in places, and steep muddy banks,” proved a formidable obstacle indeed. Schofield’s two divisions charged and failed. One brigade of Brig. Gen. Henry Judah’s division never got past Camp Creek. The Fourteenth Corps divisions of Brig. Gen. Absalom Baird’s and Brig. Gen. Richard Johnson also charged, managing to cross the creek before withdrawing under heavy musketry and cannon fire. Brig. Gen. Jacob Cox’s division of Schofield’s corps entered the battle after Judah’s and was also thrown back.
On the Confederate line Maj. Gen. Pat Cleburne’s and Maj. Gen. Thomas Hindman’s divisions helped repel the attacks, but Maj. Gen. William Bate’s division bore the brunt of them.
The Federal assault on the Confederate center-right petered out around 3 p.m., having achieved nothing but casualties—at least 1,600 killed and wounded. Following their failed attacks, Thomas and Schofield ordered artillery to shell the Rebel works. After adding casualties from the bombardment, the Confederates probably lost between 400 and 500 men in the Camp Creek fighting on May 14.
May 15, 1864: The next morning, Lt. Gen. John B. Hood instructed his division commander Maj. Gen. Carter Stevenson to position a battery so as to bear on enemy artillery "annoying General Hindman’s line." Stevenson ordered Capt. Maximilian Van Den Corput’s “Cherokee Battery” of four Napoleons to be placed 20 yards in front of his entrenched infantry. Soldiers constructed an earthen lunette for the guns, but before they could connect it to their main line with rifle pits, Federals attacked the center-right of the Confederate line. They were repulsed elsewhere, but two Federal regiments of Brig. Gen. John Ward’s brigade stormed up to the Rebel earthworks. By then Van Den Corput’s infantry supports had run away and his troops "entered the embrasures, striking down and bayoneting the rebel gunners, many of whom defiantly stood by their guns till struck down."
The Northerners received heavy fire and withdrew, leaving the battery unmanned. Neither side could sortie forward to reclaim the battery. By 3 p.m. both sides resorted to heavy skirmishing and artillery dueling while the Confederate cannon sat in no-man’s land. “Come on—take those guns!” yelled the Southerners. “Come on and take ‘em yourselves!” came the Northerners’ reply. After dark, Brig. Gen. John Geary ordered troops to sneak forward, quietly dig through the earthwork, and with ropes drag the four guns back into Union lines. The mission was successful. While all this was taking place on Johnston’s right, Sweeny’s Yankee division crossed the Oostanaula below the Confederate left. Realizing he had been flanked, the Confederate commander ordered his troops to withdraw on the night of May 15-16.
Background: On May 5, Confederate Gen. Joseph E. Johnston ordered Brig. Gen. James Cantey’s small infantry brigade to Resaca, a small town along the Western & Atlantic on the north bank of the Oostanaula River, five and a half miles to the east of Snake Creek Gap. After digging earthworks to guard the railroad and wagon bridges, Cantey placed one regiment there and another, the 37th Mississippi, atop a treeless ridge known as the "bald hill." Johnston ordered a brigade of cavalry, Col. J. Warren Grigsby’s, to ride for Resaca on May 8.
Maj. Gen. James B. McPherson had his troops marching on the 9th with orders to strike the Rebels’ railroad at or near Resaca. When Grigsby’s troopers approached, the Federals fired, driving them back to the ridge line where the 37th Mississippi waited. A division of Federal infantry under Brig. Gen. Thomas Sweeny drove the Confederates across Camp Creek and back to Cantey’s main line. Sweeny’s troops occupied Bald Hill, and from there were able to see Resaca and the railroad bridge over the Oostanaula River.
McPherson had arrived, and instructed Sweeny’s division to hold Bald Hill while he sent other troops probing to the northeast for an approach to the railroad. But McPherson lost his nerve; worried that Johnston would send troops to drive him back, he ordered Sweeny back to Snake Creek Gap. The Union infantry withdrew, abandoning Bald Hill. When Sherman learned this, he was disappointed “beyond measure,” as he wrote to McPherson, telling him to dig in while he brought the rest of the army through Snake Creek Gap.
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May 14, 1864. Resaca, Georgia. Only the most ardent students of the Civil War can recite the events that occurred on the rocky, rolling Georgia landscape outside the small railroad town of Resaca that day. For scores of soldiers from Shelby County, however, what happened in ten minutes on that site 133 years ago would forever represent the real meaning of hell on earth. As we approach Memorial Day, and the ceremony rededicating the tablets containing the names of over three hundred men who perished in that war, perhaps it is appropriate to pause for a moment and remember.
The winter of 1863 in Tennessee and Kentucky had been the most brutal in memory. The Army of the Ohio, commanded by General John Schofield, wintered in that region. It contained 37 regiments, including the 113th and 118th regiments, Ohio Volunteer Infantry. The men had endured subzero temperatures and six months of quarter and half rations. Disease had decimated the ranks. The numbers for the 118th were typical. After leaving Lima, Ohio in the early fall of 1862 with 980 men, the unit reported 300 fit for duty by the first of May, 1864.
Dr. Albert Wilson, a physician in Sidney before the war, was a surgeon for the 113th. In a letter home dated January 14, 1864, he commented on the conditions: "We have been unpleasantly short of supplies of clothing and in fact the necessaries of life. I have been living in a tent all winter except that portion when we were in east Tennessee, and then we lived without shelters. But our poor horses and mules have been starving by the score ever since early fall."
It was therefore a tattered, but battle-tested Army of the Ohio that emerged from the mountains of Tennessee and entered the hills of north Georgia in late April. Its goals for the Spring of 1864 had been determined two months earlier in Cincinnati. There, General William Tecumseh Sherman and General Grant had met. Twenty-five years later, Sherman, when revisiting the spot, would remark to a friend: "Yonder began the campaign," he said. "He was to go for Lee and I was to go for Joe Johnston. That was his plan...It was the beginning of the end."
Johnston was General Joe Johnston, whom President Jefferson Davis had personally selected to defend Atlanta from the expected Union spring offensive in 1864. Johnston was known and respected by his men as a determined fighter. Sherman was just as resolute. "I am to know Joe Johnston, and to do as much damage to the resources of the enemy as possible."
Johnston dug in near Dalton, Georgia, with his 45,000 battle-tested men. His units embraced a ridge line known locally as Rocky Face Ridge. At its height, it extended 800 feet above the valley below. Johnston's men, ordered to defend the region and Atlanta at all costs, made the most of the natural surroundings. Dr. Albert Wilson later wrote to his brother, Henry, in Sidney: "The position held by the enemy was called Rocky Faced Ridge (a part of which is called Buzzard's Roost). It is exceedingly well calculated by nature for defensive operations...and could have been held by a very small force against a very large one."
Sherman sent the Army of the Tennessee, under the command of General McPherson, through Snake Creek Gap, an opening in the ridge, with orders to attack Johnston's flank and seize the railroad at Resaca. Speed was essential. Sherman's orders were specific: "Do not fail...to make the most of the opportunity by the most vigorous attack possible." McPherson moved quickly indeed, arriving at Resaca on May 9, which prompted Sherman to exclaim: "I've got Joe Johnston dead!"
Decisiveness turned to caution. McPherson decided not to attack at Resaca, even though his orders directed him to do otherwise. McPherson feared that Johnston would turn on him, cutting him off from the rest of Sherman's army. Sherman would later comment to his young general: "Well, Mac, you have missed the opportunity of your life." (Sherman's comment would soon be prophetic, as McPherson would later die in action at the Battle of Atlanta in July of that year.) McPherson's missed chance meant an opportunity for Johnston to reposition his men at Resaca- with defensive positions nearly as formidable as those at Dalton. Sherman gathered the rest of his forces, including the Army of the Ohio, at Resaca for what would be the first of a series of battles for the real prize: Atlanta.
As the light faded on May 13, the men of General Henry Judah's division of Ohio's 23rd Corps were in a state of near exhaustion. Judah's men, including the 118th, had just completed a punishing march of 100 miles in 5 days. Rumors spread among the men that five of their mates had died along the way, and that Judah had won a one hundred dollar bet by pushing his men to finish the march. There was also talk that Judah's drinking problem was becoming increasingly severe. As night fell, there was an uneasy quiet among the troops.
Company C of the 118th was composed mostly of young men recruited from the Shelby County town of Berlin, now known as Ft. Loramie. Company I contained many soldiers from Sidney, including Cassius Wilson, a brother of Dr. Albert Wilson. Luck would play a strange role in the fate of the men the next day. The regimental officers decided to leave Company I to guard supply trains in the rear, away from the hostilities. Company C was not destined to be as lucky.
Confidence in battlefield leadership is crucial for success, and there were problems here as well. Judah's actions had been questioned by his superior, General Schofield, but he decided to give Judah a last chance to redeem himself at Resaca. That decision would lead to the loss of many good men that day.
As dawn greeted the eastern sky, final battle plans were made. The main Union attack would be made at a right angle where the Rebel line turned to the east. Unfortunately, Judah never had the ground reconnoitered before the battle. Author Mike Klinger, in an article on the action at Resaca entitled Botched Union Attack, described the terrain the Ohio boys would have to cross: "The valley floor was nearly flat and several hundred yards wide. The creek bed was deep in spring runoff and in many places unfordable, The muddy banks were tangled with brush; jagged limestone rocks made the footing treacherous." The Confederate troops and their artillery on the opposing ridge had an open field of fire. It was a recipe for disaster.
At about noon, the Union commanders launched their ill-fated charge. Because of a delay by other federal units, the attack lacked the necessary coordination. Judah's field commanders sought his permission to halt and coordinate the attack with the troops to their left. Judah refused the request, and ordered the men to press forward.
Judah's division, on the right of the federal advance, entered the creek bottom virtually alone. Disaster struck with deadly suddenness. The Rebel fire poured in from straight ahead and to the left of the 118th. The steep bank made advancing next to impossible. Klinger described the action as follows: "With all hope of a cohesive attack shattered, Judah still refused to halt and re-form. He drove his division into that deadly valley. Those who reached the creek tried to hold out as best they could in waist-deep water and mud. Not only were they being slaughtered in appalling numbers, they were even losing the ability to fight back."
Compounding the problem was the fact that Judah failed to order his artillery into the action. Union gunners helplessly watched the slaughter below, and anxiously waited for word to commence firing. It never came. Across the rest of the Union line, fighting was just as furious, but the Federal attackers made better progress across the more level terrain. Lt. John Joyce of the 24th Kentucky later described the assault from his perspective: "We charged across an open field interspersed with dead trees that flung out their ghostly branches to welcome us to the shadows of death."
The 118th suffered the worst. In just ten minutes, the regiment had 116 causalities out of the 270 men who commenced the charge. Their casualty rate was greater than the units immortalized by Lord Tennyson in "The Charge of the Light Brigade." The Sidney Journal edition of May 27, 1864, reported that the regiment "suffered severely." Berlin and Cynthian Township soldiers George Baker, Joseph Beckman, and brothers James Clawson and Thomas Clawson never returned home. Capt. Stone, Lt. G. M. Thompson, Lt. A. O. Waucop, Sgt Major Ailes, and many others were among the wounded. Dr. Wilson treated the wounded after the battle. He anxiously inquired about brother Cassius, and was informed that his company had been ordered to guard duty, and, therefore, luckily missed the fight.
General Judah resigned shortly after the battle, due to 'illness'. He died within a few years of the end of the war. According to Klinger, Judah's gravestone was vandalized annually for years.
D Sunday May 14, 1865: A three-day Federal expedition from Brashear City to Ratliff’s Plantation, Louisiana, marked the day.
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FYI SGT Tiffanie G. SGT Mary G.CPL Ronald Keyes Jr SPC Michael Duricko, Ph.D MAJ Roland McDonald SSG Franklin BriantCPO William Glen (W.G.) Powell1stSgt Eugene Harless PO3 (Join to see)SGT John " Mac " McConnell LTC John Griscom LTC Thomas Tennant SPC Michael TerrellPO3 Steven SherrillSPC Maurice Evans SFC Ralph E Kelley LTC Trent Klug

Civil War 1864 - "Sherman Vs. Hood: Battles of Resaca to New Hope Church"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UjwhkPLTbGI

LTC Stephen F. great share and read. I am going with:
1863: Battle of Jackson Mississippi. Union Victory. On May 9, 1863, Gen. Joseph E. Johnston learned that two army corps from the Union Army of the Tennessee—the XV, under Maj. Gen. William T. Sherman, and the XVII, under Maj. Gen. James Birdseye McPherson

Grant continues his campaign in the West which culminates in the victory at Vicksburg splitting the Confederacy. His success in the West gets him appointed to overall Command and he moves east .