A giant oak at the Resaca battlefield in NW Georgia was a thing of beauty. Now the witness tree is gone, a victim of time and a storm

Tree in better days, after storm, reduced to stump, a writing in the wood (Friends of Resaca)

An imposing witness tree that greeted visitors to Resaca Battlefield Historic Site in northwest Georgia is gone, lost to weather and old age.

Ken Padgett with the Friends of Resaca said the oak was only about 10 years old during the May 13-15, 1864, Battle of Resaca, the second-bloodiest of the Atlanta Campaign. A Georgia Department of Natural Resources employee performed a drilling of the tree in about 2014 and came up with the estimate, he said.

The friends group recently posted photos of the stump and said a storm last year finished off the oak, which was showing signs of decay.

“She was a beautiful tree,” one Facebook commenter said. “The field looked bare yesterday without her, even though it needed to be done.”

Before it was recently cut up and hauled away, portions of the tree were propped up and it was a safety risk to the public, according to Tony Patton of the friends group.

Much of the western part of the battlefield is contained within the park, which is bordered by Interstate 75.

The spot where the tree was located is approximately where the Union’s 20th Corps and the 14th Corps overlapped, said Patton (in Friends of Resaca photo).

Federal units attacked the Confederate line on May 14, and Hooker’s 20th Corps supported Palmer’s 14th Corps in the Camp Creek area near the witness tree. (See American Battlefield Trust map below for details on units)

The once-proud oak had broken limbs after a 2022 storm (Friends of Resaca)

Patton said it’s difficult to pin down specific units that attacked near the oak but the 102^nd Illinois of the 20^th Corps was there a short time before it was “pulled out and sent around to the north end of the battlefield to help repel the Confederate attack on the afternoon of the 14th.” The regiment fought through the end of the Atlanta Campaign and was in combat in South Carolina and North Carolina at war's end.

Carlin’s brigade within the 14^th Corps was in that part of the field much of the day. 

There are impressive accounts of the 21^st  Wisconsin Infantry, which had recruits from the Oneida tribe, according to Patton.

The Federal assault on the Confederate right-center (Cleburne, Bate and Hindman) petered out around 3 p.m., “having achieved nothing but casualties,” according to the American Battlefield Trust.

Fighting continued the next day but the battle proved to be inconclusive.

There was one result: The South’s Joseph E. Johnston was forced to retreat from the field due to a wide flanking maneuver by William T. Sherman.

Resaca Battlefield Historic Site in Gordon County contains significant remnants of Rebel earthworks, including an impressive length of trenches visible on the Red Battlefield Trail (Signs point out metal detectors are banned and artifacts cannot be removed).

Patton said a witness tree on the Blue Battlefield Trail survives.

Northwest Georgia is replete with Civil War sites, and the Resaca area includes the park, a Confederate cemetery in the town, Fort Wayne and an annual battle reenactment on a separate property.

“The attendance is great by both local recreation users and history buffs alike,” Padgett said of the historic site a few years back. “We have hosted many tour groups from around the South and had many national visitors.”

(Note: To see where the witness tree was located at Resaca Battlefield Historic Site, click the map and see the red arrow west of River Battlefield Trail)

Witness trees still can be found in many Civil War battlefields, including Gettysburg and Manassas, where the park suggests soldiers got under the leaves for shade or rested by leaning on a trunk.

The National Park Service also has a protection program at historic sites in the Washington, D.C., area, including the White House and National Mall.

The witness flora “provide essential context and markers on battlefields, allowing us to better identify where parts of chaotic battles occurred,” says the American Battlefield Trust. “The trees, like the land we save, have seen things we cannot imagine, and bear the marks of those events.”

Patton puts the situation at Resaca succinctly:

”It's very tragic that another piece of history is gone.”