Taking heavy fire from their front, as well as enfilading fire from their right, Judah’s men struggled through the mud. Their right had become disorganized early in the assault, and Judah had refused to delay his attack long enough to allow units from Maj. Gen. John Palmer’s XIV Corps to complete their deployment. As a consequence, Brig. Gen. Milo S. Hascall’s brigade of Judah’s division charged across the left of the XIV Corps, destroying both units’ formations and carrying many of Palmer’s men forward with them.

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With all hope of a cohesive attack shattered, Judah still refused to halt and re-form. He drove his division on into that deadly valley. They, made it to the creek bed, but could go no farther. Those who reached the creek tried to hold out as best they could. In waist-deep water and mud, they kept up what fire they could manage, but the mud and water rapidly disabled many of their rifles. Not only were they being slaughtered in appalling numbers, they were even losing the ability to fight back.

Compounding the division’s problems, Judah had failed to bring his artillery into action. Division gunners on the high ground in the rear stood frustrated beside their guns, looking to their officers for word to fire. They had to stand idle and watch as the regiments in the valley below were crisply decimated by sharpshooting Rebels.

For many of the men in Judah’s ill-fated division, the headlong charge at Resaca would be etched forever in their memories. Resaca would always be ‘their battle!’ Forty-seven years later, Ebenezer Davis of the 118th Ohio Volunteers, when asked about the most important event in his service, would respond, ‘The terrible charge at Resaca, insane, useless charge, ordered by an intoxicated officer.’

Palmer’s corps attacking to Judah’s right also suffered from his incompetence. A high percentage of Palmer’s casualties were in the brigades carried forward into battle by Judah’s disorganized men. On the left, with competent leadership, Cox’s division fared better, managing to take the first line of Confederate works. Theodore Tracie of the 19th Ohio Artillery watched this attack develop. He later wrote: ‘There was something horrible in being compelled to look upon this thrilling scene without being able to participate in it….We saw our gallant fellows charge the enemy rifle pits only to fall back under a withering fire, marking their pathway with dead and dying.’

Cox took the first Rebel entrenchments, but once there he was not certain he could hold them. Attempting to force the second line, he was bloodily repulsed. Cox’s men sheltered on the reverse of the captured Rebel trench, grimly holding on to what they had paid for so dearly. Five hundred and sixty-two men of their division lay dead or wounded around them while, on their right, Judah’s division had lost 600 men. (In a mere 10 minutes, the 118th Ohio lost 116 of 300 attackers in its number.)

The Confederates continued to pour a heavy fire into Cox’s defenses. The fighting had pulled the Union left toward the center and rendered that flank unprotected. Thomas recognized the danger and pulled Maj. Gen. Joseph Hooker’s corps out of the center and sent it hastening to support Howard on the Union left. Meanwhile, Johnston, a master counterpuncher, had also seen the flaw in the Federal lines. He sent Maj. Gen. John Bell Hood marching with two full divisions and four additional brigades to the vulnerable spot. Hood’s men struck Stanley’s division a crushing blow on the Union flank.

Stanley’s men, stunned by the unexpected, savage assault, threw down their weapons and fled from the scene. Stanley later reported that his men ‘did the best they could….they got out of the way with such order as troops can hurrying through a thick brush.’ The infantry’s precipitous retreat left the 5th Indiana Battery alone to try and stem the Confederate attack. The Hoosier gunners stood their ground, doubleshotting canister at a killing range of 50 yards. Rebel momentum stalled.

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