The stand of the battery was still in jeopardy. Rebel soldiers began lapping around them on both flanks. Though in danger of being surrounded, the Indianians managed to gouge huge holes in the Rebel lines. Meanwhile, Hooker’s veterans, spurred by the sound of battle, came pounding to the battery’s aid, their massed musketry helping to stop the Confederate onslaught. Under the concentrated Federal fire, the Southern troops began to recoil. Their officers scrambled to re-form them for a second attack, but darkness stopped their hopes.

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The heavy fighting of the day had slowed now to desultory picket fire. Still, Johnston thought he controlled the field, and determined to send Hood against the Federal left the next morning.

Though most of the Federal casualties had fallen on the Union left, most of the Yankees’ success had come on their right. Heavy skirmishing by infantry and dueling by the artillery had continued all along the line. Rebel skirmishers who covered the Resaca road where it bridged Camp Creek showed a momentary weakness, and the Union 12th Missouri and other XV Corps units forced their way across the bridge and dug in on a hill overlooking the railroad, within the reach of Union guns. Their position now threatened Polk’s advance corps on the Confederate left.

McPherson, recognizing the Union gains, hurried several more brigades of Maj. Gen. John Logan’s XV Corps across the creek to establish a bridgehead against Polk. General Cox later observed, ‘The Confederates under Polk, in their advanced position on our extreme right, were a good deal weakened in morale by the knowledge that the national troops had thus made a good foothold in their flank.’ The combination of shaken morale and determined Union attacks drove Polk back and, though he was able to re-establish his line, McPherson still held the high ground. When Union artillery arrived, it would be in position to shell Johnston’s pontoon bridges in his rear.

Recognizing the danger, Polk sent his men forward to try to regain the lost ground. He succeeded in adding to the casualty lists, nothing more. That night, Johnston had a new military road cut through and moved his bridges out of the range of the Yankee guns. At the same time, Sherman had sent Brig. Gen. Thomas Sweeny’s division on a march to force a crossing of the Oostanaula River south of Resaca and cut off the Rebel line of retreat.

At Lay’s Ferry, Sweeny managed to drive off the Confederate cavalry and push across the river in pontoon boats. But shortly after getting into position, Sweeny abruptly ordered his men to fall back across the river- reports had reached him that a large Confederate force had crossed the river between him and Sherman’s main force. Fearing entrapment-one of his men called their new position ‘an invitation to Andersonville’-he pulled back and informed Sherman of the move. The report turned out to be false, but Sweeny’s incursion had alarmed Johnston enough for him to send a full division to block any further Federal moves. Johnston also cancelled his proposed attack on the Federal left and turned his attention to the threat at Lay’s Ferry.

On the morning of May 15, the blue-clad infantry on the Union left rolled forward in another of the wasteful charges that typified the fighting at Resaca. A four-gun Georgia battery was positioned on a spur of land about 80 yards in front of the main Confederate works. As the Union infantry advanced, they could see Southern soldiers busily throwing up earthworks around the battery. The battery was in position to enfilade the attacking line; Maj. Gen. Daniel Butterfield’s division of Hooker’s corps was ordered to take it. Under heavy firing from the battery and the main Rebel line, Butterfield’s men impetuously rushed forward and took shelter on the reverse side of the fort’s earthen parapet.

Future President Benjamin Harrison, then a colonel in the 70th Indiana, noticed the battery’s infantry support breaking. With a wild yell, he led an attack over the walls into the battery. In the hand-to-hand brawl that followed, all but five of the battery’s gunners were killed, wounded or captured. It was the only success of the attack. Fire from the main Rebel line soon forced the Yankees out of the fort, leaving the guns under fire in no man’s land. That night, under cover of total darkness, the Hoosiers tore down the fort’s walls and dragged the guns back into their own lines with ropes.

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