Resaca Civil War Resources Preservation Plan Gordon and Whitfield Counties, Georgia

"The Civil War Sites Study Act" was passed by Congress on November 28, 1990, resulting in the establishment of the Civil War Sites Advisory Commission. Over a two-year period, the national commission set out to identify significant Civil War sites, assess their condition, and recommend alternatives to preserve and interpret them. A result of this effort was the Commission's "Report on the Nation's Civil War Battlefields," submitted to Congress in 1994. The report focuses on 384 sites identified as the principal battles of the war. One of those identified is the Battle of Resaca, a two-day conflict fought to the north and west of the small north Georgia community of Resaca. Resaca is also one of twenty-five priority sites listed by the Department of the Interior's American Battlefield Protection Program. The American Battlefield Protection Program (ABPP) was established in July 1990 by then Secretary of the Interior Manuel Lujan. The program was established to foster stewardship and public education and to support partnerships among state, local, and private entities. The Resaca Civil War Resources Preservation Plan has been funded through a cooperative agreement between the ABPP and the Historic Preservation Division (HPD) of the Georgia Department of Natural Resources. Throughout the planning process, The Jaeger Company worked closely with HPD, the National Park Service, the Georgia Civil War Commission, and the Resaca Plan Steering Committee. The mandate for this plan is clear- throughout the entire United States, more than one-third of all principal Civil War battlefields have either been lost or are barely surviving. The impact of this loss on our national heritage is staggering. The Civil War is perhaps the most significant event in our nation's history - in terms of loss of life and in terms of the sweeping changes it effected - and it is critical that attempts are made now to save what is left of its material culture. In Resaca, we are fortunate to have several portions of the site that remain intact, but we must act now to ensure that these areas are preserved for future generations. The Resaca Civil War Resources Preservation Plan lays the groundwork for achieving this goal.