Once a vital pioneer trace, the road through Dug Gap passed through Dalton on its way to the Western and Atlantic Railroad. The Federal Army failed to capture the gap on February 25, 1864, and May 8, 1864.
The February 1864 fighting, relatively minor, occurred after General Joseph E. Johnston sent two of his divisions to the Trans-Mississippi Department to reinforce Confederate forces against the Federal offensive. Union Major General George Thomas probed Johnston’s line, hoping to exploit the weakened Confederate army.
The major fighting at Dug Gap occurred on May 7-12, 1864, when Federal troops under the command of Brigadier General John W. Geary engaged in a feint assault against the well-entrenched Confederates on the precarious and easily defended mountainside. The Federals’ attack was intended to draw Confederate attention away from Major General James B. McPherson’s flanking movement through Snake Creek Gap to the outskirts of Resaca. The movement was designed to place his army in a position to block the Confederate line of retreat. During the fighting, the Confederate defenders launched boulders from the stone breastworks on top of the attacking Union soldiers.
After McPherson failed to take Resaca on May 9, 1864, Major General William T. Sherman began a generalized withdrawal from the outskirts of Dalton to join McPherson at Resaca. When Johnston discovered the Federal Army’s move, he retired south to Resaca and arrived first.
The Dug Gap Battlefield Park has a small parking area directly off Walnut Avenue. A path from the parking area leads to almost 1,500 feet of Confederate breastworks constructed of large boulders where visitors can view the precarious conditions faced by the attacking soldiers from General Geary’s division.