Originally a Confederate training camp and staging area constructed in 1862, Fort Wayne consists of two separate earthworks placed several hundred yards apart. Strategically located, Fort Wayne sits on a high ridgeline overlooking Resaca and the Western and Atlantic Railroad bridge across the Oostanaul River, the site it was intended to protect. By May 1864, Confederates had heavily fortified the area around the earthworks and placed several batteries. The first artillery shots of the Battle of Resaca were fired from here at the advance elements of Major General James B. McPherson’s army on Bald Hill.
After General Joseph E. Johnston moved his army south of the Oostanaula River after the Battle of Resaca, the Federals occupied the earthwork. They strengthened the position by constructing a large redoubt encircled by a double line of trenches. A Federal garrison was stationed at Fort Wayne from May 1864 through the early stages of the Reconstruction period and was withdrawn in 1868.
In 2003, the Friends of Resaca and the Gordon County Commission acquired the 67 additional acres of the Resaca Battlefield that contain Fort Wayne. Though not currently open to the public, plans are underway to make the area part of a Gordon County Battlefield Park along with the 506 acres to the west acquired by the state in 2000.