On May 5, Confederate Gen. Joseph E. Johnston ordered Brig. Gen. James Cantey’s infantry brigade to Resaca, a hamlet along the Western & Atlantic Railroad on the north bank of the Oostanaula River, five and a half miles east of Snake Creek Gap. Canty fortified the railroad and wagon bridges, and placed the 37th Mississippi atop a treeless ridge known as the "Bald Hill." Johnston bolstered this force on May 8, with Col. J. Warren Grigsby’s brigade of cavalry. That day, Sherman had attacked Johnston on Rocky Face Ridge 17 miles to the north, and Johnston needed the Resaca bridges to supply his army, or to provide a safe route of retreat toward Atlanta.
Major General James B. McPherson had his troops marching on May 9 with orders to strike the railroad at Resaca and to cut off Johnston. When Grigsby’s troopers approached, the Federals drove them back to the ridgeline where the 37th Mississippi waited. A division of Federal infantry under Brig. Gen. Thomas Sweeny drove the Confederates across Camp Creek and back to Cantey’s mainline. Sweeny’s troops occupied Bald Hill and from there could see Resaca and the railroad bridge over the Oostanaula.
