American Civil War 150: Battle of Resaca, Georgia

The Atlanta Campaign opens with a bang -- William Tecumseh Sherman's offensive collides with Joseph Eggleston Johnston's defenses -- on this date, 150 years ago. Intense fighting results in casualties ranging from about 5,000 to 7,500 -- all of them American.

I acquired a copy of this "casualty notice" from the US National Archives recently. Ira Barnes Slack, Company I, 85th Indiana Infantry Regiment, was the first husband of Ruthann Priscilla Wheeler, my great great grandmother (her second husband was another Union soldier, Samuel France, Company E, 31st Indiana).

Field Hospital, 2nd Division, 20th Army Corps, Near Resaca, Georgia:

"I have to inform you that Private Ira B. Slack . . . died in this Hospital on 16th inst[ant -- i.e., 16th May 1864]. . . Wounds rec'd in battle of 15th May."

To add insult to death, the assistant surgeon reports: "No effects." 

Meaning, either his body was so mangled that nothing of material worth was retrievable, or anything retrievable was stripped from his person rather than sent to his family in Indiana. 

To boot, any record of his burial site is apparently gone -- his remains either never made the transfer from the battlefield field hospital to a national cemetery, or his body was later misidentified in the process. I'll keep looking.

Ira B. Slack was thirty years old when he died, leaving behind his thirty year old wife and two living children, both younger than ten.  

If you have any additional information as to the possible whereabouts of the remains of Ira B. Slack, please leave a comment or email me at efrance23@gmail.com