Gen. William T. Sherman’s Atlanta campaign was bad news for the Confederacy in 1864. But almost 150 years later, it’s good news for Georgia’s economy.

With Gov. Sonny Perdue’s final approval of $3 million in bonds last month, local and state officials believe the development of a Resaca Battlefield park near the Gordon-Whitfield county line is secured.

The facility will become a clearinghouse of Civil War information, and be complete before an influx in heritage tourists expected in 2011, the 150th anniversary of the war’s beginning.

Groundbreaking on the visitors center is expected late this summer.

“The Resaca battle was the beginning of the end of the Confederacy,” said John Culpepper, chairman of the Georgia Civil War Commission and Chickamauga city manager. “The war ended in Georgia.”

Tourism is the second largest industry in Georgia, and historic tourism is steadily becoming a larger part of that. Leaders said they hope transforming the battlefield — conveniently located just off Interstate 75 — can attract and direct Civil War buffs along in the footsteps of Gen. Sherman and to sites throughout the state.

Most of the initial state funding for the project in last year’s budget was re-directed to other projects, stalling construction of the visitors center, but the bonds approved by Gov. Perdue last month already were being sold last week, said Rep. John Meadows, R-Calhoun.

“It’s an awfully good project — good for the state of Georgia and the whole Southeast,” he said. “It’s just an economic boon.”

And now with state money secure, it’s time for the local communities to finish the mission with supplemental funds.

Ken Padgett, president of the nonprofit group Friends of Resaca Battlefield, said his organization has secured a $10,000 grant from the Calhoun-Gordon County Community Foundation for site development. The money will be directed to the Department of Natural Resources, the state agency in charge of transforming the 500-acre site.

Uncertainty in state money threatened the grant, Mr. Padgett said.

“We have until October to spend that money,” he said. “If the governor had not signed (the bonds), we would likely have re-routed the money.”

Mr. Padgett said the organization also will help the community raise $500,000 for park furnishings, such as benches and fountains.

“(Fundraising) plans in the next month are really going to gear up and go,” he said.

To complement the state’s battlefield preservation project, the nonprofit group and Gordon County continue a preservation effort to buy and plan to develop land near what is considered the Fort Wayne part of the battlefield, where Mr. Padgett said the first shots of the battle were fired.

The state Department of Transportation budget includes $200,000 to develop the land by blazing interpretive trails and an entrance.

“We hope to have it opened to the public before the state opens the battlefield,” he said. “They’ll be in a bird’s eye view of each other. They’ll both complement each other.”

The two sites represent only about 20 percent of the area in which the May 1864 clash took place, Mr. Padgett said, with the rest held by private owners.

The Fort Wayne project should be finished by the end of 2009, he said.

The state is projected to finish the visitors center within 18 months of receiving the $3 million. The next phase of the development, which includes interpretive trails, might require more money from the state Legislature next session and may not be completed until the end of 2010, Mr. Padgett said.

Meanwhile, Mr. Culpepper said Civil War commissions in the region are banding together to promote their areas for the 150th anniversary. He said a tri-state committee of Georgia, Tennessee and Alabama preservationists are pooling funds to buy billboards, fliers and special offers to advertise sites already open to the public.

“We need to promote more of what we have now, and we’re doing that,” Mr. Culpepper said.