Oak tree sapling, dead or alive?

Hi Folks

I have an Oak tree sapling, well i call it that but its about 14 years old although its only about 24" tall still. It was doing well and i moved it on the back end of last year to another spot. Unfortunately i neglected to keep a keen eye on it and it shed all its leaves and now looks pretty dreadful. I decided to move it back to its original spot, but upon digging it back up the branches look all but dead, with no green inside although some of them are still flexible and not completely dried out. The root system is showing some signs of growing new shoots so my question is; will the Oak tree likely survive and is there anything i can do to help it along. Should i cut off the whole top section of the tree? will that stimulate regeneration of sorts? any advice gratefully received.

 

If it is 14 years old but only 2' tall, if there is any life in it, it could be a good candidate for bonsai. I would probably put it in a pot and make sure it doesn't dry out. If there are no green buds by early June I'd discard it.
Oak trees are very easy to grow from acorns so you could start a new one in the autumn if you know where there are any oak trees. Gather a few acorns as they fall and leave in damp compost somewhere cool and rodent free. In early spring they will put down roots then start to shoot.