In the battle of the Wilderness General Grant's instructions to Sherman for his part in the general plan of combined operations, in the spring of 1864, directed him to move against Johnston's army, to break it up, and to get into the interior of the enemy's country as far as he could, inflicting all the damage he could against their war resources. Atlanta, eighty-five miles from Dalton, was Johnston's base. It was a large town at the junction of several railways of strategic importance. One leading through Dalton to Chattanooga, was the line of communications of both hostile armies; one to Virginia, by way of Danville, was the line of communication between Johnston and Lee; one through the heart of Georgia to the coast; and one to Montgomery, Alabama. After Johnston's army, Atlanta was obviously Sherman's next most important objective, and it was the most important place for Johnston to guard. General Sherman says, "Atlanta was known as the Gate-City of the South, was full of foundries, arsenals, and machine-shops, and I knew that its capture would be the death-knell of the Southern Confederacy."