By early May 1864, after wintering around Dalton, Georgia, Confederate General Joseph E. Johnston's approximately 50,000-man Army of Tennessee was prepared for battle on Rocky Face Ridge, where one of Johnston's defensive necessities was protecting the Western & Atlantic Railroad south toward Atlanta. Meanwhile, Union Major General William T. Sherman, commanding over 100,000 men in and near Chattanooga, began moving his three combined armies south with the goals of destroying Johnston's army, crippling Confederate war-making capacity in the region, and capturing Atlanta. Instead of making a major frontal attack against Johnston's strong positions at Dalton, Sherman ordered the Army of the Tennessee under Union Major General James B. McPherson to march southwest of Dalton through Snake Creek Gap, a route discovered by Federal reconnaissance over the winter. Sherman hoped McPherson would cut the Confederate rail line at Resaca near the gap's southern end and help place major portions of the larger Union force on either side of the Confederate army at Dalton, forcing it to abandon the city and retreat into open country with a reduced capacity for resupply. While Sherman's other two armies occupied Confederates on Rocky Face Ridge, McPherson led his 24,000-man army toward Snake Creek Gap, and Private Thomas W. Moffatt of the 12th Illinois Volunteer Infantry Regiment recalled the men sloshing over the stones and water of Snake Creek on the flat bed of the stream. McPherson's troops reached the north end of the gap on May 8, found it undefended, and encountered only a small number of Confederate cavalrymen at its southern end. After noon on May 9, McPherson informed Sherman that his troops were within two miles of Resaca, but his army soon encountered about 4,000 Confederates under Brigadier General James Cantey entrenched near Resaca. Although McPherson greatly outnumbered them, he had limited supplies and no cavalry to scout for a possible enemy flank attack, so he withdrew to the safety of Snake Creek Gap. Johnston's failure to guard the gap adequately, and his cavalry's failure to notify him sooner of the Federal flanking movement, could have brought disaster to the Confederates. Sherman then pushed the bulk of his armies through Snake Creek Gap, Johnston withdrew south from Dalton to where reinforcements awaited, and both commanders prepared for the first major battle of the Atlanta Campaign at Resaca on May 14 and 15, 1864.