Monteagle stood at an important crossroads in the southern Cumberland Mountains, where roads and railroads crossed rugged terrain. In the summer of 1862, Union and Confederate forces raced for advantage along these transportation corridors. In August, Confederate Gen. Braxton Bragg marched his army north from Chattanooga to invade Kentucky. Union Gen. Don Carlos Buell deployed his army throughout Franklin, Marion, and Grundy counties and established his headquarters west of Monteagle in Franklin County, along the Nashville & Chattanooga Railroad at Decherd. After learning that Bragg was moving north, Buell ordered his commanders to stop the Confederates while they were in the mountains. On August 22, he told Gen. George Thomas that an advance to Altamont might thwart Bragg, but that moving in the mountains with supply trains was the great difficulty. Thomas, reporting from Altamont, replied that it would be as difficult for Union forces to march across the mountains to Sequatchie Valley as for the Confederates to come to Altamont, and he did not advise concentrating there except for battle or for an advance into East Tennessee. Conflicting reports from commanders in the three counties left Buell uncertain how to respond. On August 23, he ordered forces from Jasper, McMinnville, and Tracy City to concentrate at Altamont, but it was too late. Bragg's army marched north and east to the Kentucky border without significant opposition before Federal forces had crossed the rutted, difficult roads.