In late August 1862, Confederate General Braxton Bragg began the Confederate Heartland Offensive, which culminated in the Battle of Perryville, Kentucky, on October 8, 1862. Bragg intended to recruit troops and support in Kentucky and to divert the Union Army's attention from Chattanooga and Vicksburg, Mississippi. Union Major General Don Carlos Buell's army was in control of most of southeastern Tennessee. Buell decided to deploy his force to stop Bragg from marching on Nashville, Tennessee. Union Major General George H. Thomas held McMinnville with two divisions. Three other divisions were to the south at Altamont, Tennessee, where they could maneuver to concentrate at various points to block Bragg's routes to Nashville, although the terrain was rugged. Thomas thought that the army should concentrate at McMinnville, in part because the railroad provided a line of supply and in part because it would be easy for Bragg to bypass Altamont, which he did after a successful diversionary attack there by Confederate Colonel Joseph Wheeler's cavalry. After Buell decided to withdraw all of his forces to Murfreesboro, Tennessee and then to Nashville to protect against Bragg's offensive, he had to race north with his army when he realized Bragg's actual objective was Kentucky. After the Battle of Perryville, as Bragg discovered that few recruits and little support had been found for the Confederate cause in Kentucky, he withdrew to Murfreesboro in the face of growing Union forces and extended.