Jarvis sat by approvingly, taking an occasional bite or drink with them.
Meanwhile they gathered valuable information from him.

A Northern commander named Garfield had defeated the Southern forces under Humphrey Marshall in a smart little battle at a place called Middle Creek.

Dick knew this Humphrey Marshall well.

He lived at Louisville and was a great friend of his uncle, Colonel Kenton.

He had been a brilliant and daring cavalry officer in the Mexican War, doing great deeds at Buena Vista, but now he was elderly and so enormously stout that he lacked efficiency.
Jarvis added that after their defeat at Middle Creek the Southerners had gathered their forces on or near the Cumberland River about Mill Spring and that they had ten thousand men.