His memory was flooded with recollections of the little town, every house and face of which he knew.
And so the Confederates were coming north again with a great army.
Shiloh had been far from crushing them in the west.

The letter had been written before the Second Manassas, and that and Lee's great fight against odds at Antietam would certainly arouse in them the wish for like achievements.

He inferred that since the armies in the east were exhausted, the great field for action would be for a while, in the west, and he was seized with an intense longing for that region which was his own.
It was not coincidence, but the need for men that made Dick's wish come true almost at once.

A few hours after he received his letter Colonel Winchester found him sitting in the lobby of the hotel in which Dick had twice talked with the contractor.

But the boy was alone this time, and as Colonel Winchester sat down beside him he said: "Dick, the capital has received alarming news from Kentucky.