The city was crowded with an army and those who supply it and live by it, and it was a center of vivid activity.

Dick had letters from his mother and he also heard in a roundabout way that Colonel Kenton had gone through the battle of Perryville uninjured and was now with Bragg at Chattanooga.
But the boys soon heard that despite the winter there was great activity in the Southern camp.

Undismayed by their loss of Kentucky, the Southern generals meant to fight Rosecrans in Tennessee.

The Confederacy had not been cheered by Lee's withdrawal at Antietam and Bragg's retreat at Perryville, and meant to strike a heavy blow for new prestige.

The whole Confederate army, they soon heard, had moved forward to Murfreesborough, where it was waiting, while Forrest and Morgan, the famous cavalry leaders, were off on great raids.
It was this absence of Forrest and Morgan with the best of the cavalry that put it into the mind of Rosecrans to attack at once.