After nightfall at Spring Hill, Confederate Gen. Edward Johnson's division moved into position on the left of Gen. William B. Bate's division after being ordered forward from the vicinity of Rutherford Creek by Gen. Benjamin F. Cheatham. Part of Gen. S.D. Lee's corps, Johnson's men approached the Columbia Turnpike, went into bivouac several hundred yards from the road, and lit campfires that many Federal soldiers saw as they marched north along the highway. Late that night, Confederate commander John Bell Hood became concerned that enemy troops were marching past his army, and Cheatham was ordered to place troops across the road, with Johnson's division assigned that responsibility. Johnson complained of being "loaned out," and only after prompting by a staff officer did he begin preparing his men to move. While the troops readied themselves, Johnson and Maj. Joseph Bostick rode toward the turnpike and found it empty, having just missed the trailing end of the last Federal division that had marched up from Columbia. This escape at Spring Hill led directly to the savage fighting the next day at Franklin.