The Confederate plan was avowedly to turn the Federal left and drive the Union army away from the Landing and against Owl Creek. By seizing the Landing, the Southerners could prevent Buell’s reinforcing Grant. But to accomplish this plan the greatest weight of the Confederate assault should have been concentrated on the Southerners’ right instead of being dispersed all across the battlefield.⁷⁰

As the sun went down behind the horizon, thousands of Confederate soldiers stood around the newly blossomed dogwood trees, while their muddy officers read to them General Albert Sidney Johnston’s message.⁷¹ The text of General Johnston’s message read as follows:

I have put you in motion to offer battle to the invaders of your country. With the resolution and disciplined valor becoming men fighting, as you are, for all worth living or dying for, you can but march to a decisive victory over the agrarian mercenaries sent to subjugate and despoil you of your liberties, property, and honor. Remember the precious stake involved; remember the dependence of your mothers, your wives, your sisters, and your children on the result; remember the fair, broad, abounding land, the happy homes, and the ties that would be desolated by your defeat.

The eyes and the hopes of eight millions of people rest upon you. You are expected to show yourselves worthy of your race and lineage; worthy of the women of the South, whose noble devotion in this war has never been exceeded in any time. With such incentives to brave deeds and with the trust that God is with us, your generals will lead you confidently to the combat, assured of success.⁷²

Strictly forbidden to light fires or make any kind of noise, forty thousand Confederate soldiers squatted, knelt, or laid down in the thick slime covering the entire area, talking quietly over General Johnston’s message and mulling over Sunday’s prospects. Some of the soldiers munched cold rations, but most of them went hungry. The rain had stopped during the afternoon, but most of the Confederates were still at least damp, and thick, slick brown Tennessee mud covered everything. As the soldiers tried to clean their muskets and shotguns, perhaps some of them remembered General Beauregard’s order to shoot low at the enemy’s legs to cause wounded men, who would have to be carried off the battlefield. It was a cheerful thought for the men to try and catch a little sleep with.

The Southerners could hear Union signal guns going off nearby. Federal bands kept the night air sparkling with their jaunty serenades. Finally there was quiet, and most of the exhausted soldiers drifted off to sleep.⁷³