d that Buell with his army should in the
morning attack on the left, and Grant's immediate command should attack
on the right. Buell formed Nelson's division about two hundred yards in
front of the reserve artillery, with his left near the river, facing
south. Crittenden, when he arrived, was placed in rear of Nelson, half a
mile from the landing, where his command stood at arms all night. At
eleven o'clock a heavy rain began to pour. All the National troops and
most of the Confederate lay on the ground without shelter. The gunboats
every fifteen minutes through the night fired a shell over the woods, to
explode far inland and banish sleep.

Early Monday morning, Nelson on the extreme left, on the Hamburg road,
and Lewis Wallace on the extreme right, by Snake Creek, moved to the
attack. Beauregard knew then that Buell had arrived and the junction of
the two National armies had been effected. The opening of the battle
proclaimed what the conclusion would be.

Nelson moved in line with Ammen's brigade on the left, Bruce's in the
centre, and Hazen's on the right, his left extending a little beyond the
Hamburg road towards the river. A remnant of Gladden's brigade, between
two and three hundred men, under Colonel Deas, some fragments of some of
the regiments of Jackson's brigade, with some regiments that had strayed
from their proper commands, the Fourth Kentucky from Trabue's brigade,
the First Tennessee from Stephens' brigade, the One Hundred and
Fifty-fourth Tennessee from General B.R. Johnson's brigade, and the
Crescent Regiment from Pond's brigade, scattered about, were roused by
Nelson's advance and retired before it. At six o'clock Nelson was halted
by Buell to allow Crittenden's division to complete its deployment and
form on Nelson's right. Nelson again advanced. General Withers
meanwhile had thrown the heterogeneous fragments into an organized
force, added Chalmers' brigade to it, and strengthened it by the
addition of three batteries. Nelson, when he again advanced, came upon
this consolidated line, which drove him back. Nelson was without
artillery. His batteries, unable to get through the soft mud which the
infantry traversed, remained behind at Savannah. General Buell sent to
his aid Mendenhall's battery from Crittenden's division. The rapid and
accurate fire of Mendenhall's guns silenced the central opposing
battery. Hazen's brigade charged upon it, captured the guns and drove in
retreat the cannoneers and t