Again it was the Southern army that attacked, although it was no surprise now.

Yet Beauregard and his generals were still sanguine of completing the victory.

Their scouts and skirmishers had failed to discover that the entire army of Buell also was now in front of them.
Bragg was gathering his division on the left to hurl it like a thunderbolt upon Grant's shattered brigades.

Hardee and the bishop-general were in the center, and Breckinridge led the right.

But as they moved forward to attack the Union troops came out to meet them.
Nelson had occupied the high ground between Lick and Owl Creeks, and his and the Southern troops met in a fierce clash shortly after dawn.
Beauregard, drawn by the firing at that point, and noticing the courage and tenacity with which the Northern troops held their ground, sending in volley after volley, divined at once that these were not the beaten troops of the day before, but new men.