After nightfall, Confederate Gen. Edward Johnson’s division began moving into position on the left of Gen. William B. Bate’s division. Johnson, whose unit was part of Gen. S.D. Lee’s corps, had been ordered forward from the vicinity of Rutherford Creek by Gen. Benjamin F. Cheatham. On approaching the Columbia Turnpike, Johnson’s men went into bivouac several hundred yards from the road and lit campfires—fires that many Federal soldiers saw as they marched north along the highway.
