midnight
Soon Deck and his relatives and friends retired , only the pickets being kept awake . In spite of his adventures , the major slumbered soundly , and did not arise until the Sabbath dawn was well advanced . It was felt by both sides that the morrow would tell the tale of defeat or victory , and all night long Generals Rosecrans and Bragg were busy arranging their plans . The former could get no reënforcements worth mentioning ; but to the Army of Tennessee were now added reënforcements under General Longstreet , who arrived shortly before midnight , to assume personal charge of the corps temporarily commanded by Hood . A rough estimate of the troops on both sides at this time places the number of Unionists at fifty-five thousand , as against nearly seventy thousand Confederates . But what they lacked in numbers , the Army of the Cumberland made up in position , for they occupied higher ground than their opponents -- something of great strategic importance , as we will soon see . It must be confessed that General Rosecrans 's troops were all but exhausted .