After sunset, Confederate plans began to quietly fall apart. Hood appeared confident that Forrest held the pike north of Spring Hill and was therefore not unduly concerned with cutting the pike south of town. Hood’s orders suggest an unfamiliarity with the terrain, and division commanders began to receive conflicting orders from Hood and Cheatham. While Cheatham’s orders were aimed at an assault on Spring Hill to the north, Hood continued to issue orders orienting movements toward the pike to the west. Hood’s men had made a long and exhausting march, they were unfamiliar with the terrain, and it was pitch dark. Tired and confused, the Confederate army sat down for the night, cooked supper, and went to sleep. John Bell Hood later said that this movement on Spring Hill had been “the best move in my career as a soldier… I was thus destined to behold to naught.”