Meanwhile, Confederate troops began aligning for an attack. The brigades of Slemons and Colonel Thomas H. McCray aligned on Pilot Knob, and Brigadier General William L. Cabell's brigade held the gap between Pilot Knob and Shepherd Mountain. Brigadier General John B. Clark Jr.'s brigade was on Shepherd Mountain, and Colonel Thomas R. Freeman's brigade and Slayback's Missouri Cavalry Battalion were north of Shepherd Mountain. Colonel Archibald S. Dobbins's brigade was also north of the town, in a position to block a Union retreat. Price's plan called for concurrent attacks. The modern historian Albert E. Castel placed Confederate strength in the two divisions of Marmaduke and Fagan at about 8,700 men, while the historian Kyle Sinisi estimated that Price had about 4,700 men available to attack the fort with, after detaching 20 percent of his force to hold the dismounted attackers's horses. Fagan and Marmaduke had supported the idea of a frontal attack, expecting the fort to fall quickly; Price's chief engineer had instead suggested that artillery should be placed on top of Shepherd Mountain and used to bombard Fort Davidson into submission.