Whatever the source of the decision, had Leslie deployed his men in a less vulnerable fashion, he might have still carried the battle. Leslie planned an envelopment. He positioned his cavalry on both flanks and his infantry in the center. The infantry would engage the English center and the cavalry would turn the flanks and surround the enemy. It was an excellent plan in theory, but he moved his men in daylight, allowing Cromwell to see what he had in mind.

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The terrain was not friendly to Leslie's new position. A stream called Brox Burn ran in front of the hill. It was fordable, though swollen from rain, but its upper banks were steep and presented a formidable obstacle. Leslie's left flank, wedged between the hill and the burn, had no room to maneuver or to assist the rest of the army in an emergency. Cromwell realized that 'guns might have fair play at their left wing while we were fighting their right.'

The stream banks became lower as the burn approached the ocean. A cottage, Broxmouth House, and a crossing over the burn lay at this end, and there was enough room between the cottage and the sea for troop movements. Cromwell saw that the Scottish right flank was most vulnerable there, and could be turned.

With the hill to their backs, the Scots' ability to retreat and re-form was also limited. Recognizing that too, Cromwell noted that 'if we beat their right wing, we hazarded their whole army, for they would be all in confusion, in regard [to the fact that] they had not great ground to traverse their regiments between the mountain [Doon Hill] and the clough [Brox Burn)]'

In the evening, two troops of Scottish lancers attacked Broxmouth House, drove off the English who occupied it and brought in some prisoners for interrogation. A one-armed soldier was brought before Leslie.

Leslie asked, 'Do you intend to fight?'

The soldier replied, 'What do you think we are here for?'

'Soldier, how do you intend to fight when you have shipped half of your men and all your great guns?'

'Sir,' the soldier replied, 'if you please to draw your army to the foot of the hill, you shall find both men and great guns also.'

The Scottish attack was scheduled to begin at dawn on Tuesday, September 3. Leslie expected the battle to be over early. Ironically, he would prove to be right.

Still brimming with confidence, the Scots considered offering Cromwell terms of surrender. Some opted for demanding that the English soldiers merely abandon their arms and ammunition. Others, one of the Scots later wrote, 'had thought of sending those they should take prisoners beyond the sea.'

Cromwell knew Leslie would not expect an attack, so he maintained that advantage by maneuvering at night. Wind and rain helped to mask the noise of his deployment. Cromwell, wrote an eyewitness, 'rid all the night…upon a little Scots nag, biting his lip till the blood ran down his chin without his perceiving it, his thoughts being busily employed to be ready for the action now in hand.'

Despite Cromwell's stealth, several alarms were raised in the Scottish camp; nevertheless, troops were ordered to stand down. The hungry soldiers spent the night trying to find cover from the 'drakie nycht full of wind and weit,' as one of the Scottish soldiers described it. Some made shelter under the newly reaped cornstalks. It was the second night they had slept without tents.

Cromwell planned to use his artillery to keep the Scots' left flank pinned down. He dispatched three infantry regiments under General George Monck to engage the Scottish center. Six cavalry regiments under Lambert and Lt. Gen. Charles Fleetwood would assault the Scottish right. Two foot regiments under Colonel Thomas Pride would seize the crossing and support the cavalry. Cromwell held his own cavalry regiment and three dragoon regiments in reserve.

That overall deployment displayed two points of tactical brilliance. First, the main weight of the attack would hit the enemy's weakest flank. Second, Cromwell could utilize all of his soldiers while denying Leslie the chance to use his greater numbers.

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