Nobutake Kondō
On the evening of 13 November, "Kirishima" and her escorting destroyers were joined by the Fourth Cruiser Division and prepared to reenter Ironbottom Sound under the command of Admiral Nobutake Kondō. In the early morning of 14 November, three Japanese heavy cruisers bombarded Guadalcanal before withdrawing. Aware of the damage suffered by his ships the previous night, Admiral William Halsey reinforced the American naval units with the new battleships and . The two fleets made contact on 14 November at 23:01. They exchanged gunfire and torpedoes, with four American destroyers disabled (three would later sink), while the destroyer was crippled by "Washington" and "South Dakota".