About three o'clock
`` Yes , yes , Rhett , go ahead ! Do something -- make a noise -- do something ! Infantry 's kept home from school to-day -- measles , I reckon , or maybe it 's lockjaw ! '' About three o'clock there was caught from the southward , between the loud wrangling of the batteries above White Oak , another sound , -- first two or three detonations occurring singly , then a prolonged and continuous roar . The batteries above White Oak Swamp , the sharpshooters and skirmishers , the grey chafing cavalry , the grey masses of unemployed infantry , all held breath and listened . The sound was not three miles away , and it was the sound of the crash of long battle-lines . There was a curious movement among the men nearest the grey general-commanding .