nearly midnight
All night in the flash and roar and the strange uncanny smell of blood and black powder smoke , he had stood among the dead and dying calling stubbornly , monotonously : `` Ready ! '' `` Aim ! '' `` Fire ! '' And now it was nearly midnight and Schofield , finding the enemy checked , was withdrawing on Nashville . Tom Travis thought the battle was over , but in the glare and flash he looked and saw another column , ghostly gray in the starlight , moving stubbornly at his guns . `` Ready ! '' he shouted as his gunners sprang again to their pieces .