four o'clock in the afternoon
`` The Hessian and his drummer then rode hastily back to his commander and the Hessians at once fell to work building a battery within half cannon shot of the fort . `` At the same time the Americans continued their preparations for the coming conflict , making them with the greatest activity and eagerness , feeling that with them skill and bravery must now combat overwhelming numbers , fierceness , and discipline . `` Their outworks were unfinished but they placed great reliance upon the redoubt . `` At four o'clock in the afternoon the Hessians opened a brisk cannonade , and at a quarter before five a battalion advanced to the attack on the north side of the fort , near a morass which covered it . `` They found the works there abandoned but not destroyed , and thought that they had frightened the Americans away . So with a shout of victory , and the drummer beating a lively march , they rushed to the redoubt , where not a man was to be seen . `` But as they reached it , and were about to climb the ramparts to plant their flag there , a sudden and galling fire of musketry and grape-shot poured out upon them , from a half-masked battery on their left flank , formed by an angle of an old embankment .