Six o'clock
The hair is heavy with moisture , the face as wet as the dewy grass all about . From his point of view the officer does not observe the rifle ; the man was apparently killed by the fall of the building . `` Dead a week , '' said the officer curtly , moving on and absently pulling out his watch as if to verify his estimate of time . Six o'clock and forty minutes . The best soldier of our staff was Lieutenant Herman Brayle , one of the two aides-de-camp . I do n't remember where the general picked him up ; from some Ohio regiment , I think ; none of us had previously known him , and it would have been strange if we had , for no two of us came from the same State , nor even from adjoining States . The general seemed to think that a position on his staff was a distinction that should be so judiciously conferred as not to beget any sectional jealousies and imperil the integrity of that part of the country which was still an integer .