five o'clock
All the fine equipages of the town drew up in the roads and lanes flanking the camp , where with leveled glasses the mothers , sisters , and sweethearts watched the columns as they skirmished , formed squares , or `` passed the defile , '' quite sure that the rebels would fly in confusion before such surprising manoeuvres . This daily audience stimulated such a fierce rivalry among the companies that the men turned out at all hours of the day to drill and practice in squads , rather than loiter about the camp . One day great news aroused the camp : the Governor was to review the regiment and send it to the front . All Warchester poured out to the Holly Hills , and when at five o'clock the companies filed out on the shining green there was such a cheer that the men felt repaid for the tiresome wait of months . The civic commander-in-chief watched the movements with affable scrutiny , surrounded by a profusely uniformed staff , to whom he expressed the most politic approval . He was heard to remark that no such soldiers had been seen on this continent since Scott had marched to Lundy 's Lane . There was a throb of passionate joy in the ranks when this eulogium reached the men , for the words were hardly spoken when they were known in every company by that mysterious telegraphy which makes the human body a conductor swift as an electric wire among large masses of men .