midnight
He had just been promised , by the General himself -LRB- under whom he served at Palo Alto -RRB- , the office of Superintendent of the Rocky Mountain Lines . He was returning from Washington over the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad , on a freight-train , when he heard of the President 's danger . Langenzunge loved Old Rough and Ready , -- and he felt badly about his own office , too . But his extempore train chose to stop at a forsaken shanty-village on the Potomac , for four mortal hours , at midnight . What does he do , but walk down the line into the darkness , climb a telegraph-post , cut a wire , and applied the two ends to his tongue , to _ taste _ , at the fatal moment , the words , `` Died at half past ten . '' Poor Langenzunge ! he hardly had nerve to solder the wire again .