midnight
But Tom Twigg , who had been with the major at headquarters , explained to Jack that the army was divided into three bodies of about ten thousand men each , and that Tyler 's column , of which the Caribees were the advance , were the extreme northern body ; that they were now at Vienna , far north of Manassas , where Schenck had been beset a month before in his never-enough-ridiculed reconnaissance by train ; that in the morning they were to push on to Fairfax Court-House and thence to Centreville , where the army was to come together for the blow at the rebels . Jack and his friends were a good deal chagrined to learn that they were not as near the enemy as the column to the south of them , whose fires had been mistaken for Beauregard 's . Though the levée came to an end at `` taps , '' no one felt sleepy , and the excitement banished the pains of fatigue . Major Mike , sauntering through the dark lines near midnight , heard the tale still going on in drowsy monotone , but , good-naturedly , made no sign . Though not given the skirmish-line next day -- the 17th -- Jack was delighted to find that the Caribees led all the rest . With them rode the commander of the brigade , Colonel Sherman , whom the soldiers thought a very crabbed and `` grumpy '' sort of a fellow . His red hair bristled straight up and out when he took his slouch hat off , as he did very often , for the heat was intolerable .