two o'clock in the afternoon
Had they arrived the evening before , it would have been impossible to provide them all with beds ; and they would have been obliged , like the majority of their comrades , to sleep on straw in the schoolroom . The inhabitants , however , were up and about , very shortly after the arrival of Major Tempe 's command ; and his men were soon provided for , in the beds which they had left . Beds were now a luxury , indeed , as the corps had not slept in them since they had been quartered at Baccarat , two nights before their first encounter with the Prussians , near Blamont . It was with great unwillingness , then , that they turned out when the bugle sounded , at two o'clock in the afternoon . They partook of a hearty meal -- provided by the people upon whom they were quartered -- and an hour later the whole corps marched out towards Wasselonne , a small town situated on the Breuche ; a little river which , winding round by Molsheim , falls into the Rhine at Strasburg . A branch line of railroad terminates at this place . When they arrived within three miles of it , they turned off to the right -- for Wasselonne had frequently been visited by the Prussians -- and slept at the little village of Casswiller , at the edge of the forest of OEdenwald .