nearly midnight
The General looked up . `` May I lead the Tennessee troops in -- I have led them often before . '' Hood thought a moment , then nodded and the horse and the rider were gone . It was late -- nearly midnight . The firing on both sides had nearly ceased , -- only a desultory rattling -- the boom of a gun now and then . But O , the agony , the death , the wild confusion ! This was something like the babel that greeted the old soldier 's ears as he rode forward : `` The Fourth Mississippi -- where is the Fourth Mississippi ? ''