eleven o'clock
And the division commander earnestly desired to question such prisoner or prisoners . The fog furnished an ideal night for such an expedition . Thus it was that a very young lieutenant and Sergeant Mahan and ten privates -- the lanky Missourian among them -- were detailed for the prisoner-seeking job . At eleven o'clock , they crept over the top , single file . It was a night wherein a hundred searchlights and a million star-flares would not have made more impression on the density of the fog than would the striking of a safety match . Yet the twelve reconnoiterers were instructed to proceed in the cautious manner customary to such nocturnal expeditions into No Man 's Land . They moved forward at the lieutenant 's order , tiptoeing abreast , some twenty feet apart from one another , and advancing in three-foot strides .