nearly two o'clock in the morning
The regiment and the two guns that he had sent down the turnpike to relieve Kenly had been fired upon so incessantly by Southern pickets and riflemen that they were compelled to turn back . Everywhere the Northern scouts and skirmishers were driven in . Despite the darkness and rain they found a wary foe whom they could not pass . It was nearly two o'clock in the morning when Banks was aroused by a staff officer who said that a man insisted upon seeing him . The man , the officer said , claimed to have news that meant life or death , and he carried on his person a letter from President Lincoln , empowering him to go where he pleased . He had shown that letter , and his manner indicated the most intense and overpowering anxiety . Banks was surprised , and he ordered that the stranger be shown in at once .