midnight
`` I have a memorandum from him about this business ; he had given that same order to Hasterlick '' -- with a motion of the hand toward the dead provost-marshal -- `` and , by God ! it shall be executed . '' Ten minutes later Sergeant Parker Adderson , of the Federal army , philosopher and wit , kneeling in the moonlight and begging incoherently for his life , was shot to death by twenty men . As the volley rang out upon the keen air of the midnight , General Clavering , lying white and still in the red glow of the camp-fire , opened his big blue eyes , looked pleasantly upon those about him and said : `` How silent it all is ! '' The surgeon looked at the adjutant-general , gravely and significantly . The patient 's eyes slowly closed , and thus he lay for a few moments ; then , his face suffused with a smile of ineffable sweetness , he said , faintly : `` I suppose this must be death , '' and so passed away . AN AFFAIR OF OUTPOSTS