About an hour after midnight
From my position I could hear trains moving , in my rear , but for half the night Jones reported nothing . He could understand , of course , that I could hear the trains . Rain had set in at nightfall . About an hour after midnight I heard troops marching north up the road . I crept up nearer , and , although it was dark and raining , I could make out that they were cavalry -- perhaps as many as a company . I concluded that the rebels were to the north of us , that is to say , that if they had moved at all , they were yet between us and Hanover Court-House . After the cavalry had passed , I thought the situation very much more definite .