midnight
These caravans were usually drawn by oxen and moved slowly toward some large town . When the dawn appeared in the east , the chief soldier was compelled to conceal himself in a secluded place . He rolled up in his blanket , lay down in a dry creek-bed among the red willows and immediately fell asleep . With the next evening he resumed his journey , and reached Faribault toward midnight . Even here every approach was guarded against the possibility of an Indian attack . But there was much forest , and he knew the country well . He reconnoitred , and soon found the Indian community , but dared not approach and enter , for these Indians had allied themselves with the whites ; they would be charged with treachery if it were known that they had received a hostile Sioux , and none were so hated by the white people as Little Crow and his war-chief .