five o'clock
The rows between the limited few of their young men and some bullies among the `` rustlers '' had been no more frequent nor serious than on previous summers , when matters had been settled without resort to arms ; but this year the very devil seemed to have got into the situation . Something , or probably somebody , said the general , had been stirring the Indians up , exciting -- exhorting possibly , and almost the first thing the general did as he climbed stiffly out of his stout Concord wagon , in the paling starlight of the early morning , was to turn to Dade , now commanding the post , and to say he should like , as soon as possible , to see Bill Hay . Meantime he wished to go in and look at the wounded . It was not yet five o'clock , but Dr. Waller was up and devoting himself to the needs of his patients , and Dade had coffee ready for the general and his single aide-de-camp , but not a sip would the general take until he had seen the stricken troopers . He knew Field by reputation , well and favorably . He had intimately known Field 's father in the old days , in the old army , when they served together on the then wild Pacific shores `` where rolls the Oregon . '' The great civil war had divided them , for Field had cast his soldier fortune with his seceding State , but all that was a thing of the past .