About ten o'clock in the evening
With relentless accuracy the arms of the gigantic tongs with which Nogi threatened to surround the entire Army of the North began to close . The American troops attacking both flanks had not noticed the Japanese reserves , which had been held concealed in the depressions and shallow valleys under cover of the woods . Two miles more to the right and left , and our cavalry would have come upon the steel teeth of the huge tongs , but there was the rub : they had n't gone far enough . About ten o'clock in the evening Baker City , which was in flames , was stormed by the Japanese , Indian Valley having already fallen into their hands . The attack in front , high up in the mountains , began to waver , then to stop ; a few captured positions had to be abandoned , and down in the valley near La Grande , whence the field-hospitals were being removed to the rear , the ambulances and Red Cross transports encountered the troops streaming back from Baker City . One retreating force caught up with the other , and then night came -- that terrible night of destruction . Again the cannon thundered across the valley , again the machine-guns joined in the tumult , while the infantry fire surged to and fro .