one o’clock
Aladdin had not been sent to that place to mourn , but to gain information . Twice and three times he wiped his eyes clear of tears , and then he swept his faltering glass along the lines of the enemy , until , ranged in their center , he beheld a great semicircle of a hundred and more iron and brass cannons , and movements of troops . Then Aladdin scrambled down from Little Round Top to report what he had seen in the center of the Confederate lines . At one o'clock the Confederate batteries , one hundred and fifteen pieces in all , opened their tremendous fire upon the center of the Union lines . Eighty cannons roared back at them with defiant thunder , and the blue sky became hidden by smoke . Among the Union batteries horses began to run loose , cannons to be splintered like fire-wood , and caissons to explode . At these moments men , horses , fragments of men and horses , stones , earth , and things living and things dead were hurled high into the air with great blasts of flame and smoke , and it was possible to hear miles of exultant yells from the hills opposite .