midnight
It was decided to divide the attacking company into two parts , one to approach the large opening of the cave and the other the smaller one . Larkin , Grimes and the Hester men were with the former crowd , and Long Tom , Jasper Very , George LeMonde , and Hans Schmidt with the latter . All felt that the best way to begin the attack was to take the moonshiners by surprise , and it was thought that early morning was the most favorable hour , when the outlaws would probably be asleep . Soon after midnight of a Wednesday morning the men gathered noiselessly at the knob 's base , having left their horses far up the road . Just as the first streaks of day were appearing the two groups of men about one hundred feet apart began climbing the steep elevation . The slope was fully forty-five degrees , and in some parts much steeper . The men had to brace their feet against trees and saplings , and near the top to pull themselves up by holding on to branches of trees and shrubs above them .