Midnight
said Clark . `` Oui -- I have some boat . '' We crossed the hundred and fifty yards of sluggish water , squad by squad , and in the silence of the night stood gathered , expectant , on the farther bank . Midnight was at hand . Commands were passed about , and men ran this way and that , jostling one another to find their places in a new order . But at length our little force stood in three detachments on the river 's bank , their captains repeating again and again the part which each was to play , that none might mistake his duty . The two larger ones were to surround the town , while the picked force under Simon Kenton himself was to storm the fort .