three o'clock in the afternoon
Many had brought handcuffs and ropes along with which to manacle their prisoners and have sport with them after the fight , another ancient pastime of our half-ape ancestors . They threw down some of their blankets but held on to their handcuffs . When the first crash of battle came these raw recruits on both sides fought with desperate bravery for nine terrible hours . They fought from dawn until three o'clock in the afternoon under the broiling Southern sun of July . Charge and counter charge left their toll of the dead and then the tired archaic muscles began to wonder when it would end . Why had n't victory come ? Where were the prisoners they were to manacle ?