about midnight
She had played , and played the fool exceedingly -- and she had lost on every hand ! The general , who was always on the alert , ordinarily began his work with the sun , and rarely did he stop with the setting of it , either . The next morning , therefore , he was at his headquarters at an unusually early hour . Fortune had favored him in that one of the harbor patrol boats , making a daring reconnaissance about midnight , to discover if possible what had happened to the _ David _ , had captured a whale boat from one of the Union ships , bound on a similar errand , and had brought her crew to the city . By questioning them Beauregard learned of the blowing up of the _ Housatonic _ , and the almost certain loss of the torpedo boat . He was sorry that he missed the _ Wabash _ and the admiral , and intensely grieved over the lack of any tidings from the _ David _ or her men , which , however , caused him little surprise , but he was glad , indeed , they had been so brilliantly successful in eliminating the magnificent new steam sloop-of-war _ Housatonic _ from the force blockading them . Incidentally he learned , with some additional satisfaction , that Admiral Vernon was to be relieved of his command on account of illness and was going North with his flagship in a few days .