midnight
Could Bonaparte 's army have planted more on the ramparts of Mount St. Jean ? The sun had not set ; yet the black smoke of battle had set it before its time . God had ordained otherwise ; but man , in his fury had shut out the light of heaven against the decree of God , just as , equally against His decree , he has now busily engaged in blotting out many a brother 's bright life , before the decree of its sunset . Again and again and again , from four till midnight -- eight butchering hours -- the heart of the South was hurled against those bastions of steel and flame , only to be pierced with ball and bayonet . And for every heart that was pierced there broke a dozen more in the shade of the southern palmetto , or in the shadow of the northern pine . After nineteen hundred years of light and learning , what a scientific nation of heart-stabbers and brother-murderers we Christians are ! It was now that the genius of the confederate cavalry leader , Forrest , asserted itself .