midnight
There were a number of political harangues made in the neighborhood ; the League met several times ; the colored men appeared anxious and important about the new charge committed to their care ; the white people were angry , sullen , and depressed . The school at Red Wing went peaceably on , interrupted only by the excitement attendant upon the preparations making for the expected parade . Almost every night , after work was over , the colored people would gather in the little hamlet and march to the music of a drum and fife , and under the command of Nimbus , whose service in the army had made him a tolerable proficient in such tactical movements as pertained to the `` school of the company . '' Very often , until well past midnight the fife and drum , the words of command , and the rumble of marching feet could be heard in the little village . The white people in the country around about began to talk about `` the niggers arming and drilling , '' saying that they intended to `` seize the polls on election day ; '' `` rise up and murder the whites ; '' `` burn all the houses along the river ; '' and a thousand other absurd and incredible things which seemed to fill the air , to grow and multiply like baleful spores , without apparent cause . As a consequence of this there grew up a feeling of apprehension among the colored men also . They feared that these things were said simply to make a ready and convenient excuse for violence which was to be perpetrated upon them in order to prevent the exercise of their legal rights .