six o'clock
Accordingly , all the young officers and several of the seniors left with him , but O'Grady and several of the hard drinkers kept it up until midnight , observing , however , more moderation than usual in their potations . There was none of the grumbling common when men are turned out of their beds before dawn ; all were in high spirits that the time for action had arrived ; the men were as eager to meet the enemy as were their officers ; and the tents were all down and placed in the waggons before daylight . The regimental cooks had already been at work , and the officers went round and saw that all had had breakfast before they fell in . At six o'clock the whole were under arms and in their place as the central regiment in the brigade . They tramped on without a halt until eleven ; then the bugle sounded , and they fell out for half an hour . The men made a meal from bread and the meat that had been cooked the night before , each man carrying three days ' rations in his haversack . There was another halt , and a longer one , at two o'clock , when the brigade rested for an hour in the shade of a grove .