nearly eleven
o'clock
Whereupon , with formal `` Good-night , sir , '' from Stannard and Sumter , and a grumpy dismissal from the indignant commander , the ill-starred conference broke up . Snaffle , pouring balm into Button 's ready ear , as he saw him home , went in and drank his health at the well-stocked sideboard , and then started straightway across the parade to his troop quarters , and , late as it was , called for his first sergeant . The men were mostly in bed , as they should be at such an hour , but there had been an informal dance , and many of the sergeants were still at the hop room . Beyond this brightly lighted building , and about in the rear of the infantry barracks at the westward end , was the slide into the creek valley , whereat so many of the officers ' children had been coasting early in the evening , and where now -- nearly eleven o'clock -- half a hundred young people of both sexes , wives and daughters of quartermaster 's employees and of the elder sergeants , attended by their gallants from the garrison , were having a merry time of it . The moon shone in brilliance . The night air , frosty and still , was full of exhilaration . The officer-of-the-guard , merely cautioning the revellers to control their impulse to shout , had gone on his way with implied permission to keep up the fun , and presently other officers appeared upon the brow of the bluff , interested observers .