three o'clock
before
With each crack of his musket a man in blue was falling . In the centre of this mass of struggling maniacs the men were fighting with gun swabs , handspikes , clubbed muskets , stones and fists . The night brought no rest , no pause to succor the wounded or bury the dead . Through the black murk of the darkness they fought on and on until at last the men who were living sank in their tracks at three o'clock before day and neither line had given from this `` Bloody Angle . '' The rain ceased to fall , the clouds lifted and the waning moon came out . Ned Vaughan passing over the outer field saw a long line of men lying in regular ranks in an odd position . He turned to the Commander .