About five o'clock
About five o'clock that evening a Rhode Island battery clanked through the village and parked six dusty guns in a pasture occupied by some astonished cows . A little later the cavalry arrived , riding slowly up the tree-shaded street , escorted by every darky and every dog in the country-side . The clothing of this regiment was a little out of the ordinary . Instead of the usual campaign head gear the troopers wore forage caps strapped under their chins , heavy visors turned down , and their officers were conspicuous in fur-trimmed hussar tunics slung from the shoulders of dark-blue shell jackets ; but most unusual and most interesting of all , a mounted cavalry band rode ahead , led by a bandmaster who sat his horse like a colonel of regulars -- a slim young man with considerable yellow and gold on his faded blue sleeves , and an easy manner of swinging forward his heavy cut-and-thrust sabre as he guided the column through the metropolitan labyrinths of Sandy River .