I have walked over the battle ground and observed the location of the graves, as shown by the little white stones, for each was buried where he fell, and it tells the story of a struggle better than all else. All who are making a trip into the northwest, should, if possible, stop over one day at Crow agency, Montana, just over the Wyoming line, and spend that day at the battle ground, and in the woods on the Powder, where Sitting Bull pretended to be unprepared although keenly upon the alert.

Reno was some distance away, but within sound of the battle, and has been criticised for not making an attempt to rescue Custer. One of the graves of a fallen soldier, was about two miles in the direction of Reno's camp, he evidently having broken through the red line of battle, and made a great run for life.

At the Red Cloud agency there were five thousand or more Indians, for the most part friendly ; but about eight hundred of them, fired by the news of Sitting Bull's achievements, left the agency to join him in the work of driving the whites cut of the hills.

General Sheridan ordered General Merritt, with four hundred men of the Fifth Cavalry, to proceed post-haste to re-enforce General Crook on Big Goose creek. He heard of the movement of the Indians at the agency, and disobeyed the order of his superior, to intercept them. Events justified his disobedience, as it often did in the kaleidoscope changes in fighting Indians. Colonel Cody, who at that time was in the midst of a Wildwest exhibition, at the Centennial Fair, abruptly closed his show at tremendous loss, and volunteered his services. He was made chief of scouts with General Merritt. To intercept the movements of the Indians the cavalry moved as directed by Buffalo Bill, seventy-five miles in twenty-four hours, and placed themselves directly in the path of the Indians.