f stones.
Here is where Captain Miles Keogh and thirty-eight men gave up their
lives. On this side of the ridge--the eastern side--between where Keogh
and his men died and where Custer fell, there are numerous stones. On
the opposite side of the Custer ridge--that which faces the river--and
close to its crest, there are very few stones, and those are much
scattered, and not in groups. At the northern extremity of the ridge is
a slight elevation which overtops everything else, and slopes away in
all directions, save where the ridge lies. Just below this knoll, or
hillock--Custer Hill--facing southwest, is where Custer and the larger
part of his men fell."

On the right bank of the Missouri River--the Big Muddy--in North Dakota,
almost within rifle shot of the town of Mandan, on the Northern Pacific
Railroad, there existed in the '70s a military post named after the
nation's great martyr President, Fort Abraham Lincoln. On the morning of
the 17th of June, 1876, there went forth from here among others, with
the pomp and ceremony for which they were distinguished, a cavalry
regiment famed in the army for dash, bravery and endurance--the noted
Seventh Cavalry.

At the head of the Seventh Cavalry was a man who was unquestionably the
most picturesque character for long years, and perhaps for all previous
and present time, in the army. Entering the army in active service
during the Civil War, his career was a continual round of successes and
advances, and at its close, aside from the peerless Sheridan, no
cavalryman had a greater reputation for magnificent dash than he.
Transferred to the plains--the war over--his success as an Indian
campaigner naturally followed, and at the time he moved out upon his
latest and fated expedition, George Custer had a reputation as an Indian
fighter second to none.

On June 22d, Custer and the Seventh Cavalry left camp on the Rosebud in
compliance with their instructions. On the 23d and 24th, many of the
camping places of the Indians, in their migration westward, were passed.
By evening of June 24th, the trail and signs had become so hot and fresh
that a halt was ordered to await tidings from the scouts. Their
information proved that the Indians were across the divide, over in the
valley of the Little Horn. Custer, confident of his ability to whip the
Indians single-handed, prepared for fight at once. He pushed ahead on
the trail, and created the impression that it was his determination to
g