and retreated to the hill in the best form possible,
and there fought like an animal at bay, hoping that Reno's attack in the
bottom and Benton's timely arrival would yet relieve him. The Indians,
however, strenuously assert that Custer never attempted the ford, and
never got anywhere near it. No dead bodies were found any nearer than
within half a mile of the ford, and it seems undoubted that the Indians
tell the truth.

When Custer rode out on the bluff and looked over into the valley of the
Greasy Grass, he must have seen at once that he had before utterly
misapprehended the situation. The natural thing to do would have been to
retrace his trail, join Reno by the shortest route, and then, united,
have pushed the attack in person or, if then too late for successful
attack, he could, in all likelihood, have extricated the command and
made junction with Terry. Indian signals travel rapidly, and as soon as
Reno was checked and beaten, not only was this fact signaled through the
camp, but every warrior tore away down stream to oppose Custer, joining
those already there, and now, at least, alert.

It is probable, then, that before Custer could reach the creek valley
the Indians had made sufficient demonstrations to cause him to swerve
from where he would otherwise, and naturally, strike it, and work
farther back toward the second line of bluffs, even perhaps as far back
as Captain Godfrey gives the trail. The only thing to militate against
this would be the element of time, which seems hardly to oppose it.
However he got there, Custer is at last upon the eminence which is so
soon to be consecreted with his life's blood. What saw he? What did he?
The sources of information are necessarily largely Indian. At the
southeastern end of the Custer ridge, facing, apparently, the draw, or
coulee, of the branch of Custer Creek, Calhoun and Crittenden were
placed. Some little distance back of them, in a depression, and down the
northern slope of the Custer Ridge, Keogh stood. Stretched along the
north slope of the ridge, from Keogh to Custer Hill, was Smith's
command, and at the culminating point of the ridge, or Custer Hill, but
on the opposite ridge from where the others were placed, were Tom Custer
and Yates, and with them Custer himself. Yates' and Custer's men
evidently faced northwest. It would appear from the Indians' statements
that most of the command were dismounted.

The line was about three-quarters of a mile in length