ills for
two weeks, and had several small engagements with roving bands of
Indians during that time.

All these bands were ugly and belligerent, and it was plain from the
spirit they showed that there had been a general understanding among
all the redskins thereabout that the time had come to drive the white
man from the country.

Brevet-General Wesley Merritt, who had lately received his promotion to
the colonelcy of the Fifth Cavalry, now took command of the regiment. I
regretted that the command had been taken from General Carr. I was fond
of him personally, and it was under him that the regiment made its fine
reputation as a fighting organization. I soon became well acquainted
with General Merritt, however, and found him to be a brave man and an
excellent officer.

The regiment did continuous and hard scouting. We soon believed we had
driven all the hostile Indians out of that part of the country. In
fact, we were starting back to Fort Laramie, regarding the business at
hand as finished, when a scout arrived at our camp and reported the
massacre of General Custer and his whole force on the Little Big Horn.

This massacre occurred June 25, 1876, and its details are known, or
ought to be known, by every schoolboy. Custer was a brave, dashing,
headlong soldier, whose only fault was recklessness.

He had been warned many times never to expose a small command to a
superior force of Indians, and never to underestimate the ability and
generalship of the Sioux. He had unbounded confidence, however, in
himself and his men, and I believe that not until he was struck down
did he ever doubt that he would be able to cut his way out of the wall
of warriors about him and turn defeat into a glorious and conspicuous
victory.

The news of the massacre, which was the most terrible that ever
overtook a command of our soldiers, was a profound shock to all of us.
We knew at once that we would all have work to do, and settled grimly
into the preparations for it.

Colonel Stanton, who was with the Fifth Cavalry on this scout, had been
sent to the Red Cloud Agency two days before. That night a message came
from him that eight hundred warriors had left the agency to join
Sitting Bull on the Little Big Horn. Notwithstanding instructions to
proceed immediately by way of Fort Fetterman to join Crook, General
Merritt took the responsibility of endeavoring to intercept the
Cheyennes and thereby performed a very important service.

For