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 this job the general selected five hundred men and horses. In two
hours we were making a forced march back to War Bonnet Creek. Our
intention was to reach the Indian trail running to the north across
this watercourse before the Cheyennes could get there. We arrived the
next night.
At daylight the next morning, July 17, I proceeded ahead on a scout. I
found that the Indians had not yet crossed the creek.
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