[CHAPTER IV.]
BRAVE CUSTER'S LAST SHOT.
"Cannon to the right of them,
Cannon to the left of them,
Cannon in the front of them,
Volleyed and thundered.
Onward through shot and shell,
Into the mouth of hell,
They who had fought so well,
Rode the six hundred."
—Charge of the Light Brigade.
The Crimean war may have presented its phases of reckless daring to the world, but I doubt if such a case as Custer's gallop to glory and death has been paralleled since the days of Leonidas and his deathless Spartans in the world-famed pass of Thermopylæ.
They literally rode to destruction, as may be seen when it is officially stated that not one regular soldier in the whole command lived through the battle.
After leaving the attack at the upper end of the village to Reno's case, Custer and his men struck along the route selected, at as rapid a pace as the nature of the ground permitted.
This line of travel was just beyond the crest of the high bluffs, and no doubt the leading principle that actuated the general into selecting it, was an idea that their movements might be concealed from the enemy.
In this, however, the project failed utterly, for great numbers of Indian scouts had posted themselves on the crags and their rifles kept up a continued musical refrain far from pleasant to the ears of the devoted band, more than one of whom threw up his arms and fell from his steed as the bitter lead cut home.