So Curly had been with Custer in the fight.
Acting Adjutant Hare’s voice was choked, he scarcely could speak, when in due time seeking out Captain Benteen he said:
“The major has the permission of General Terry to send out a company to inspect the battle-field where the bodies were seen. He therefore directs that you take your company, and return as soon as practicable with a report.”
Soberly Captain Benteen acknowledged the salute; and soberly rode away with him his men of Company H, including Ned, cavalry trumpeter.
Yes, there they lay, on slope and ridge, two miles from Reno Hill. There they lay: 212 by count, the fighting men of the great white chief Long Hair, overwhelmed by the 2000 fighting men of the great red chiefs Gall and Crazy Horse, and the medicine of Sitting Bull.
Company by company, in retreat from position to position, they could be recognized not by guidon but by officers and men. Here was fair Calhoun and his line; here was dark Captain Keogh and his; here were the Yates men and the Smith men and Tom Custer’s, backed by their officers. Here was “Queen’s Own” Cook; and “Bos” and little “Autie”; and in the circle of the brave was the general.
Scalps had been taken, hatchet and club had been at work; but General Custer lay calm and at ease, with two wounds only, and looking much as Ned had seen him look a thousand times before. Even the knife of Rain-in-the-Face had passed him by. Said the Sioux: “Of all the brave men we ever fought, the Long Hair was the bravest.”
Two hundred and sixty-five killed, fifty-two wounded, was the roll-call of the Seventh Cavalry, after this battle of the Little Big Horn, June 25 and 26, 1876. The Sioux fled, Crazy Horse to the east, Sitting Bull to the west. Pursuit was long. Band after band must yield to cavalry and to infantry. American Horse was killed; Iron Dog surrendered; Dull Knife the Cheyenne was defeated; Lame Deer was killed; Two Moons and Hump surrendered; Crazy Horse was defeated, and must surrender; Sitting Bull was twice defeated, and through snow and cold must lead into Canada the few of his people left. Five years after the great battle by the Greasy Grass he, too, surrendered. The United States had bought the Black Hills. But the Chief with the Long Yellow Hair and nigh three hundred of his Seventh Cavalry rode never again.