Till, on the march one mornin', they jumped us from the right,
Three hundred bucks in war-paint, well armed and full of fight.
We'd fifty men in column—no time to close a rank—
We yanked our horses sideways and fired by the flank,
But, though we volleyed through 'em and dropped the foremost ones,
The rest came on like devils, right up against our guns.
Now half our boys were rookies who'd never smelt a fight;
The yappin' Cheyenne war-whoop just turned 'em blue with fright.
They started breakin' column and first we veterans knew,
The troop had gone to blazes and let the redskins through.