The whole command marched down a valley for some distance and then separated, intending to strike the village at different points. Custer’s battalion took to the right to cross the hills and ride down upon the encampment, and Major Reno branched off to the left and forded the Little Big Horn--a stream that gives the battle its name--at the mouth of a stream now called Benteen’s Creek. As they were separating, Custer sent an order to Reno to “move forward at as rapid gait as he thought prudent, and charge the village afterwards, and the whole outfit would support him.” After separation the only word received from Custer was an order signed by the adjutant, and addressed to Captain Benteen, which read: “Benteen, come on. Big village. Be quick. Bring Packs;” and a postscript, “Bring Packs.” About the time this message must have been despatched, those with Reno beheld the general and his men on top of a hill two miles or more away, looking down upon the village, and saw Custer take off his hat and wave it in the air, as if either beckoning the other battalions to his assistance or cheering his men. The battalion disappeared over the brow of the hill, and after that no word or sign ever came from Custer or anyone of his whole command. Not a man of the hundreds that followed the general in the charge lived to tell the tale. The battalion was simply wiped out of existence. In after years, some of the Indians who took part in the massacre, laying aside their inbred taciturnity, consented to show a few United States officers over the field and explain what had happened and how it had happened; but beyond these meagre reports, and the position in which the bodies of the soldiers were found after the Indians had finished with their rejoicings and the mutilations of the dead, nothing is known of Custer’s last charge. But those acquainted with Custer and with Indian fighting are able to picture the scene.