It was the practice of many Indians to leave their reservations because they wanted to hunt or visit, or because the practices of dishonest agents made life on the reservation unbearable. The Department of the Interior sent out orders for all Indians to be back on their reservations at a certain date, but for many it was impossible to return within the time limit set. The Department designated these people as "hostiles" and turned them over to the War Department, which now had a pretext for taking punitive action. The campaign of 1876 was planned to force the Indians onto reservations, in order to obtain the relinquishment of the Black Hills. Generals Crook and Gibbon, with their forces, were to meet Generals Terry and Custer with their troops near the Rosebud River in Montana. All were then to move southward against the Indians who were in the hills along the Rosebud and the Little Big Horn. On the morning of May 17, 1876, the eastern division of the expedition started out from Fort Abraham Lincoln. The cavalry marched about the parade grounds to the tune of _Garry Owen_, then set out to the strains of _The Girl I Left Behind Me_. Mrs. Custer accompanied her husband on the first day's ride, returning to the fort as the troopers continued west. The tragic outcome of the Battle of the Little Big Horn is well known. Not a man of Custer's immediate command survived. The reasons for the annihilation have been debated far and wide. Gen. E. S. Godfrey, who participated in the battle as a lieutenant, in _Custer's Last Battle_ summarizes the affair as follows: "The causes of Custer's defeat were first, the overpowering number of the enemy and their unexpected cohesion; second, Reno's panic rout from the valley; third, the defective extraction of empty cartridge shells from the carbines.... A battle was unavoidable." Grant Marsh had pushed his supply steamer, the _Far West_, up the Big Horn to within 15 miles of the battlefield. Reno's wounded were placed aboard and Marsh made the trip of 710 miles down to Bismarck in record time. At midnight July 5 the _Far West_ docked. Colonel Lounsberry, editor of the Bismarck _Tribune_ and correspondent of the New York _Herald_, gave the story to the world. Mark Kellogg, special correspondent of the _Herald_ and the _Tribune_, who had accompanied the expedition, had been killed with Custer. Twenty-six widows wept at Fort Lincoln. With Custer's death the frontier era in Dakota history had ended. Although Sitting Bull's forces were undefeated, they took refuge in Canada and remained there until 1881, when they voluntarily surrendered. They were returned to the reservations. Wishing to keep them there, the authorities took horses, saddles, and arms from both hostile and peaceable Sioux. This move, while it did not pacify the Indians, put an end to the Indian wars. TERRITORIAL SOLONS AND STRATEGY