“Prepare to mount!” repeated the company commanders. Every trooper turned, put left boot into stirrup, and hand upon mane and saddle, waited. “Mount!” With one motion the blue blouses upheaved, and were in the saddle. A few horses plunged, but they were held in line. The wagon teamsters were in their seats, their lines taut, their whips poised. On the steps or porches of all the officers’ quarters women were waving and trying to smile (and some were succeeding and some were not); outside the post could be heard the commands of the infantry and artillery officers. “Sound the advance,” bade the general, curtly. As Ned did so, he was answered by the bugles of the infantry, in similar call. “Fours right—march!” The new band rode bravely to the front. Whirling his horse, the general, followed by his bugler, trotted briskly to take the lead. All the companies, forming fours, fell in one behind another, the swallow-tail cavalry guidons of white and red fluttering gaily in the breeze. The new band blared in a tune. No “Garryowen” this time, but “The Girl I Left Behind Me.” The hour was sad I left the maid, A ling’ring farewell taking; Her sighs and tears my steps delayed— I thought her heart was breaking. In hurried words her name I blessed, I breathed the vows that bind me, And to my heart in anguish pressed The girl I left behind me. Then to the east we bore away, To win a name in story, And there, where dawns the sun of day, There dawned our sun of glory; Both blazed in noon on Alna’s height, When in the post assigned me I shared the glory of that fight, Sweet girl I left behind me. Full many a name our banners bore— It was a tune as inspiring as “Yankee Doodle,” but sweeter. The expedition made a great sight. First rode a squad of the picked scouts—Delawares and white men—headed by Wild Bill clad in showy fringed buckskins. Scout “Pony Bill” Cody did not accompany. He was reserved to guide another detachment to Fort Hays. After the line of scouts came the commanding officers and their staffs. General Hancock was only representing the department, to talk with the Indians, but he frequently dashed up and down the march, inspecting. He and General Smith made an active pair, prompt to criticize. The infantry, long Springfield rifles at a slant over shoulder, canteens clinking at hips, with the artillery and the pontoon train rumbling behind, formed one column. A detachment of recruits from Fort Leavenworth, to be distributed among the Southwest posts, had joined only just in time. They were under young Lieutenant John A. Hannay of the Third Infantry.