In accordance with government orders, General Custer set out on the twenty-third of June with the Seventh Cavalry, to follow the Indian trail up the Rosebud River. After three days they found themselves in the valley of the Little Big Horn River, close to the hostile tribes. The command was divided into three detachments--one led by Custer, one by Major Reno, and a third by Captain Benteen. In attacking the Indian village it was planned that Reno was to take the upper section, Custer the lower. [Illustration] Major Reno’s attack was not strongly made and he was easily driven back, as was also Captain Benteen, so that these two detachments failed to support Custer. So it happened that with only five companies this brave general was compelled to encounter the entire Indian force. “Do not let an Indian escape,” were his orders, and he threw himself upon them, believing that with the help of the other commands he could inflict a severe punishment upon the red foe. And now comes a sad story. It seemed as though the Great Spirit was for once with his own people. Custer surprised the Indians at the river front, but they quickly rallied and drove the troops back up the hill. Hundreds of Indians poured into the river on ponies and on foot and attacked the small force in front of them. They made a circuit around the hill and slowly but surely closed in on the valiant troops. A final stand was made at the lower end of the hill in a bloody fight that lasted from two o’clock until sunset. Not one man of the five companies, not even the brave general, was left alive. From this time on the government persistently fought the red man, finally conquering his spirit and gaining complete possession of his lands. THE COWBOYS It did not take long for men to learn that the great western country was a valuable grazing land. The section of the West which includes New Mexico, part of Arizona, Colorado, Wyoming, Montana, and the western part of Texas, Nebraska, Kansas and Dakota, became a great cattle range. There were neither fences nor boundaries on this gigantic unbroken pasture, and here there grew up and flourished a great cattle raising industry.