Lieutenant-Colonel George Custer and six companies of his Seventh Cavalry undertook a six week campaign to clear hostile Sioux and Cheyenne warriors from the Platte Road in eastern Nebraska. On this busy day, his camp suffered an early morning attempt to run off his horses, he then met with the Sioux leader Pawnee Killer, and failed in a request for him to return to a reservation. He then ordered Lieutenant Louis Hamilton and twenty men to follow Pawnee Killer. Hamilton swiftly came under heavy attack but his command, fighting with discipline and dismounted, drove off the attempt without loss. This day in the frustrating Hancock Campaign marked Custer's first ever combat action against Plains Indians. (By John Osborne)
George Bird Grinnel, The Fighting Cheyennes (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1915), 250-251.
