George Armstrong Custer had been through years of combat in the Civil War, and became known for leading daring, if not reckless, cavalry charges. Not long after arriving in the west, he witnessed the results of combat on the plains.

In June 1867, a young officer, Lieutenant Lyman Kidder, with a detachment of ten men, was assigned to carry dispatches to a cavalry unit commanded by Custer near Fort Hays, Kansas.

When Kidder's party did not arrive, Custer and his men set out to search for them.

In his book My Life On the Plains, Custer told the story of the search. Sets of horse tracks indicated that Indian horses had been chasing cavalry horses. And then buzzards were seen in the sky.

Describing the scene he and his men encountered, Custer wrote:

"Each body was pierced by from 20 to 50 arrows, and the arrows were found as the savage demons had left them, bristling in the bodies.

"While the details of that fearful struggle will probably never be known, telling how long and gallantly this ill-fated little band contended for their lives, yet the surrounding circumstances of ground, empty cartridge shells, and distance from where the attack began, satisfied us that Kidder and his men fought as only brave men fight when the watchword is victory or death."