These orders precluded, of course, my rejoining the command; but at the appointed time it set out on the march, and within three weeks brought the campaign to a successful close.
In this last expedition, for the first few days Custer's route was by the same trail he had taken in January--that is to say, along the southern base of the Witchita Mountains--but this time there was more to encourage him than before, for, on getting a couple of marches beyond old Camp Radziminski, on all sides were fresh evidences of Indians, and every effort was bent to strike them.
From day to day the signs grew hotter, and toward the latter part of March the game was found.

The Indians being in a very forlorn condition, Custer might have destroyed most of the tribe, and certainly all their villages, but in order to save two white women whom, it was discovered, they held as captives, he contented himself with the renewal of the Cheyennes' agreement to come in to Camp Supply.

In due time the entire tribe fulfilled its promise except one small band under "Tall Bull," but this party received a good drubbing from General Carr on the Republican early in May.

After this fight all the Indians of the southern Plains settled down on their reservations, and I doubt whether the peace would ever again have been broken had they not in after years been driven to hostilities by most unjust treatment.
It was the 2d of March that I received at Camp Supply Grant's despatch directing me to report immediately in Washington.

It had been my intention, as I have said, to join Custer on the North Fork of the Red River, but this new order required me to recast my plans, so, after arranging to keep the expedition supplied till the end of the campaign, I started for Washington, accompanied by three of my staff--Colonels McGonigle and Crosby, and Surgeon Asch, and Mr.Deb.
Randolph Keim, a representative of the press, who went through the whole campaign, and in 1870 published a graphic history of it.