By about 5 pm on June 25th, 1876, the men on Reno Hill had been hearing volleys of gunfire

from the west for about 30 minutes.

The hundreds of warriors who had been assaulting the hilltop had rushed in that direction,

and there had been sporadic, sometimes heavy firing ever since.

After 30 minutes of staring at the dust clouds over that way, everyone agreed.

It had to be the warriors attacking Custer's column.

But there was no agreement about what to do.

Some thought Custer would logically run north to find the Montana column.

But even if that's what he was doing, he was badly outnumbered.

Custer needed help, no matter what.

And for the past half an hour, Major Marcus Reno had been down in a ravine searching

for the body of his closest friend in the regiment.

That was a noble gesture to be sure, but there were officers up on the hill who were waiting

anxiously for a discussion about the urgent situation to the west.

When Reno located the body of Benny Hodgson, he collected a few personal items and returned

to the top of the hill.

Reno ordered a squad to go down and bury Hodgson.

Reno, the debate about Custer all came down to ammunition.

He wasn't going anywhere until his men were resupplied.

But the pack train still had not arrived at the battlefield.

To that end, he sent his best rider to go find the pack train and drag a couple mules forward.

But a captain in Ben-Teen's battalion was done waiting.

...