A Cycle of the West · Chapter
The Seventh Marches explained
Custer and the Seventh Cavalry march out from Fort Lincoln, passing through fog and rain, crossing the Muddy and Heart Rivers, and enduring harsh weather as they head toward the Yellowstone.
What happens
Custer and the Seventh Cavalry march out from Fort Lincoln, passing through fog and rain, crossing the Muddy and Heart Rivers, and enduring harsh weather as they head toward the Yellowstone. The chapter captures the grandeur and foreboding of the campaign, the men's memories of past battles, and the final departure from Terry's camp, ending with Custer's fateful ride.
Themes in this chapter
Heroic Individualism and Epic Scale
Custer's bold leadership and the grand march of the Seventh Cavalry are portrayed with epic imagery, emphasizing individual heroism and the scale of the campaign.
Fate and Inevitability
The chapter is suffused with premonitions of doom, from the weeping women to the ghostly vision of Custer riding into the sky, foreshadowing the coming disaster.
Loss and Nostalgia
Veterans recall past campaigns with a mix of pride and melancholy, and the music of 'The Girl I Left Behind Me' evokes a sense of irretrievable loss.
Characters to notice
- George Armstrong Custer
Leads the Seventh Cavalry, rides with confidence and a sense of destiny, exchanges farewells with Terry and Gibbon.
- General Alfred Terry
Commands the overall force, remains at the Yellowstone with Gibbon's men while Custer marches.
- General John Gibbon
Joins Terry at the Yellowstone, jokingly tells Custer not to be greedy and to wait for them.
- Major Marcus Reno
Leads a scouting detachment south toward the Mispah and Tongue River areas.
- General George Crook
Mentioned as having fought the Battle of the Rosebud against Crazy Horse and Gall on June 17.
- Crazy Horse
Leads the Sioux forces in the Battle of the Rosebud, driving Crook back.
- Gall
Fights alongside Crazy Horse at the Rosebud, later joins the gathering at the Greasy Grass.
- Black Kettle
Recalled in veterans' stories of Custer's attack on his village during the Washita campaign.
Key passages
“How gallantly in column of platoon (So many doomed and given to the ghost) Before the weeping women of the post They sat their dancing horses on parade!”
The soldiers, many of whom were fated to die, paraded proudly on their horses in front of the weeping women at the fort.
Highlights the contrast between the brave display and the tragic fate awaiting many.
“For suddenly a shimmering veil of awe Caught up the van. One could have counted ten While Custer and the half of Custer’s men Were riding up a shining steep of sky As though to join the dead that do not die”
A visionary moment where Custer and his men appear to ascend a luminous slope into the sky, as if joining the immortal dead.
Foreshadows Custer's death and legendary status.
“And Custer, waking from a dream at last With still some glory of it in his eyes, Shook hands around and said his last goodbyes And swung a leg across his dancing bay”
Custer, as if emerging from a reverie, said his final farewells and mounted his eager horse.
Emphasizes the finality of his departure and his dreamlike state.
