Famous last words

     "After Custer gave the battalion orders, Half Yellow Face spoke through Boyer.  'Do not divide your men,' he said.  'There are too many of the enemy for us, even if we stay together.  If you must fight, keep us all together.'

     "Custer was in no mood to hear dire predictions.  'You do the scouting, and I will attend to the fighting,' he said.

     "The Crow began to strip off his clothes and paint his face.  Custer asked what he was doing.

     "'Because you and I are going home today, and by a trail that is strange to us both,' said Half Yellow Face."

     James Donovan, A terrible glory: Custer and the Little Bighorn—the last great battle of the American West (New York:  Little, Brown and Company, 2008), 212.  Half Yellow Face was among the very few who came to grips with the sheer size of the Indian encampment in time.