Benteen on the Last Stand

A Last Stand... according to Captain Benteen
THE LAST STAND... ACCORDING TO THE TRAITOR
Letter by Captain Frederick Benteen to a friend, December 22, 1868

  "Who can describe the feeling of that brave band, as with anxious beating hearts, they strained their yearning eyes in the direction whence help should come? What must have been the despair that, when all hopes of succor died out, nerved their stout arms to do and die?
Round and round rush the red fiends, smaller and smaller shrinks the circle, but the aim of that devoted, gallant knot of heroes is steadier than ever, and the death howl of the murderous redskin is more frequent. But on they come in masses grim, with glittering lance and one long, loud, exulting whoop, as if the gates of hell had opened and loosed the whole infernal host. "

Captain Benteen, describing Elliot's Last Stand in 1868.
Eight years later, Benteen would betray Custer and his 210 men... and provoke another Last Stand.