Unhappily for me the general was looking directly at me as this maneuver was executed.

When we had driven back and defeated Forrest's men I was ordered to report at General Smith's tent.
"Young man," said the General, when I stood before him, "you were recommended to me as an Indian fighter.

What were you doing behind that tree!" "That is the way we have to fight Indians, sir," I said.

"We get behind anything that offers protection." It was twelve years later that I convinced General Smith that my theory of Indian fighting was pretty correct.
After the consolidation of the regular army, following the war, Smith was sent to the Plains as Colonel of the Seventh Cavalry.

This was afterward known as Custer's regiment, and we engaged in the battle of the Little Big Horn, in which that gallant commander was slain.