Forty Miles a Day

In the Montana and Dakota Territories, weather has always been extremely changeable at times. Storms could erupt at any time and it was likely that even during a hot summer day, sudden winter-like storms could develop leaving hail, sleet and even snow on the plains.

As Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer's 7th Cavalry was enroute to the Little Big Horn Valley, just such an event occurred.

The painting depicts the cavalry column making it's way through such a storm. The troopers dismounted and walked their horses (for a mounted trooper on the treeless plains could be a target for lightning). The column presses on to make their "Forty Milws a Day."