When General Terry, Custer and Gibbon met on the steamer Far West to coordinate the final plan of action against the hostiles, they decided that the Indians were probably camped along the Little Bighorn. Custer was to lead the Seventh Cavalry to the upper reaches of Rosebud Creek before crossing west to the Little Bighorn, while Terry and Gibbon's command was to establish a blocking position near the confluence of the Little Big Horn. The Montana Column began its march up the Yellowstone River on June 21, 1876, and three days later, just below the mouth of the Bighorn River, the steamer Far West ferried the troops across the Yellowstone. On June 25, 1876, the Montana Column endured a difficult day's march, moving a couple of miles up Tullock's Creek, then turning right in hopes of an easier route south across bench land, only to find rough country and continued obstacles from the breaks and coulees along the east side of the Bighorn River. About mid-day on June 26, an advance unit of the Montana Column first learned of Custer's defeat from Crow scouts who had been released from duty by Custer prior to the battle and had witnessed the defeat of the Seventh from a safe distance. As Terry and Gibbon's command approached, the large Indian village began to disperse in the late afternoon and move south toward the Bighorn Mountains. At 6:00 AM on the following day, the Montana Column reached the battlefield, confirming what had happened to the Seventh. The command relieved the beleaguered companies of Major Reno and Captain Benteen, who had been under siege on a hilltop four miles up the valley since the afternoon of June 25. Over the next few days, survivors of the Seventh buried the dead in shallow graves. The Montana Column then transported over forty wounded troops to the confluence of the Little Bighorn, where the Far West was moored, and returned to Fort Pease just below the confluence of the Bighorn River to wait for resupply.