During the battle, Wamditanka said his band was behind this hill, with Red Legs and his men in the coulee east of the camp, Mankato placing some of his men in the coulee and some on the prairie, and Gray Bird and his men mostly on the prairie. Wamditanka recalled that the camp was surrounded without difficulty because the pickets were only a little way from it. He also said Dakota men had an easy time of it compared with their U.S. counterparts, because they could crawl through the grass into the coulee to get water, and after a few hours their women crossed the river, came up near the bluff, cooked for them, and they could go back to eat before returning to the fight.