At noon on June 22, 1876, Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer's command broke camp along the Yellowstone River, passed in review of General Terry and Colonel Gibbon, marched to the mouth of Rosebud Creek, and then moved about ten miles south along Rosebud Creek to this site in the late afternoon. During officer's call at sunset, Custer explained two decisions made before the day's march: he had declined General Terry's offer of Major Brisbin's four additional companies of cavalry from the Montana Column because he believed the Seventh Cavalry had enough manpower to handle no more than 1500 warriors, and he had decided against taking the column's Gatling gun because the cumbersome field piece would slow the command. He also restricted bugle use except in an emergency. After the meeting, a few junior officers gathered to sing songs for about an hour, a common practice in the Seventh Cavalry. Years later, several of these officers, all survivors of Reno's fight in the valley, recalled that Custer, usually confident before battle, had been subdued and almost conciliatory during officer's call, even seeking the advice of his junior officers, something he never did. His behavior seemed so unusual that Lieutenant George Wallace remarked that Custer might have been thinking of his own death. Late that night, Lieutenant Edward Godfrey recalled a sign-language exchange with Bloody Knife and the Crow scouts about the probable numbers of warriors. Because the scouts spoke different languages, the communication was uncertain, but Mitch Bouyet, Custer's chief scout, who spoke good English, emphatically said, "Well I can tell you, we are going to have damned big fight."