About eight o'clock
At the `` corner '' he found a couple of hundred youths and men assembled . They were all armed , but the general opinion was that Custer would do nothing . One old farmer summed up the situation in the phrase , `` Thar ai n't nothin ' for him to do , but set still . '' About eight o'clock , however , Richards raced up , with his horse in a lather , and announced that Custer , with three hundred men , had started from Wichita before six . `` He 'll be hyar in half an hour , '' he concluded . Hurried counsel was taken ; fifty men sought cover behind the stooks of corn , the rest lined the skirting woods . When all was in order , Bancroft was deputed to go and fetch the Elder , whom he eventually discovered at the wood pile , sawing and splitting logs for firewood .