noon
Solemnly , as befitted soldiers , silent and and alert despite their dripping accoutrements , the little detachment of cavalry had pushed ahead , riding by compass over the drenched uplands , steering for the Sweetwater . Late in the afternoon the skies had cleared , the sun came out , and they camped in a bunch of cottonwoods on the old Casper trail and slept the sleep of the just and the weary . Early next day they hastened on , reaching the usually shallow stream , with Devil 's Gate only a few miles away , before the setting of a second sun . Here they feasted and rested well , and before the dawn was fairly red on the third day out from Emory they were breasting the turbid waters and by noon had left the valley far to the south and were well out toward the Big Horn country , where it behooved them to look warily ahead , for from every ridge , though far to the west of their probable raiding ground , Dean and his men could expect to encounter scouting parties of the Indians at any moment , and one false step meant death . The third night passed without alarm , though every eye and ear was strained . The morning of the fourth day dawned and the sun soon tinged the misty mountain tops to the far north , and Dean saw before him an open rolling country , over which it would be impossible to march without attracting Indian eyes , if Indian eyes there were within twenty miles . And with proper caution he ordered his men to keep in concealment , horses grazing under guard in a deep depression near a stream , men dozing soundly by turns until the twilight came , and then the stars -- their night lights for a long , long march .