Captain Benteen still commanded H Troop of the Seventh US Cavalry regiment during an 1876 expedition to find the Lakota and Cheyenne and force them onto reservations. On June 25, 1876, still searching approximately 12 miles from the Little Bighorn River, Custer divided his force into three battalions. He assigned Benteen command of a battalion comprising Troops D, H and K, tasked with searching on the left flank and securing any possible escape route. Benteen searched fruitlessly through rough ground for about two hours before returning to the trail of the main column. At a marshy crossing of Reno Creek ("the morass"), he stopped twenty minutes to water the horses. Some of his officers were concerned with the delay; one asked, "I wonder what the old man is keeping us here for." Just before leaving, they heard the sound of gunfire in the distance. Captain Thomas Weir was already mounted at the head of the column. Pointing ahead, he said of Custer's companies, "They ought to be over there," and started his company forward. Benteen ordered the rest of the battalion to advance.