Further, they did not at once advance to find out, which would later give rise to charges that they had abandoned Custer. After a delay of at least half an hour waiting for orders, Captain Weir rode north about a mile toward the sound of gunfire to the present-day Weir Point, followed by his company. There they could see a cloud of dust and smoke some three miles farther north. They assumed it was Custer. As they watched, however, they saw warriors emerging from the smoke, heading toward them, "thick as grasshoppers in a harvest field." Just then Benteen arrived. Looking at the situation, he realized this was "a hell of a place to fight Indians." He decided they must retreat to their original position, now called the "Reno-Benteen defense site". Here Benteen quickly established a horseshoe-shaped defensive perimeter on the bluffs near where he and Reno had met earlier. They were attacked immediately and throughout the rest of the day. As night fell the attack slackened off, while the large Lakota village was alive with celebration. About 2:30 A. M., two rifle shots signaled a resumption of the attack. Whatever his reluctance earlier, Benteen took on leadership of the force, leading at least one, perhaps three, charges which drove the Indians back just as it seemed the soldiers would be overrun. Cool and calm (at one point he lay down for a nap), Benteen walked among his troops encouraging them. When his men urged him to get down, he replied that he was protected by some charm his wife had sewn in his uniform. He was wounded in the thumb, and the heel was shot off one of his boots. Attacks on the soldiers slackened off by the afternoon of June 26, 1876. By 4:00 P. M., gunfire had stopped altogether. By 5:00 P. M. thick smoke obscured the village. The smoke cleared by sunset, revealing the entire village moving away "two to three and a half miles long and from half a mile to a mile wide ... as if someone was moving a heavy carpet over the ground." moving south. Overnight Army stragglers from Reno's battalion, given up for dead, wandered in. Finally, during the morning of June 27, 1876, the survivors could see a cloud of dust downriver. It turned out to be Generals Terry and Gibbon. The standoff was over. When General Terry and his staff reached him, Benteen asked if he knew "where Custer had gone."