Despite his relative inexperience, "green in the West" New Jersey native Captain Duquesne is as hard-nosed a cavalry officer as they come but, according to Major Prewitt, a very capable soldier. He's determined to obey orders to get supplies to Fort Burnside despite scout Cheyenne Bodie's warning about a sizable band of Shoshone on the warpath led by Chief Gray Wolf. Before they head out, Cheyenne speaks up on behalf of a young recruit, Jerry Dailey, for a minor infraction. Out of mischievous revenge, wily Sergeant O'Bannon assigns the boy to be Bodie's courier on their trek to Burnside; as it turns out, he'd have been better off in the stockade.
The obstinate captain still doesn't believe Cheyenne's assertion that there's a large contingent of Shoshone on the warpath, but he begins to waver when on their way, they're attacked by a Shoshone raiding party. Duquesne is wounded, several of the soldiers are killed, including O'Bannon, and Dailey is arrested for cowardice in the face of the enemy for not defending the sergeant. Against Cheyenne's advice, the company takes refuge in an abandoned fort; it's an isolated outpost vulnerable to attack with only one way out through rough terrain, which is why it was abandoned in the first place. However, the captain remains resolute, in part evidently because he doesn't want to be proved wrong. When the sound of Indians doing a war dance fills the night air, he comes to realize that to complete his mission, he must get past the waiting Shoshone.
Even though he disdains the idea of "civilized warfare," he is willing to engage in what's considered a form of it to get the job done. That means sacrificing one man to trick the Indians into thinking the troop is leaving the safety of the abandoned fort by a more arduous alternate mountain route. Unbeknown to Cheyenne, Duquesne enlists Corporal Dailey for the mission, knowing that he'll be caught and tortured into revealing what he thinks is the troop's escape plan, thus misdirecting the Indians. As it turns out, Dailey proves to be something of a hero, after all, and the captain learns a lesson or two himself about valor and loyalty.
More often than not, "Cheyenne" portrayed the cowboy experience in the post-Civil War era, but this story deals with what it was like to be a soldier in the United States Army during that same time period. The characters are true-to-life and their relationships genuine, demonstrating that the military experience hasn't changed much in the last 150 years; only the weapons have evolved. Robert McQueeney is appropriately arrogant as the misguided captain, and Joseph Gallison (Evan McCord) is good as the naïve but doomed trooper Dailey. I didn't even recognize Stacy Keach Sr. In the role of Sergeant O'Bannon, a very different character than the cunning criminal boss, the "Dutchman," that he played in "The Long Winter," proving what a truly versatile actor he was. Clint Walker's Cheyenne Bodie remains the epitome of the capable, intelligent scout, and again is given the opportunity to exercise supreme self-control when faced with one man's egotistical disregard for discernment and reason.
The obstinate captain still doesn't believe Cheyenne's assertion that there's a large contingent of Shoshone on the warpath, but he begins to waver when on their way, they're attacked by a Shoshone raiding party. Duquesne is wounded, several of the soldiers are killed, including O'Bannon, and Dailey is arrested for cowardice in the face of the enemy for not defending the sergeant. Against Cheyenne's advice, the company takes refuge in an abandoned fort; it's an isolated outpost vulnerable to attack with only one way out through rough terrain, which is why it was abandoned in the first place. However, the captain remains resolute, in part evidently because he doesn't want to be proved wrong. When the sound of Indians doing a war dance fills the night air, he comes to realize that to complete his mission, he must get past the waiting Shoshone.
Even though he disdains the idea of "civilized warfare," he is willing to engage in what's considered a form of it to get the job done. That means sacrificing one man to trick the Indians into thinking the troop is leaving the safety of the abandoned fort by a more arduous alternate mountain route. Unbeknown to Cheyenne, Duquesne enlists Corporal Dailey for the mission, knowing that he'll be caught and tortured into revealing what he thinks is the troop's escape plan, thus misdirecting the Indians. As it turns out, Dailey proves to be something of a hero, after all, and the captain learns a lesson or two himself about valor and loyalty.
More often than not, "Cheyenne" portrayed the cowboy experience in the post-Civil War era, but this story deals with what it was like to be a soldier in the United States Army during that same time period. The characters are true-to-life and their relationships genuine, demonstrating that the military experience hasn't changed much in the last 150 years; only the weapons have evolved. Robert McQueeney is appropriately arrogant as the misguided captain, and Joseph Gallison (Evan McCord) is good as the naïve but doomed trooper Dailey. I didn't even recognize Stacy Keach Sr. In the role of Sergeant O'Bannon, a very different character than the cunning criminal boss, the "Dutchman," that he played in "The Long Winter," proving what a truly versatile actor he was. Clint Walker's Cheyenne Bodie remains the epitome of the capable, intelligent scout, and again is given the opportunity to exercise supreme self-control when faced with one man's egotistical disregard for discernment and reason.
