During the Golden Age of Westerns (1950s), Royal Dano was a guest on dozens of TV shows, and he usually played a dim-witted hillbilly, miner, or mountain-man. Dano was a stock character actor, a one-trick pony. In later years he did a lot of low-budget horror movies where he was just the creepy lurker or menacing old man.
The first time I saw this episode, I did not expect much when Royal Dano lurched in, with his dirty homeless bum look, and his crippled arm. Dano needed a place to stay, and Lukas McCain offered him food and shelter in exchange for some work.
Lawrence Dobkin, who was another average level supporting actor, came into the story as General Sheridan, who just happens to be riding by with a small group of officers, including a doctor. Fate would have it that Sheridan and Dano had met on the battlefield during the Civil War, and where Sheridan's life ascended, Dano's life crashed and burned due to his injuries.
The scenes between Dano and Dobkins are incredibly touching and well-acted. Dobkins does a great job as a gutsy General who wants to do the right thing. Dano does an even better performance as a conflicted man who is being destroyed by disease, a man who wants to take one last shot for the Confederacy, and a man who is a decent human being at heart. Dano really knocks out the best performance of his career.