Hearing gunfire, Rowdy and a couple drovers rescue three soldiers under attack by Comanches. They are all that is left of a patrol instituting a treaty violation which seizes land for white settlers. Gil's Confederate vets resent sheltering the three Indian fighters, because their Sergeant is a Galvanized Yankee, who went West into the Union Army, to get out of a POW camp. Brutal Sgt. Duclos, who fought for brilliant Southern Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest and was a West Point graduate, also recently killed the son of the chief Gil negotiated with for passage through Comanche land. The Chief's wife was also accidentally killed by horses in the same battle. Rowdy regrets saving the three survivors, because now Chief Broken Bow may attack the cattle drive to capture Sgt. Duclos. To prove his point Broken Bow has a drover killed and dressed in a Sgt.'s uniform followed by burning out a friendly settler. The husband is returned to the drovers while his wife and son are kept prisoners until Sgt. Duclos is turned over. One or the other will die on the Comanche execution frame. The future of the drive and the Dobkin family are in Sgt. Duclos's hands who proves he is a true soldier.
—David Stevens