Cavalry

In 1865, at the end of the Civil War, Confederate colonel Lafe Harvey returns to his Southern plantation to tell his niece Betty Lee that her father, Gen. John Harvey, is presumed dead in battle. Their reunion is cut short when they must hide from a band of scavengers, headed by Gavin Rance, who loot and burn their home. Lafe and Betty Lee then free their slaves and join a wagon train heading West. After their departure, Union soldier Lieutenant Ted Thorne leads the blind Harvey, whose life was saved by Ted, to his plantation, and there Harvey asks him to search for his brother and daughter. Ted goes to Washington, D.C., where President Lincoln promotes him to captain and instructs him to protect a new telegraph line, which is being installed to stop a plot by former Confederates to form an independent country. Out West, Rance and his cohorts, Bart Haines and Jase, have begun working for Horace Leeds, a prosperous businessman and the leader of the independence movement. Rance and the others steal important maps from the surveying team laying the telegraph line, then join the wagon train in which Betty Lee and Lafe are traveling under the alias of Holbrook. Ted follows Rance's trail, and discover that Leeds and Rance have organized the Indians to attack the wagon train, in which Leeds has planted guns and ammunition promised to the Indians if they help him begin his new country. Ted alerts the cavalry and the attack is thwarted. When the wagon train arrives in town, Leeds greets it and assesses its members as to who will be sympathetic to his cause. Bitter Lafe has no love for the Union and so falls in with Leeds, despite Ted's warnings to Betty Lee. Ted goes to the cavalry once again, telling the major about Leeds and the ammunition, and suggesting that they give clothing and food to the Indians to assure their neutrality. Ted then attends one of Leeds's meetings, and despite his warnings to the group that Leeds was behind the Indian attack, Ted is dismissed as a Yankee spy. Shortly after, Leeds instructs Rance and the others to kill those who are against his cause, incite the Indians to attack the telegraph workers and destroy the telegraph. That night, the gang murders two families, but the cavalry succeeds in routing them during the telegraph raid when the Indians do not arrive. Leeds escapes and hides in Betty Lee and Lafe's house, where Ted captures him. Ted protects Lafe from being arrested as one of Leeds's sympathizers, thereby earning his gratitude. Soon after, Ted brings Harvey, who has partially recovered his sight, to Lafe's house, and while Harvey and Lafe greet each other, Ted and Betty Lee go to town to find a minister and get married.