Santa Fe Trail

That is right. Fours, right about! Ho!

Second section, the man on the right, number two, close in.

Come on, pick it up, pick it up.

To the right. Ho!

Man 2: Troop, dismount! Fall out!

- Man 2: William pender. - Here.

- Man 2: Charles saw tell. - Here.

- Man 2: Jeb Stuart. - Yep.

- Man 2: George custer. - Yep.

- Man 2: George pickett. - Here.

- Man 2: Robert holliday. - Here.

- Man 2: James long street. - Yep.

- Man 2: Carl raider. - Yep.

- Man 2: Phillip Sheridan. - Here.

Hey, Jeb, take a look at this saddle sore.

You think that's serious enough to report?

I don't know, George, but I've certainly got to report mine.

- Ooh. - You boys can have the cavalry.

Me, I'm gonna apply for the infantry.

Tired of playing housemaid to a temperamental mare.

That's the first good news your horse has ever heard.

Go on, gertrude, kiss him.

- Stand still you devil! - Steady, boy.

If you weren't so hot-headed you wouldn't hurt your mouth.

I told you before we started

you had that curb chain on too tight.

It's not the first time you've cut his tongue.

Ever tried putting a curb on your tongue?

No, nobody else every tried it.

I suppose it takes one of you southerners to handle a horse.

Well, at least, we know how to harness them.

You know how to harness negroes down south too I hear.

With a strap across their back. Come on.

When are you going to take a punch at him?

Unh-unh. Too close to graduation.

I guess I can wait another week.

"The breaking up of the American union as of now exists

is the basis of my plan."

"And that destruction must be made upon the issue

of negro slavery and on no other."

"The union must then be reorganized

on the great principle of emancipation."

"This object is vast in its compass."

"Terrifying in its prospects but sublime"

"a life devoted to it would be nobly spent"

"if the federal government in its constitution

"are opposed to my way of thinking,

the fault is not mine, but theirs."

"And I shall continue to oppose them with every means

and every weapon at my disposal.“

a wise man by the name of John brown.

That's my business, if you don't like it

you don't have to listen to it.

You meant it for me, didn't you?

- Take it anyway you like. - Sure, he meant it for you.

He tried that abolitionists stuff on me

until he found out I came from Kansas.

Never mind, Bob. Come on, Jeb, let's turn in.

There is no regulation against a cadet having his own ideas.

But there is one spreading treasonable policies.

You find the truth hard to take, hmm?

Listen, rader, I know the truth of this problem

far better than you do.

In its own time and in its own way.

But not through the propaganda of renegades

like this John brown or any of his followers.

You mean that renegade line to include me?

Look up your oath of allegiance and answer that for yourself.

I'll answer that right here and now.

I've taken a lot of you southern snobs.

For 50 years now you have been watering

your precious family trees with the sweat of negro slaves.

Piling up wealth and snobbery until now

you think you own the government and the army.

And anybody who disagrees with you is a lying renegade.

A rebel rousing traitor.

Well, you get this from me, Stuart.

And all you other Mason Dixon plutocrats

the time is coming when the rest of us are going to wipe you

and your kind off the face of the earth.

- Jeb, don't be a fool. - Stop! Let them fight it out.

- Jeb. - Jeb!

For sometime I've been aware that the disturbing force

has been active among the regiment of cadets.

The exact nature of this subversive campaign

and the persons responsible for it

have not been fully known to us until this moment.

Stuart, by every rule of the academy

you should be discharged from the service.

And your associates are no less guilty for their part

in this outrageous affair.

Colonel Lee, any blame in this matter is entirely upon me.

It's my sole responsibility, sir.

That's not quite true, sir. It was my fault.

We are all equally responsible, sir.

Man 4: That's right, sir. Man 5: That's right, sir.

If I believe that you were guilty alone, Stuart

I should have sent for you alone.

As for you, custer, and the rest of you

you must be taught that lying to protect a friend

is sometimes an extremely dangerous practice.

I'm not so greatly concerned about the fight itself

all seven of you men violated the first sin

of military conduct.

The traffic and violent exchange of political ideas.

Which are not the affairs of an American solider.

You must be punished and punished severely.

I shall request of the war department upon your graduation

next week that all of you be assigned

to the most dangerous branch of the United States army.

The second United States cavalry.

In the Kansas territory.

That's all, gentlemen, you are dismissed.

.\

How can you read that?

Fort leavenworth, suicide station.

Kansas in the Santa fe trail, what a piece of luck!

That's it, and the cavalry, active duty, promotion.

Why, we'll all be generals, while the rest

are still chafing..

Oh, that's death of the country, Jeb.

Nothing grows in Kansas but trouble.

What are you talking about? I grew up out there, didn't I?

Well, I suppose he's not.

Yeah, wait till I get you boys out there

man alive, that's my stamping grounds.

These pamphlets were found in your quarters.

Dozens of them, together with a letter

written by a member of the abolitionists party

instructing you to distribute them among those cadets

who appear to be sympathetic to their cause.

How long has this undercover activity of yours been going on?

Very clear idea of your fellow conspirators

to plant an agent in our midst.

Your dishonorable discharge will be drawn up at once.

And you will be given until sundown to remove yourself

and your personal belongings from the limits of west point.

And you can tell Mr. Stuart for me

that he'd be smart to stay in the army.

Right in the middle of it from now on.

Cadet George custer, Ohio.

Cadet James long street, south Carolina.

Man 5: Cadet Philip Sheridan, New York.

Cadet j-e-b Stuart, Virginia.

Cadet John hood, Kentucky.

Cadet Robert holliday, Kansas territory.

Cadet Jason wood, Virginia.

Cadet George pickett, Virginia.

That's my sister kit.

Thought two years in Boston would make a lady out of you.

So did I, it just popped out.

Man 5: Cadet Robert Davis, New Jersey.

It is now my great honor and privilege to introduce

the secretary of war of the United States of America.

Officers and gentlemen of the class of 1854

their welcomed guests and their very proud families,

I'll not keep you separated very long

as I myself once sat in your place

and endure an interminable address

by a very tiresome general.

But as a secretary of war of this nation

I have a serious obligation towards each new officer

of the army before he enters into active service.

And that obligation is to make clear and definite

his responsibility to his government.

We are a new nation among the powers of the world.

We were fighting desperately for our freedom.

And we are still fighting to keep it.

We are not yet a wealthy nation, except in spirit.

And that unity of spirit is our greatest strength.

You men now have but one duty.

With your unswerving loyalty and the grace of god

our nation shall have no fears for the future.

And your lives will have been spent in the noblest

of all causes, the defense of the rights of man.

Mr. Holliday, we're getting close to leavenworth.

Yeah, it's a shame this tea kettle of yours

doesn't go any further.

What for? There's nothing to go to.

There's half a nation out there, cap.

Someday I'll build a real railroad to open it up.

For a man who made a fortune out of horses

you sure got a heap to learn.

Hey, cap, tell the boys to speed it up, will you?

The last time I had get out and help chop wood for the engine.

Well, the first time you rode with me

I had to change your diapers.

Hey, cap, where am I going?

Looks like you are going to Hades.

Bob's been telling us about that railroad Santa fe so long.

Now, Mr. Holiday, I'm surprised to learn

you can't build a railroad over blood-soaked ground like Kansas.

We are losing thousands of pioneer to Oregon trail.

They circle right around us.

We heard about the raided arsenal last week.

What is the true situation out here, sir?

Well, Kansas is a territory and not a state.

We are ready to join the union, but the big question is

whether we'll go in as a slave state or as a free state.

On one side is most of Kansas' pro-slavers