Revolt at Fort Laramie 1957

Jean Salignac is part of the undermanned garrison at Fort Laramie, a Wyoming Territory outpost stubbornly trying to keep the peace with the Sioux Nation led by Chief Red Cloud. As part of a treaty, the United States government pays Red Cloud in gold to sustain the peace and support his people, but Red Cloud devises a bold plan to steal the gold and use that act of non-payment as a pretext to go to war. The tension surrounding this arrangement sits alongside the looming shadow of the American Civil War, testing loyalties inside the fort.

Inside the garrison, loyalties are split. A faction of soldiers led by Sgt. Darrach leans toward the Confederacy, while another group under Serrell supports the Union. The news of the Battle of Fort Sumter reaches the fort, and the Confederate-leaning officers grow more determined: they not only want to desert the army but also try to seize the gold shipment due to be paid to Red Cloud in Texas. The clash between allegiances creates a dangerous undercurrent that threatens the entire mission at Fort Laramie.

Amid this mounting tension, a Southern warning comes to the attention of Capt. James ‘Jamie’ Tenslip and Lt. Chick Waller. A lone voice warns of a planned mutiny, but that warning is silenced in a brutal way, his screams blending into the soldiers’ chorus as they sing Dixie. The ominous signal of betrayal hangs over the fort as Tenslip and Waller try to make sense of the conflicting loyalties.

Major Maj. Seth Bradner faces a stark sense of urgency as the threat of internal collapse grows. He decides that the best path is to resign his commission and hand command of the fort over to Tenslip, hoping to stabilise matters with a steady, civilian-minded leadership. With Bradner’s departure, the Southern soldiers depart in civilian clothes, a move that Red Cloud misreads as another sign of surrender rather than a change of allegiance. Red Cloud surrounds them, pressing in as if to finish the mutineers off, testing whether any part of the garrison will stand firm.

Word of the peril spreads back to the fort, and Tenslip, along with a group of volunteers, rides out to aid the beleaguered group. They manage to drive Red Cloud away at the edge of a tense confrontation, but the cost is heavy: Major Bradner is killed during the engagement. The remaining Southern loyalists press on toward home, while Tenslip leads his troops back to the fortress, the fragile peace of Fort Laramie once again hanging in the balance as the siege resolves into a hard-won, hard-fought return to order.