The Shadow Riders 1982

After the Civil War ends, Dal Traven is moments from execution when a cavalry unit led by Major Cooper Ashbury rescues him. Ashbury invites Dal to keep fighting for the Confederacy, but Dal declines and sets his course back to Texas, where he reunites with his brother Mac Traven, a former Union officer. The brothers travel home with a sense of wary kinship, despite their opposing pasts, and they soon realize the conflict is far from over.

Their return is brutal. They find their house looted, their family in disarray, and their loved ones in danger: their two sisters, as well as their brother Jesse, and Dal’s girlfriend Kate Connery / Sister Katherine have been kidnapped. The looting appears to be tied to Ashbury’s raiding parties and a larger plan to arm a new push against the Union. The conniving plot thickens as a gunrunner named Holiday Hammond arrives with the loot and a desperate scheme to trade prisoners—goods and people alike—for guns.

Desperation quickly turns into action. Jesse and Kate attempt an escape, but the attempt goes awry, and Jesse is shot and presumed dead in the churn of pursuit. Hammond, traveling by boat, takes all of the prisoners—the ones Ashbury captured—toward Mexico, leaving Kate behind for the moment. Dal and Mac press on, tracking the Confederates through hostile terrain until they come upon their wounded brother and link up with him again. The trio fights back, rescues Kate Connery / Sister Katherine, and learns that their sisters have been taken south to Mexico. Realizing they lack the local knowledge to navigate foreign lands, Dal and Mac seek help from their enemy-turned-reluctant ally, their Uncle Jack, whom they manage to free from jail to guide them through uncertain territory in pursuit of Hammond.

In Mexico, the tension tightens as Ashbury confronts Hammond, who finally reveals his true plan: he never intended to sell guns at all and instead masterminded a broader trap for the Travens. Hammond imprisons Ashbury, and soon Jack leads the charge toward Hammond’s hideout. A fierce battle erupts, and while Ashbury briefly escapes, Dal captures him and chooses mercy, sparing the man who once saved his life.

The pursuit reaches a fever pitch when Hammond seizes the Traven sisters and attempts to slip away by train. Dal and Mac chase on horseback, catching the moving train and reclaiming the captives. They free the sisters and capture Hammond, solidifying a fragile sense of justice amid the ruins of war. Just when victory seems near, the Texan sheriff arrives—Sheriff Miles Gillette—to arrest Uncle Jack again. Rather than let family be torn apart, the Travens persuade the sheriff to trade Jack for Hammond, swapping one wanted man for another and freeing the rest of the prisoners in the process.

With Hammond in custody and the rest of the captives freed, the Travens—five siblings strong, along with Kate and Uncle Jack—begin the long, difficult journey home to Texas. The landscape may be scarred by years of conflict, but the bonds of family and loyalty hold steady as the troupe moves forward, choosing to face whatever lies ahead together rather than apart. The story closes on a note of battered resilience, where endurance and familial ties offer a beacon of hope on a frontier still haunted by the echoes of war.