Introduction -- The antagonists. The Cheyenne ; The Army ; The civilians -- The fight at Beecher Island. From Fort Wallace to Beecher Island -- Epilogue

"Evoking the spirit and danger of the early American West, this is the story of the Battle of Beecher Island, pitting an outnumbered United States Army patrol against six hundred Native warriors, where heroism on both sides of the conflict captures the vital themes at play on the American frontier"--

September, 1868. The undermanned United States Army was struggling to address attacks by Cheyenne and Sioux warriors against the Kansas settlements, the stagecoach routes, and the transcontinental railroad. General Sheridan placed fifty frontiersmen and scouts to supplement his limited forces, and placed them under the command of Major George Forsyth and Lieutenant Frederick Beecher. Their patrol left Fort Wallace, Kansas, and headed northwest into Colorado. After a week they were at the limit of their supplies. In the early morning, attacked by a force of Cheyenne and Sioux warriors, they held out for four days when they were rescued by elements of the famous Buffalo Soldiers. Mort shows that this small incident in the history of western conflict brings together all of the important elements of the Western frontier, and is a story of human heroism exhibited by warriors on both sides of the dramatic conflict. -- adapted from jacket