03x15 - The Colonel Harris Story

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It's kind of like coming home in a.

There's no place in the world like this.

Tell you the truth.

The troops are mighty glad they're coming.

Colonel Harris is here again.

I thought he'd be too busy to miss me.

At the Booker coming, Major.

Well, I'm.

Just trying to figure out how
we're going to break even on this trip.

I hear that Colonel Harris

has been sent back
to Fort Young to command.

Oh, yeah.

He's a friend of yours, isn't he?

I spend it mightily.

Jim Bridger.
Nice to spend a lot of time at the fort.

Colonel,
his wife had a big hand in raising me.

Just like I've always told you, Major.

The army never does anything right.

Charlie, you can't blame the Army
for the way Flint turned out.

After all, the army does make mistakes,
you know.

You better watch your major.

Carnegie's trying to get out of some work.

Well, now you mention it, Bill.

I would like to right up to the fort
and say a lot of the Harrises.

I haven't seen them since before the w*r.

How old is their daughter now?

They don't have one.

Well, you be careful.

I understand a Comanche getting kind of
touchy up in this part of the country.

Oh, you don't have to worry
about the Comanches. You're too far south.

They won't give you any trouble at all.
Yeah, I suppose not.

How long do you figure on being alone?

Two or three days.

I ought to be able to make it Spring peak.
Will you be there?

You understand?

I'm not paying you to make social calls.

Major.

Check the record.

You're hardly paying me at all.

But listen, you keep your eyes peeled
and you get up on that Red Bull country.

I understand he's got a pretty sister,

Princess.

What do you want?

Howdy. Where's the princess?

The old school, huh? Not here anymore.

This is my store.

Well, since when?

Since last week.

Do you know where I could find her?

I don't know, mister.

Why don't you go and talk to the army?

They took her away.

Do you want something or don't you?

What do you mean? The army come
and took her.

I mean, they took her away
when they rounded up all the Indians.

I reckon she's over to Fort.

Well, don't look at me.

I didn't do it.

Good talking to you, Army.

I will.

Where are you going?

I want to talk to one of these women,

Princess.

Princess.

Flint.

Flint McComb.

Oh, thank you.

Whoever heard of a Comanche
princess crying?

I. Sorry so much happened.

Why are you in here?

Everything wrong, Flint? Everything.

Princess, Who put you in here?

Colonel Harris.

You must be mistaken. He wouldn't do that.

Flint Mrs. Harris.

Dead one week.

Charity

How come that she's.

My princess?

What does that got to do with you?

Colonel Harris, Go wild in head.

You know him once.

You know.

Know him now. He'd k*ll wherever.

Shoshone, Comanches.

All tribes.

Talk to him.

All right, princess. I'll talk to him.

Flint, There'll be w*r soon.

You, my people, Comanches, my people.

Where I go, what I do.

I'll talk to him, Princess.

Oh, I see The Colonel.

Please.

I need a color. Some color.

Clay.

Colonel. Jim.

Flint boy.

That'll be all, Major.

It's been a long time.

Well, sit down.

What can I do for you?

I just learned about charity.

Naturally, it came as a great shock to me.

I know

how it feels to have your heart torn out
while you're still alive.

I know how much you loved her.

So did I.

I'm afraid we all did.

Colonel.

I just saw the princess.

Maybe you can explain to me
why she's a prisoner.

You heard about Red Bull?

Comanche White? Yes. What about it?

I mean, Red Bull.

He's Bowman Lewis.

She didn't tell me that.

And I don't suppose she told you that he's
been organizing his forces for w*r?

That he's a traitor.

He's been using everything
he learned from his father and me

and the army against us
that he m*rder*d Charity.

I'm sorry, Colonel. I can't believe that.

Would you like to see the Comanche arrows
like took from her Poor?

Get out, Flint.

Don't you get mixed up in it too?

Don't get mixed up in it.

I've heard you say

Harriet
Lewis is the best friend I've ever had.

And you put his wife in the compound.

Lawman Lewis was almost a brother to me.

Now he's gone
back to live with the Comanches.

And you tell me.

Then you tell me.

Bowman's Comanches murders your wife.

And she's about the closest thing
I ever had to a mother.

How can you say Don't get mixed up in it?

Colonel Bowman

was, well,
almost like a son to you and Charity.

Do you really believe he could m*rder?

She was m*rder*d by Comanches.

Well, what does that prove?

He gives the orders to the
Comanche nation. Nobody else.

Why do you think

they sent me back here
to Fort Young after ten years?

Because Red Bull was organizing
for w*r, and Washington

thought that I could keep the peace.

You can not.

What a savage, murderous, treacherous,
wild animal.

Not what a traitor.

Is he a traitor
because he chooses his mother's people?

He was raised by the army.

I fought for the Confederacy.

What does that make me?

That was different.

What's different about it, Colonel?

Let me talk to Bowman,

and maybe I can arrange
some kind of a conference between you two.

I'm not interested in a peace conference.

Are you interested in a w*r?

You want to talk to it?

All right.

You tell him
I want the men who m*rder*d Charity,

and I want him here at this fort
within a week.

Or I'll move
my entire command against the Comanches.

I'll tell him.

And if he doesn't like it,

you remind him that his mother
may not like a federal prison either.

You wouldn't do that.

The Comanches m*rder*d my wife,
and they're going to pay.

And so will the entire frontier.

And I doubt your wife would want that.

Take me to Red Bull.

Take me to a Red Bull.

Gray bear tells me

you came to see me. Why?

I don't talk to my friends with my hands.

Tell you you. Saw

any longer.

Gray Bear tells me you want to talk.

I have just come from Fort Young.

I know about charity. Oh.

Did Colonel Harris tell you?

No. I learned from your mother.

Did you see her?

How is she?

She's a hostage.

The Colonel will hold
you responsible for his wife's m*rder.

I know,

Clint.

I gave commands to my braves

to avoid conflict.

Some of the younger Braves,
they disobeyed their command.

They rode toward Canada
on the way they met Charity.

I see.

Does the Colonel know that? Yes.

I said we're doing by a party.

And he hanged them.

Now, when I bring a message
from the Colonel,

if the men responsible for Charity's
m*rder are not surrendered to the fort

in three days, your mother will be sent
to a federal prison,

and the entire regiment
will move against the imagination.

What sort of people does he think we are?

If he hurts my mother,
I won't believe a white man or a woman

to live between the Missouri
and the Rockies.

You two learned very well from each other.

He wants to

butcher the entire Indian world
because of his wife's m*rder.

And you want to butcher the whites
because of your mother?

I thought you wanted to help the Comanches
with your attitude.

You'll destroy them.

This is a Comanche w*r, Lance.

It breaks easily by itself.

This is Crow.

This is you.

This is Blackfoot.

Together they do not break.

Already the Apaches are here.

Warriors, not negotiators.

Already
I talk to the chiefs of the other tribes.

All differences are forgotten.

Nations will become one nation.

Oh, you will talk to us, Flint.

You and Harris and the rest.

Or you'll have more w*r than you can
handle.

There's been talk
of an Indian confederation for years.

It won't stop the Colonel.

This is not just talk.

Already, I have an army.

And two months, perhaps three.

I'll have a great army.

And then we'll talk
from a position of strength.

If you move against a colonel now,
your confederation will be destroyed

before it is even born.

Talk to him.

What is your interest in this?

What is my interest here?

As good a friend as I have ever had.

And the colonel's
been almost a father to me.

And you asked me what my interest is.

Do you expect me to stand by?

What?

You two hack at each other
until one or both of is destroyed?

Come and talk to him.
What have you got to lose?

You tell Jim Harris that

my Chiefs and I will meet him at Sublette
Wells in three days.

He wants to talk.

We'll talk.

But if he wants to fight. He'll talk.

I hope so.

We really want peace, Flint.

Now it's up to Harris and his government.

Don't kid yourself, Bowman.

It takes two to make a call.

And two to patch one up.

And go along.

Carl.

Hello, princess.

Oh, drinking you.

I know nothing.

What have Bowman?

I don't know.

Look, don't worry about it.

This will all be over soon.

We'll get you out of there.

No fret, boy.

Carl Beamer.

I heard you was around.

I've been on patrol,
and I heard. You got another rocket.

Congratulations. I got a tattoo on my arm.

Oh, yeah.

You're looking good.

Oh, I. Feel pretty good.

What's that all about?

Good for you. It's
why they like it too much.

Oh, them.

Well, it ain't healthy to be
an Indian around here lately.

You know about Mrs. Harris?

What's that got to do with them?

I've been with the Colonel a long time.

He took it real bad. Real bad, Flint.

So did I.

So did I.

So did the princess. And so did Bowman.

Maybe we better talk about something else.

Somebody's got to talk about it.

If we don't, the colonel is going to rip
the high plains wide open.

I'm just a sergeant boy.

You're more than a sergeant
cry. You're his friend.

No, Ed,

not since Jody died.

I say yes, sir, And I say, No, sir.

And that's all I say.

And that goes for everyone else
around here.

He lost a lot more than his wife
out there.

Now, what's that supposed to mean?

I got to check in with the troop.

We'll have a beer together sometime.

You say he has some guerrilla warriors
already with him?

At least 200 that I've seen myself.

Any talk of the Blackfeet
and the Utes, Among others?

Understand,
Major, I'm not playing spy for the Army.

I brought you a message from Bowman.

He'll meet you at Sublette
Wells in two days.

What do you think, Major?

I think we ought to talk with him.

You do the colonel's permission.

That's
what you were sent out here for, sir.

I was sent here to use my own judgment.

Then why don't you use it?

Colonel, I'll tell you again.

Bowman cannot possibly comply
with your demands.

The Braves you ask for
aren't even in the country anymore.

Colonel, you can't order Bowman around.

He's not a little boy playing at the fort
anymore.

He's an Indian chief.

A half naked politician.

I've been fighting politicians
all my life.

And you don't know the way to win
with them is with words, not b*ll*ts.

All right.

Go to Bowman.

Tell him I'll meet him at Sublette World.

And you'll talk peace.

To talk peace.

I'll tell him with pleasure, Jim.

The thing McCullough showed up
when he did.

You think so? Of course I do.

Yes, of course.

Major, I want three
troops loaded to ride to Sublette Wells.

Combat ready and to g*ns.

What don't you hear?

Well, Major.

Or is it
that you disapprove of my tactics?

I just don't understand them.

Well, then I'll make them clear to you.

All the leaders of the Comanche nation
will be at Sublette Wells in two days.

Major, the way to k*ll a rattlesnake
is to cut off its head.

McCullough's brought a Red Bull
out into the open where I can get at him.

And that's exactly what I'm going to do.

Jim, you gave him your word.

If you think I'm going to let him muster

the combined strength of all the tribes
against us, you're badly mistaken.

The Comanches butchered their last woman.

If I have to k*ll
every Indian old enough to draw a bow,

you have your orders, Major.

Carry them out

and I'll get him for your charity.

I swear I will.

Now what are.

He must think me the fool.

He comes well prepared to talk peace.

I don't understand.

But when he gave his word.

He wants to fight. We'll fight.

Now you let me talk to him.

You've done everything you can, Flint.

Now you stay out of it.

You have nothing to lose.

Let me talk to him.

All right.

But if he keeps coming,
we'll be waiting for him.

This time
we have enough braves to make it stick.

All right,

back up.

And that's the way you keep your word.

Colonel Bowman knows that
a battalion means as much as I do.

What are you doing out here?

Trying to save your neck.

You better clear out of here, Flint.

It ain't the Comanche.
They're just sitting waiting for you.

Bowman's got the Hickory Apaches with him.

If you keep moving
and move right into an ambush.

Do you think I'm a fool?

You've been using this tribal

confederation myth to keep me
from punishing your Comanche friend.

It's no myth, Colonel.

I don't like bleeding hearts.

I can't be trusted.

Sergeant Beemer?

Yes, sir.

Arrest this man.

Keep him confined to a supply wagon
until we've made contact.

I warned you, Colonel.

Come a long time.

I'm telling the truth, Carl.

You're moving right into an ambush.

I wouldn't be. Surprised.

Well, isn't there
something you can do about it?

I am. I'm following orders.

Yeah.

A set of Custer's men.

That's right.

That would help you.

But if McCullough is right
about the Confederation,

doesn't exist.

The ambush.

Our scouts are out, Mr. Shaiken.

There are Indians out there.

They'll let us know.

And rapid fire

to the place

where

Harris,

Ernie

can't look.

Are you all right?

Yeah, I'm all right.

Hey. Hey.

Take a look.

Now you see why the army
does not worry me anymore.

I wouldn't look too close, Bowman.

I recognize the faces
of a lot of your friends.

You will come with me.

McCullough's going with him, sir.

Well, why shouldn't he?

He brought them here

in order.

You saw it, Major.

We'll hang him for it.

At least they didn't

turn him over to the squaws.

I'm sorry.

I can not help your man, Carl,

but they must take the same chances
as my warriors in battle.

Any sign of Harris?

We never found his body.

And he'll be back.

I hope so.

You won't be so glad
if he shows up with reinforcements.

The butcher is proud.

He will not beg for help.

He won't have to.

All you have to do is wire
and say the situation is out of hand.

Bowman, you've had your revenge.

Why don't you quit what used to lie ahead?

Why already? We have an army.

In another month, we have a great army.

Robert E Lee had a great army, too.

I know something about hopeless fights.

You can't possibly win. But we can die.

And we can take every white man
west of the Missouri

with us.

Flint,

you don't have to stay here.

I'd better stay here. I'm a white man.

It makes my position clear.

You got to go, son.

Just because I know Harris is wrong
doesn't mean I think he's right.

They're going to save our throats before
this is done.

Jim, the surgeon told you
to keep that arm in a sling.

It'll be all right in a couple of days,

Princess.

Come in, Come in.

That'll be all, Trooper.

Sit down, Princess.

You heard what happened.

I heard a lot of good
men were k*lled out there unnecessarily.

You cannot blame Bowman.

You made him do it.

You're right, Princess.

I don't deny it.

I wanted to come back here to Fort Young.

You didn't know that, did you, princess?

When I learned that Bowman
had become chief of the Comanche.

To k*ll him. Of course not.

I thought Bowman would listen to me,
Princess.

When your husband died, I looked on Bowman
as a little part of him that I.

I could never lose.

He still had you.

But he needed a father,

just as I needed a son.

But father wants to k*ll his son.

What son k*lled his father's wife?

Bowman Not k*lled Charity any more than I.

I sorry for you.

It doesn't matter who k*lled her.

We all made mistakes.

I more than anybody else, locking you up,

blaming all the Indians for charities,

for what happened to charity.

I hope it's not too late.

Oh, what?

I have a message here for your son.

I ask him to come to the fort
to make peace.

He not believe. You?

I do not.

I don't blame you
after what happened at Sublette Wells.

But defeat can be a great teacher.

You know what will happen
if the Comanche take the path of w*r?

Princess,

we used to mean a lot to each other.

You and your husband, Bowman.

Charity and myself.

Flynn.

And look at us now.

There's a little time
left, Princess, but not very much.

If my son come.

Would he be safe. On my love for charity?

I swear that he will.

He can come and he can go
no matter what comes of our talks.

I can make a treaty, princess.

I have the authority.

But peace is up to you and Bowman.

Suppose it were charity
asking you this princess instead of me.

It's in her name that I ask it.

You tell Bowman that.

All right,

I go.

You won't be sorry, princess.

I promise you that,

Ranger,

you'll ride with the princess
and bring me Bowman's reply.

Gladly, Colonel.

I think you've done

the only sensible things you

showed away to make.

Does he tell the truth?

I think he does.

Colonel Harris is a man of his word.

I know what sort of man Harris is.

Sergeant Beemer.

Pleasure. Hello.

Glad to see you're all right, Measure.

I figured I'd see you in,

Major.

If you think Flint betrayed you.

You're wrong.

He tried to warn you.

You didn't exactly treat him as an enemy.

You got across the Major.

Flint's being held here
the same as the rest of us.

Flint.

Read this from Harris.

Red Bull, Chief of the Imagination.

Comanches have won a notable victory,
proving that their chief remembers

well the lessons
he learned at his old friend's knee.

But more soldiers will come

and more until the Indians sinks
under a sea of cavalrymen.

Until the nations of the planet.
But a legend.

Does the chief remember the lessons
he learned as a boy long before the w*r

between the states? Charity Harris

told two small boys.

Even if w*r comes, remember your friends.

Remember what you mean to one another.

And let us talk, please.

Bowman. Lewis.

For my friendship. For your dead father.

And yours.

For my dead wife.

Come to Fort Young. The name of peace.

And in the name of charity.

In the name of charity.

Is it a trick?

I don't know.

There's no trick.

My son.

I think it is as major says

Bowman.

You have a responsibility to your people.

If you don't,
at least try and negotiate this.

And the w*r should come.

And the blood of many people,
yours and mine, will lie on your head.

Do not go, Red Bull.

The butcher bakes his trap
with a spirit of a dead squaw.

Already the

tribes gather
that guerrilla Apaches are here now.

The crow are on the way.

They are separate,
like the fingers on a hand.

Old grievances die hard.

Tell Jim Harris
I'll meet him at the fort in two days.

Harris has released my mother,
so I send him Sergeant Beamer.

The rest of the captives will stay here.

You won't be sorry.

Is not for me to be sorry

If there's any treachery.

The fingers on the hand
will close into a fist

or fall with such a force
that it will shake

your very nation.

Got him,

Got him.

That's the way to finish a jackal, Major.

Don't hurt him. Trap him, sir.

He'll want a reception.

Certainly. One
befitting a man of his station.

Well, be Trooper Lane.

The parade ground
and a troop will be at the walls.

The minute he's inside,
the gate, manager will take him.

You can't be serious.

And McCullough will be with him.

Both of them. Perfect.

What did I tell you, Major?

I told you we'd see them hanged.
Good night.

Tonight. You can't do this, Jim.

You gave me a word.

Don't speak to me of my word, Major.

That filthy renegade has m*rder*d
his last white woman.

I don't owe him anything but a rope.

There is such a thing as honor.

This is a soldier's honor.

As long as I am in command of this post,
it's the only honor

that counts.

Or has he gotten to you
the same way he did to McCullough?

I know you share

an all along you've been bleeding
the poor Indian.

Make peace.

Let them go on butchering.

Are you a fool or a traitor?

Anybody, even a fool would know.

You can't make peace with wild animals.

A fool or a traitor. Which one are you?

I am a soldier, sir.

Very well, Major.

Then act like one.

You have your orders?

Yes, sir.

Atten hut!

Reserved.

Arms.

Put her palms.

Red boas here.

So I see.

Lieutenant Roberts, carry out your orders.

It's close.

In the name of charity.

Lieutenant Roberts.

Put them in the hall.

Alex,

I'm sorry.

Doesn't matter.

You wouldn't have come here
if I hadn't talked him into.

I would have come anyway.

What happens to one man is not important.

What is important?

If my people know what to expect
from a man like Colonel Harris.

Bowman.

It'll be a long ride.

You may not enjoy it. Leave him alone.

If your friends try to free you,
you'll be shut.

Oh, Bowman.

Since you're such an important man,

you'll get a private compartment
all the way to Fort Kinney.

Flint.

You'll have to ride on the wagon.

But you're not a chief.

You're only a traitor.

You get away from here.

Must be warm down there.

I'll get you boys some water
as soon as we get to Fort

Kearney and

Welch over.

Nothing, sir.

He tries to escape or any Indians show up.

sh**t him right there in the cage
like he is.

That's the order.
That ain't right, Sergeant.

I don't care what kind of an engineer's

major.

I've been in this man. So.

Missions. Andrew Jackson was a puppet.

I question the orders yet? Only

as long

as you going to keep an eye on Colonel
Harris.

Sergeant Beamer?

Yes, sir.

Colonel
Harris is your commanding officer. And.

That's what worries me.

You understand that

if you try to escape, you'll be shot.

I'm not worried about a court
martial, Colonel.

But I think I'll be interested
in the way you have a things.

I worry about that when the time comes.

Colonel Harris.

Indians.

As your myth, Colonel.

You don't stand a chance.

Where they all come from.

You'd

Comanches,

Apaches,

those up in the hill there, across

your men will be cut to ribbons.

We're here to fight Indians.

Colonel, you don't mean to go out.

Major, this is the United States Cavalry.

We don't wait for the enemy to come to us.

Get the troops ready to move. Yes, sir.

Tell you how the journey to Bolivar

was going on

undercover man.

We took a beating the other day,
but not because we were out.

But we were betrayed.

There isn't a man here
who didn't lose friends at Blackwell's.

And there isn't a man here
who doesn't want to avenge them.

There'll be no treachery today.

They're waiting to meet us in open
battle to us

for the honor
of crushing the Indian power forever.

Today.

Now, Sergeant Major.

Yes, sir.

You will ride beside the wagon
when the first shot is fired.

You will k*ll Redbone.

Yes, sir.

Major, shake him out. The troops.

Let him out.

Oh, you may listen to me.

There must be 3000 graves out there.

The warriors of a half a dozen tribes.

You don't stand a chance against them.

Jeff, The color.

You go outside of these gates
and they'll slaughter you.

There must be ten of them
for every one of you.

You don't stand a chance.

Sergeant Beamer, sh**t that man.

sh**t him.

That's an order.

No, sir.

As you wish, Sergeant.

Men. Colonel Harris is ill.

In accordance
with the appropriate articles of w*r,

I hereby assume command of this post.

Colonel,
if you'll accompany me to the post

surgeon.

And I come to you, help the guards.

And if I.

Look at

Sergeant Beamer.

Yes, sir.

Hey, Colonel Harris at the Post Hospital.

You damn kindly understand.

Of course, sir.

Then better have those hands
taken care of.

Release Red Bull.

Well, Bowman,

it's been good to see
in spite of everything.

It's a good treaty.

Perhaps we'll have peace
for a little while.

Let's hope a lot

of late.

General Collins wants a word with you both

before you leave.

Major, she controls me of the close

personal relationship
that each of you once had with Jeff.

Well, with the former post commander.

I hope you won't judge him too harshly.

There are many ways to fall in battle. And

Jim Harris was a way.

It was perhaps the worst. I know.

I feel sorry for him.

Are you?

I'm glad he was a good soldier.

There any hope for him?

The surgeon general reports that Jim
will be in the hospital for a long time.

There will be peace, Mr.

Lewis.

The Indian will not break the treaty.

Good. General.