Synopsis

The shadow of civil war falls early across the West. In "Bleeding Kansas," proponents of abolition clash over free soil. Further west, in Utah, federal soldiers advance against the practice of Mormon polygamy. And along the Rio Grande, Mexican Americans, burdened by oppression, rise in revolt. The conflict between North and South ignites a brutal savagery in these western lands, leaving behind an army poised for total war against the native peoples of the plains.