Original subtitles

Is that gonna tell me what happened?

I'd rather hoped my brother could.

Sir, captain Donnelly has found something.

Sweet Jesus.

Oh my lord.

It's my brother, Richard.

Angels and ministers of grace defend us.

God, oh god, oh merciful father.

Another campaign was waged at catum creek.

Alabama 51st.

Which was by far the darkest of the civil war.

No honors were paid to its heroes,

no wreathes laid for its dead.

And though that was the one time confederates

and Yankees fought on the same side,

it is only with the greatest difficulty

that I can bear testament to it.

Not because I've forgotten,

but because I remember.

War had taught me the world cares little for man.

The earth will drink the tears of the dead,

the wind will consume the cries of the wounded,

and the sun will passively bear witness to it all.

In my youth, I had only desired to be a minister of souls,

but my own spirit had since become

as the rock of the mountain.

I had long ago stopped my ears to the pleas of men.

And thus was I still on that day,

when the blood of those crucified soldiers screamed

through the Kentucky fields and called to me.

Captain harling?

Captain?

General haworth said he wanted to see you.

I had only one thought

on that dry spring morning, my discharge.

After two years of fighting,

the call of home had become deafening.

In the end, however, the cry from Tennessee rang louder.

Captain John harling, reporting as ordered, sir.

Mm-hmm, yes.

My apologies, harling, I have a very busy schedule,

and we must work around the light.

Understandable, sir.

That is colonel thalman over there.

You may salute him, he is not in the portrait.

Colonel.

Please sit down, captain, thank you, lieutenant.

A little further back from the general,

sir, you are casting shadows.

- Recovering well, I hope. - Yes, sir, reasonable.

Captain had a little mishap on his last recognizance.

Fact is, we were planning to send him home tomorrow.

I caught him just in time, then.

Word has it that you're a tracker, harling.

Yes, sir. - He's real modest, George.

The captain here is one of the finest trackers

in the federal army.

Thank you, sir, just waiting for my discharge papers.

Anxious to get back to your preaching ministry, are you?

Yes, sir.

No, thank you.

Yes, thank you.

Captain, I understand that you are familiar

with the Alabama 51st.

Yes, sir.

Colonel Nehemiah strayn was their commanding officer.

I thought our boys wiped them out six months ago

at a place called catum's creak.

Strayn survived.

He's rotting away now in bowling green prison.

Excuse me, sir, but I don't see what this has to do

with my discharge.

Show him those other photographs, George.

Not a pretty portrait, captain.

All this occurred in Tennessee just a few days ago,

not far from catum's creek.

They were all colonel thalman's men, every last one of them.

31 died, 12 missing.

But the only thing the rebs lost

was a god damned belt buckle.

You don't think the 51st had anything to do with this,

sir, do you?

A witness to this ungodly massacre

has identified that man.

His name is lieutenant Josiah elkins.

He was the 51st's second in command.

According to our dear colonel strayn,

elkins died six months ago during the 51st's last stand.

However, we now believe that he survived,

and has since raised a formidable army of his own.

Under what state, sir?

In strictest confidentiality, captain.

Yes, sir. - We do fear

there may be some federal soldiers operating

with Mr. elkins as well.

You know, captain, sometimes in this war,

things get very confused,

particularly in our border states of Missouri and Kentucky

where there are so many young men fighting each other

from the same extended family.

Blue and gray is not always black and white

for any of us here in Kentucky.

No, sir.

So many of our fine young fighting men

become very confused between religious morality

and practical military necessity.

Every man has his breaking point, captain.

You and I have ours, and whoever did this deed

has obviously reached theirs.

Yes, sir, obviously, sir.

Sir, about my discharged.

I'm terribly sorry, captain.

Your discharges has been rescinded.

You will proceed with colonel thalman

and a small detachment forthwith

to the area around catum's creek.

There you will locate these men,

and you will call for reinforcements,

and we will have done with this sorry business.

As soon as you have completed your mission,

you may return home.

Again, I'm very sorry, captain,

but sometimes, this is how things are done.

Yes, sir.

Yes, sir.

Colonel.

Is there something else on your mind, captain?

Sir, with your permission,

I'd like to speak with your prisoner,

colonel Nehemiah strayn.

I believe he might be of some assistance.

How's that, captain?

Well, in addition to being commander of the 51st,

I studied under him before the war.

Listen to him, he whistles "yankee doodle"

every time he takes a piss.

Hey, strayn, you got a visitor.

Hey!

I'm having an intensely

private moment here, corporal.

Don't miss.

It's all right, corporal, I can handle him from here.

Johnny, I thought you had gone back

to preaching by now.

Union take the edge out of your religion?

Are we back on speaking terms?

You owe me a favor, Nehemiah.

I just come to collect.

It's a hell of a time to ask.

Come into my classroom.

Put your hands on your head.

Put your hands on your head!

Stay there.

John harling!

Nehemiah!

Short moment.

Get back in here.

Move!

Oh, come on, cheer up, Johnny.

I make life exciting for ya.

If it weren't for me,

you wouldn't have any fun at west point,

you'd never gotten drunk.

You certainly would never have had the pleasure

of chasing me around this war.

I need to talk to you.

What you need is a bath.

It's about your regiment.

I don't have a regiment, John.

Our boys found this two weeks ago,

stuffed in the mouth of a dead union soldier.

I thought you might be interested.

You think my boys did this?

Go to hell.

What the hell do you want, John?

I wanna go home.

But I need your help.

Attention, to me!

Fire!

Ready, aim, fire!

Fire away!

A taste of what you're going to get, rebel!

Now, lay down your arms and release that prisoner!

Taste this!

All right, level 'em!

Where's Murphy?

Check the loft, lewey.

God damn it.

Damn it, Murphy, get your ass down here.

Guarding the prisoners, sir.

Murphy, you heard me, now!

Now, don't you try nothin',

or you'll end up looking like that.

'Cause I'll be back.

Damn it, Murphy!

All right, everybody, fire, starting with me.

Including you, Murphy!

Hurry! - Well, this bitch

is gonna just sit there.

What the hell?

Reinforcement, we got men coming up the Ridge, boys!

Things aren't so rosy now, are they?

Turn that Cannon around!

First squad.

Ready, aim, fire!

Fire!

Fire!

They're still coming!

God damn traitors!

My god, the bullets aren't stopping 'em!

Hold your fire.

Shut up, Murphy, I'm concentrating.

Hey!

You boys still alive in there?

Who are you?

Well, we heard all the fighting,

thought it might be some trouble.

I wouldn't be staying in there too long,

enemy's coming this way.

All right, boys, we're gonna move out slow,

but keep one round loaded.

Murphy, you stay here and cover us.

Mannit, if something starts up,

I want you to aim for that one on the middle.

I got my eye on him, don't you worry.

Well, this is downright inhospitable, if you ask me.

Well, that's just too damned bad, ain't it?

Hold your ground.

I ain't foolin' ya. He ain't foolin' either.

Boys, we're all on the same side now.

Besides, I'm the recruiting officer.

Mercy!

Move! - She sees something.

God damn it, you want your freedom or not?

Hi, friend of yours?

How'd you know to do that?

I heard your kind had died off.

You now resorting to little tricks like that?

It must mean you've gone weak.

I will consume your bones, and scatter the dust to the wind.

Murphy, just where in the hell have you been?

Well, I...

Boy, that god damned stuttering,

it's gonna drive me to my grave.

Sorry, sir.

Are ya hurt, boy?

Don't worry, son, everything's gonna be just fine.

It's a beautiful sight, ain't it?

That's not gonna work, son.

Captain asked us to wait on you, boy,

'cause of your youth.

Didn't want nothing happen too sudden, you know?

Now we gonna give you a good make up.

It happened two days ago

at 26 miles south of the last incident.

The boy was confederate.

You know, it's not just the old ones

that are dying anymore, Nehemiah, the young ones now too.

In fact, looked about just a few years older

then your nephew, Thomas.

If memory serves.

What are your terms?

All right, you proceed with me into the area,

under guard, strictly as an advisor.

We flush 'em out, you get a pardon.

If I pledge allegiance to union.

That's right.

Can't do that, son.

No pledge, no pardon.

Do I get a hot bath?

One, one, two, one, one, one, one, two, one.

One, one.

Guide it left, march.

Hay-foot, straw-foot, hay-foot.

Hay-foot, hay-foot, hay-foot.

Hello, excuse me.

Hay-foot, hay-foot,

hay-foot, straw-foot, hay-foot, straw-foot, hay-foot.

Hello.

Hay-foot, hay-foot, straw-foot, hay-foot.

I say, have you seen cap...

I see, yes.

Oh, there you are, captain.

I hope you don't mind, but I'm going to photograph

and document our little excursion.

Ought to be just fine, Mr. Bradley.

Sir, you haven't seen my lens cap, have you?

It's come all the way from england.

I'd really hate to lose it.

Captain, captain?

It's the third time today I've lost.

The trouble is, it slips down.

Great service, boys, just like home.

Leave him be, son.

Hay-foot, straw-foot, hay-foot.

Hay-foot, hay-foot, hay-foot, straw-foot, hay-foot.

Oh, look what we got here, Johnny.

I got this when we won Texas in '46.

Course, you're too young to remember that.

I will take this.

You take this home, take it to the missus.

And of course, this, pretty smart, huh?

Granddaddy's watch.

He was in the revolutionary war, you know?

Oh, so was mine.

One, one, one, two, one.

He taking pictures on this trip?

His brother was killed at catum's creek,

he's coming along.

Harling.

Colonel, sir. - What is that reb pustule

doing here?

It's colonel Nehemiah strayn, sir.

I know who he is, captain,

but I do not want him on my expedition.

Sir, general haworth authorized his...

I don't give a rat's ass who authorized anything!

Colonel, I do believe my good friend, John,

said it was a general that authorized my coming along.

Back in the confederacy,

a general usually outranks a colonel.

I don't know, maybe y'all do things differently here

in the union.

Thinks being the way they are,

I think temporarily putting aside past differences

will be in the best interest of this expedition.

I'm leaving orders, captain.

If he gets away, no discharge 'til you catch him.

Yes, sir. - Ha.

Son, you can't let him push you around like that.

Come on, move him out.

One, two, one, two, one.

One, two, one, two, one, two.

One, two, one, two, one, two, one, two.

One, two, one, two, one, two, one, two.

She gonna be shining our boots?

She's a runaway, sir, witness on the last incident.

She's gonna be coming along.

That so she don't run away again?

No, sir, that's so you don't.

John, John, you can't. - What?

You can't chain me, you can't chain me to a nigger.

Sure I can, sir, this is the union.

And up here, captain outranks a prisoner of war.

They may do things differently down south,

but that the way it works here.

Harling, harling, harling,

you can't humiliate me this way!

One, two, one, two, one, two, one, two.

Captain harling, prepare to move out.

Hay-foot, hay-foot.

Ain't you gonna at least give me...

Straw-foot, hay-foot, hay-foot.

Us a horse. - No horse!

Can't help you there, colonel, sorry about that.

God damn it, harling!

If you expect me to walk all the way to Tennessee.

You got a damned confederate ass,

and that's how you can get to Tennessee,

if you don't like it.

You keep your god damned hands off.

I'm on my watch. - Move out, ha.

And so we began.

I was no stranger to battlefields.

I had seen the slaughtered laying

upon the meadows of Shiloh,

I had walked over corpses strewn

in the cornfields of antietam.

But I feared that the battlefield

to which we now journeyed was far darker

than any I had known,

for it seemed as if god had turned his face

from these mountains,

including them in the shadow of his vengeance.

And I wondered what kind of enemy walked

within those shades and how were they different

from the men I had had to fight for so long,

men like Nehemiah strayn who, not two years ago,

I had laughed with and learned from.

Ah, hell.

Oh, hell. - No, no, no, no, no.

They say that an enemy is only an injured friend.

But when a soldier goes beyond both injury and friendship,

what does he become?

That is all she wrote.

All she wrote. - All she wrote.

Yeah, you keep going, I'm gonna have you ingrained

before the evening's out.

All she wrote. - All she wrote.

All she... all, all, all, all.

The last one was rather good, wasn't it?

Yeah. - War brought out

the missionary zeal in you, colonel?

Damn right.

Gospel of the south.

God is a southerner, John.

Is that right?

You think he keeps slaves, too?

I see, you still got your sense of humor.

Tongue's still sharp as a saber.

In fact, the captain here

was one of my sharpest pupils, Mr. Bradley.

He was gonna go to Yale, become a doctor of divinity.

Start a leper colony, or something.

Lepers, good for you.

No, it is a tragedy, Mr. Bradley.

You see, his daddy was a general,

a real Missouri fire eater.

He made the poor boy go to west point,

where, thank the good lord, he had the good fortune

to study with me.

We got real close, didn't we, John?

That is, until we tried to kill each other.

Pardon?

We fought a duel, Mr. Bradley.

It was over a girl, wasn't it, John?

You see, the captain had me cornered,

but he's too much of a gentleman to kill me,

so he just said, "you owe me."

You can sorta say that's why I'm here now.

What was the name of that girl, John?

Don't get all heated up, John,

with all this war going on.

'Cause ultimately, that's what divided us.

Or was it a girl whose name neither of us remember?

I'll just...

You keep working on that, Mr. Bradley!

Nobody forced you to go to the south, Nehemiah.

Johnny, since when has this war been about slavery?

I don't have a slave, most of my army don't.

But that's how the south works,

'til we come up something better on our own terms,

that's the way it'll stay. - I don't think

that's the popular opinion, colonel.

Well, why don't we put it to a vote?

Hey boys, how many of y'all think the south

should listen to Mr. Lincoln?

Think a nigger should vote?

No, no. - No, sir.

Democracy, John.

Harling! - Yes, sir?

In my tent, if you please, captain.

Democracy, huh?

I think you forgot someone.

Sure as hell never wanted to see this place again.

Feel proud of your regiment, strayn?

Thalman.

I lost 200 men here, down by the creek.

They weren't laid out nearly as pretty

when our fighting was done.

Colonel, with your permission,

before we find out what happened to your men,

we ought to determine what happened to his.

Granted.

You ever hear of a killing box, colonel?

I am familiar with the term.

That's what happened here.

General bragg had run most of his men south

to murfreesboro to find another union army.

He ordered my men behind enemy lines

to see if we could divert any reinforcements

coming that way.

We got more than we bargained for.

Half of my regiment got pinned down

on the Southern bank of the creek by a union battery.

I desperately tried to rejoin them,

but the barrage was unrelenting.

When I and my second in command, Josiah elkins,

got to them at the Southern bank,

they were in full retreat.

The union regiment began to advance.

Pull back!

I tried to pull back.

Before I knew it, we were surrounded.

I gave the order to surrender.

Elkins and the others followed suit.

But the union commander didn't accept.

And I was hit in the shoulder.

The men took me for dead.

Lieutenant elkins did the only thing he could, he charged.

Could have gotten past clear,

maybe he led some of the boys to safety.

But the line held.

My nephew, Thomas, they just all.

He was 12.

Those union soldiers spared my life.

Just later, woke up in a hospital.

My heart bleeds.

It's getting dark, first sargent.

Yes, sir?

Find some dry wood for some fires.

Yes, sir.

Sargent Hammond, detail some men for water.

Corporal Burke, have some men round up some wood.

Yes, sir.

Okay, let's go, men.

Wood ain't gonna burn, it's too wet.

Uncle.

Uncle Nehemiah.

Creek.

Good morrow.

Damn it.

Strayn!

Nehemiah!

Nehemiah.

Damn it, bitch.

Nehemiah.

Thomas.

Tommy?

Uncle.

Stop, they might hear you.

Christ almighty.

What's going on, Thomas?

There's a hole 50 yards from the bank of the river.

The yankee canon made it.

When you leave here, you must fill it with rock,

and pack it hard.

You don't want nothing else getting outta here.

What the hell are you talking about, boy?

After the attack, sir,

the current of the creek brought us here.

The running water of the river keeps us from leaving.

We's all trapped until lieutenant elkins

and the others found the hole.

That's when it started. - What?

Your men, they're made, sir.

Made?

Talk to me, son.

Made into something inhuman.

The makers have taken their souls.

A terrible evil escaped from Africa and hid in this cave.

For 200 years, they've walked the earth by night,

consuming men, growing more powerful.

Weak ones they use for food, strong ones they make,

like elkins,

Like me.

You've got to stop them, if they stay free up top,

they'll raise an army like you've never seen.

They've changed, their hearts have gone dark like the devil.

Moving water from the river, they can't pass.

Sun fire and pale metal will kill.

These must be your weapons.

They've heard you.

Thomas. - Go, sir.

Come with me. - I can't.

That is an order!

Sir, are you all right?

There's a cave, I saw Thomas, he bit me.

Have a nice swim?

We just got word, harling,

there was another incident last night.

Where?

At the front of our lines.

Strayn, looks like your boys just busted back

into the confederacy.

Oh, no, colonel, that.

Johnny.

I'm right here.

Did you find it? - Yeah, we found it.

Did you do what I told you to?

Told you to do?

Yeah, we packed it with rock

and filled the hole with dirt.

Do you think I'm crazy?

You're delirious, Nehemiah.

It's a snake bite.

It's not a damned snake bite.

The same thing that happened to my men

is happening to me.

They're out there, John, they're raising an army.

Sir, the 51st's a god awful regiment.

You're asking me track them on the...

I'm not asking you anything, captain.

Sir, I've got 10 men.

If I had strayn, maybe.

But if he dies... - If he dies or lives

has nothing to do with it.

You got a knife, use it, please.

We move out, now.

You all right?

Never better.

You can ride with me, if you like.

Never better.

Never better.

We proceeded south,

and with the help of colonel strayn,

pierced the borders of the confederacy

in pursuit of an enemy still unseen.

Strayn's recovery was nothing sort of a resurrection,

a miracle brought on I suspect by the machinations

of the mute negress.

Nehemiah now clung to her, not as a man to a woman,

but rather as a child to its mother,

as if her body carried an antidote

to the poison which had infected him.

She began to heal him, protect him and understand him.

This I watched with growing unease,

and dare I say, jealousy.

For in the passing of a few days,

it seemed that she came to know him better than I,

who was once his fastest friend.

As for thalman and his men,

whose disposition towards the negroes

is not much better than their brethren to the south,

their bewilderment at strayn's actions

quickly turned to hostility

as his behavior became more erratic.

Halt.

Halt!

What the hell were you talking about?

Just having a friendly conversation.

She's a mute!

I'm tired of having to explain to the colonel

why you're acting so god damned strange.

It's a strange world, John.

Stranger than you think.

You're behind enemy lines, colonel.

Do not make this situation any more dangerous than it is.

Damn you.

Don't you talk to her!

She has a name, John!

You all right, colonel?

Thought you all had one name for them down south.

Niggers, isn't it?

Apologize to her.

I'm gonna unshackle you,

maybe you'll start to act like a decent soldier.

It's on your head, captain, on your head.

Sniper!

We got him.

Assemble your men for skirmishers.

It's not them, damn it!

Hold your fire, men, hold your fire!

You men, throw down your arms!

You boys Yankees?

Yeah?

Thank god!

James Dawson, 31st, Tennessee.

Ah, sweet Jesus, do we surrender.

We heard a screaming, screaming.

They dragged the whole family out of that house yondering.

I never heard screaming like that before.

We fell back to our wagons,

and we just started firing everything we had.

But they just kept on coming.

And they just plucked our men out and just dragged them off.

Why did they not come after you?

I don't know, I don't know.

They wouldn't come near our wagon.

And then, come morning, they just left.

Well, we couldn't, we was all too scared to move.

Sir, them's our men who done this.

They're not our men, corporal.

There are two regiments of infantry

waiting across the Kentucky border.

If I can break through,

I will force march them here in 24 hours.

Colonel, you heard what the man just said.

I know, captain, I know.

But under the circumstances,

- I could see no alternative. - Yes, sir.

Do not lose your man, harling.

If they engage you, fall back.

If I'm not back in 24 hours, you send another man.

Keep your head, captain.

I can use you at vicksburg.

I can help you get through this, John.

But you have to trust me.

Would you just hear me out, John?

Nehemiah, you want me to believe

that Rebecca's a clairvoyant, is that right?

Yeah.

First it's your cave and then this drummer boy.

And now these quakers. Makers, makers, John.

Quakers don't run around conducting crucifixions as a rule.

Let me ask you one thing.

How did you know her name was Rebecca?

She can't write, she can't talk,

but you knew her name was Rebecca.

She put it in your head, didn't she?

It's one of the things she does.

Rebecca is a slave girl, Nehemiah.

Just because she ran off a plantation into your arms...

Rebecca has lived the whole story, John.

She talks to me.

No words come out of her mouth,

but I can hear her.

Oh, yeah?

Along while ago in Africa there was a village.

In it, there lived a very powerful tribe.

No other tribe ever dared tangle with them,

'cause everyone knew what they were guarding.

There was a hole in the earth,

like the cave I found back at catum's creek.

Inside it, there lived things that were out of a nightmare.

Years ago, the tribe had bottled those beings in that hole

and set their village around it.

They didn't want none of what was down there getting out,

spreading their poison, consuming mankind.

200 years ago, white slave traders came.

They attacked the village, killed the men,

and took most of the women.

One of the slaves had the bright idea

of going down in that hole.

He found something, all right.

But it weren't slaves.

When he came out, he weren't just a slave trader.

That man brought a plague here, John.

And a whole lotta people were changed, like my men.

Rebecca's ancestors, now they were the ones

who hunted them down and bottled them up

in that cave that I found.

John, Rebecca's the only one left who knows how to end this.

But she needs our help.

Nehemiah, that story don't beat all.

John.

I'd like to stay and play, but I gotta plan our defense.

Listen to Rebecca, she has something to say.

I tried.

I want you to have this.

My daddy'd kill me if he knew I'd given his watch to a ni...

A nice girl like you.

I've been meaning to ask you something.

How come you picked me to show all this to?

'Cause I'm the last of my tribe.

You're hardly the last, colonel.

Josiah?

You boys have been raising a whole lotta hell.

The country's already gone to hell, Nehemiah.

We're just starting an army to set things right.

May I have the honor of presenting your new regiment, sir?

Welcome back.

Stevens, Walker, Regis.

I'm a little confused.

What side you boys are planning on fighting for?

Sides, colonel, are what killed the country.

Amen. - We wanna resurrect it.

I see, oh.

You've been doing a whole lot of crucifying

just to bring it back to life.

Yeah, but for those that deserve it,

it's a glorious life.

A sword's just a stick, Nehemiah,

a gun shot just a meaningless piece of metal.

When you feel death breath on your face

and you breath right back,

that's the sweetest victory of all.

The wrath of the union, glory to our cause!

Your commands are like the wind, colonel.

And this war, this war is just the cry of desperate men.

We're not afraid.

War never promises us resurrection, Nehemiah.

But I do.

To you.

You're a damned coward, Nehemiah.

Hello there, again.

You know, you are a strong one.

And it's just a shame that we don't take niggers.

Who goes there?

John, fall back, god damn it!

You've gotta listen to me, John, I saw El...

Something's wrong with our horses.

All right, Nehemiah, what the hell is going on here?

I saw elkins, I saw elkins, I saw my regiment!

We gotta fall back to a river, running water,

they can't cross it.

What the hell are you talking about?

It's something that Thomas told me!

The pump, we dig a trench.

- The wagon! - To the wagon,

like the captain said. - Rebecca!

It's them, John, god damn it.

We've gotta fall back! Surrender your arms!

Surrender your arms! - Running water, John!

Identify yourself.

God damn it, do you not know it's against military code

to fire upon a superior officer?

Colonel thalman?

Very nearly your late colonel, captain harling!

You boys all right?

Yes, sir.

The rebs, they're near, very near.

Did you encounter them, sir?

A god damned rebel picket

shot my beautiful horse right out from under me.

I caught a bullet in the leg.

I need a tourniquet.

I need a tourniquet.

I need a tourniquet!

God damn it. - Wait!

John, he's been out there.

John, don't!

Colonel.

They only want you, strayn.

The others can go free.

Let him go.

Come to me, come to me, come to me.

Now, strayn, now, strayn.

Burn him! - Please,

I have a family, please.

Rebecca, burn him!

Captain, you hear it, you hear it?

What, sir?

A bluejay, the morn is near.

I will die soon.

And when I'm gone, you must raise my body into the air,

so that I may not suck the life back from the earth.

It must be done, they're wicked.

Yes, sir.

We were wrong about the crucifixions.

They were not trying to frighten us.

They were trying to keep the weak ones from rising up.

The weak ones, sir? - Colonal strayn,

do not blame your men for their actions,

but neither be merciful towards them,

for they will surely fall on you tomorrow's nightfall.

Captain?

Yes, sir?

Will you do me the service

of remaining by my side 'til dawn?

I have been a soldier all my days.

And I would like to live the rest of my moments

in the company of my fellows.

The well over there is almost dry.

That's not good enough.

Maybe we make a stand at the holston river, captain?

No, we'd never make it by dark.

Dawson!

Yes, sir.

You said those things never came near your wagon.

What are you carrying in there?

Oh, all sorts of stuff.

We were evacuating shawsville up north,

so we had clothing, and ammo, bullion.

Bullion? - Yeah,

from the back up there. What kind of bullion?

Well, silver, mostly.

Maybe there's some silverware, too.

Yeah, some trays, and some candlesticks,

and some dinner sets.

It sounds like you boys cleaned up.

Silver, just like my watch, John.

That's what Rebecca was trying to tell me.

What do you mean?

It scared the hell outta elkins.

How? - I don't know.

Think what a silver bayonet could do.

Colonel thelman had told us

to expect an attach at nightfall,

but Nehemiah, always the master of tactical improvisation

had already planned the defense.

Stolen silver that had once adorned a family's dining table

now became ammunition for our rifles

and a poison sheen for our bayonets.

A simple turn off the water was transformed

from a tool of irrigation

into an invincible line in the earth.

A stock of coin was turned from currency

into an impervious wall.

I cannot fathom how any of these could fend off

such a ruthless enemy,

but military logic had begin to fade

with the waning daylight,

making less clear the lines between blue and gray,

black and white, sanity and insanity.

I could only now pray that the winds of fate

would be merciful to us all

and carry us to a place where lies undivided ground.

And strayn himself had elected to become human bait,

a lure for his once beloved regiment

into what would be the most bizarre killing box

in military history.

One thing's for sure,

this could be the most expensive battle of the war.

Yeah, it's gonna be nice not

to have to shoot at you this time.

Likewise.

All right, men, on your positions, load all weapons.

I'm going out, John.

Nehemiah.

Don't you run away on me.

Evening, boys, nice night for a walk.

The war's over, Nehemiah.

Oh, it's over.

You can come on home.

Nehemiah, you take a good look in your heart

and tell me what you see.

Colonel, you don't need no hole in the earth,

no cave, no makers, no slave traders

to find an excuse for evil.

Fire!

Nehemiah!

Firing by foe!

Nehemiah!

We're brothers, Nehemiah!

Mr. Bradley!

We're your own men!

We're brothers!

Water!

Close to the right, close to the right!

Dawson!

Dawson, let's teach these boys the rebel yell!

Yahoo!

I'm British, for god's sake!

Watch out!

Elkins!

Come on, Nehemiah.

Silver, running water.

Are we so simply the devil?

I bleed.

So am I still the devil?

Be brave.

Rebecca!

No!

Rebecca.

She was brave, sir.

Braver than you know.

On that day, I, John Lawrence harling,

released my former mentor from captivity

and thus forfeited my discharge.

As a result, I was forced to remain on active duty,

serving with general ulysses s. Grant

'til the end of the war.

Nehemiah Pearson strayn rejoined the confederate army

and was to serve valiantly at the battles of gettysburg,

chickamauga and cold harbor.

Though still an ardent believer in the Southern cause,

he made many enemies there due

to his outspoken stance against slavery.

After the war, it is rumored that he returned to the cave

at catum's creek to rescue his nephew,

the last remaining member of his regiment.

Since then, to my knowledge, he has not been heard of.