Young Union recruit Zeb Prescott (George Peppard) finds himself in the hellish early hours of the Battle of Shiloh, which narrator Spencer Tracy refers to as the "bloodiest battle on the Western Front." Tracy further intones, "Many a man had met his God that day, but not in church." Zeb explains to a friendly rebel deserter (West Side Story's athletic Russ Tamblyn) that he was knocked out briefly and when he came to his senses, a Confederate cavalryman tried to stick him with his sword. The deserter wants to head west and leave the fighting to the easterners who started it; Zeb has heard from his Aunt Lilith (Debbie Reynolds) that there isn't any fighting in California. The two unlikely companions are about to light out when Generals Grant (Henry Morgan) and Sherman (John Wayne) suddenly appear. This entire Civil War sequence was directed by John Ford and a number of Ford stock company veterans appear in the scene including Wayne, Ken Curtis, Willis Bouchey, and Jack Pennick

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