Rawhide

The cattle drive, headed by trail boss Gil Favor and his chief assistant and "ramrod," Rowdy Yates, shares camp with a marshal and his deputy who are taking prisoners in for court trial via a tumble weed wagon (a western version of the Black Maria). Among the prisoners in Dallas, wife of a notorious outlaw.

A water stop at a mission promises a delightful break in the hard work of driving cattle north until Rowdy Yates and his trail boss, Gil Favor, plus all the hands on the drive are invited to a wedding party. The fun is interrupted by the arrival of Mastic, the bandit brother of the bride. The wedding celebration turns into a brutal showdown when the outcast brother attempts to extort money from his father.

Trails boss Gil Favor and ramrod Rowdy Yates encounter a stage coach accident while driving their cattle north. They discover that a lone horseman is menacing the travelers, a professional killer named Jardin.

Trail boss Gil Favor sees his crew of cattle drovers seeking release from the tensions of trail life by indulging in a shatteringly violent day-off in a tough little frontier town. Before Gil can restore discipline, his ramrod, Rowdy Yates, has gotten himself involved with a dance hall girl and the gun-happy town marshal.

Bitter overtones of the recent War Between the States harass trail boss Gil Favor and ramrod Rowdy Yates as they push their cattle drive north from Texas. A half-crazed Southern aristocrat's plan to set up a new Confederate empire is so persuasively presented to the men of the cattle drive, as they pass near the visionary's home, that Gil and Rowdy find themselves without hands to continue the drive.

Trail boss Gil Favor and ramrod Rowdy Yates get a taste of the capricious power of Jed Reston, a cattle and land baron, as they drive their herd north.