During the Civil War, when the Union Army is trying to starve the people of Richmond into submission, renegade adventurer Alvarez Kelly delivers a herd of 2,500 cattle to U. S. Army Maj. Albert Stedman at a Virginia plantation. But Confederate guerrilla Tom Rossiter wins the aid of the plantation owner's daughter, Charity Warwick, in devising a way to steal the herd for the South. Kelly is coerced to aid in the plot when Rossiter kidnaps him, shoots off one of his fingers, and threatens to continue unless he cooperates. Although Kelly agrees to teach the Confederates how to handle cattle, he secretly arranges for Rossiter's reluctant girl friend, Liz Pickering, to escape from the South on a blockade runner. Despite the bitter hatred between the two men, the raid on the Warwick plantation is successful. But the problem then becomes one of transporting the cattle over a bridge which Stedman has fortified with 500 soldiers. Unable to bypass the bridge, Kelly stampedes the cattle into the Union lines. A bloody and disorganized battle follows, during which Kelly risks his life to rescue a Confederate officer and Rossiter shoots one of his own men who has turned against Kelly. When the herd is safely across the bridge, Rossiter frees Kelly to go his own way.