 Among those who are fighting to have Congress re-establish the military academy at West Point in the beginning of the nineteenth century is a young Washington socialite, Carolyn Bainbridge (Maureen O Hara). Congress resolves to revive the Academy on a one-year trial basis. Major Sam Carter (Laird Cregar), a martinet who doesn t believe a college can produce real fighting men, is made the Commandant, and determines to make soldiers - or failures - out of the small band of cadets, by enforcing stringent disciplinary action. Among the cadets are Howard Shelton (John Sutton), Carolyn s fiancee, and Dawson (George Montgomery), a Kentucky frontiersman. There is bad blood between the two from the start, and matters are worsened when Dawson falls in love with Carolyn. Many of the cadets resign, under the discouraging conditions and grueling punishment that is part of Carter s plan to make the school hard and the exercises difficult, and the number of cadets left is down to ten. Word arrives that the Indian chief Tecumseh (Noble Johnson) has gone on the warpath, and Carter is ordered to take part in quelling the rebellion, and to include the cadets along with the regular Bombadiers. Shelton, on patrol, is shot at by an Indian, and hot-headedly leaves his post in pursuit. Dawson leaves to bring him back followed by Major Carter who is captured by the Indians. Using tactics learned at West Point, the small band of cadets attack and demoralize the much larger Indian force, and succeed in rescuing Carter, and Dawson is wounded. Carter is grateful for the actions taken by the band, but says that Shelton and Dawson cannot remain as cadets since they had violated the rules by leaving their posts, and would be a bad precedent for future cadets. Carolyn has come to the Point to marry the unsuspecting Dawson, who thought she loved Shelton.