"The Ghost Soldiers"

The fictional date of “The Ghost Soldiers” (8 November 1959) shouuld eeither sometime in or near the 1870s. since a few episodes have dates in the 1870s, or else specifically in the year 1875, since 1875 was the only year when the described historical situation existed.

Bret Maverick's opening narration says:

Bret Maverick: [narrating] This is the story of a Sioux Chief and how I came in contact with him. That's him. His name, Running Horse. Gold had been discovered in the Black Hills of the Dakotas. Naturally, this started something of a stampede. The Sioux resented the intrusion and demonstrated their resentment by sending back prospector after prospector, all dead. The Army resented the Sioux resentment and sent several regiments into the territory to build forts and protect the taxpayers.

Gold was discovered in the Black Hills in 1874 and the gold rush there started late in 1874. Early in 1876 the US army began its campaign against the non reservation hostile Sioux groups, or the Great Sioux War. Therefore 1875 was the only entire year when prospectors were rushing into the Black Hills and people would be worried about a Sioux war happening in the future. PS - the Sioux didn’t slaughter nearly as many gold seekers in 1875 as might have been expected, not that such restraint did the ones that they did butcher any good.

The basic plot of “The Ghost Soldiers” (8 November 1959) is Bret Maverick has been involved with a colonel’s wife and is being sent to fictional Fort McKittridge for a hearing, escorted by Sergeant Baines & Corporal Willie Daggot, 4th Cavalry. Right after they leave fictional Fort Burnside, garrisoned by the 6th cavalry, Running Horse and his followers capture Fort Burnside, massacring at least 20 officers and men under Colonel Partington? Maverick, Baines and Daggot return to Fort Burnside and try to find a way to survive, while Running Horse tries to presuade his brother Red Wing and other other Sioux chiefs to unite their thousands of warriors and drive the whites out of Sioux territory, taking them to Fort Burnside to show how he was victorious with his few followers.

What about using the dates that the two mentioned cavalry regiments were stationed in Sioux Territory to determine the date of "The Ghost Soldiers"?

The Sixth United States Cavalry Regiment was formed in 1861, and after the Civil War was stationed in the southern Plains until transferred to Arizona & New Mexico in 1875. The 6th Cavalry wasn’t stationed in Sioux Territory until the Ghost Dance troubles in 1890. The 4th US cavalry was stationed in Texas from 1865-1876 until it was transferred to Sioux territory after Custer’s Last Stand, and thus after the possible date for "The Ghost Soldiers".

If the 4th and the 6th cavalry had been transferred to Sioux territory by 1875 to reinforce the units there in real history as they were in "The Ghost Soldiers", Custer's Last Stand would probably never have happened