Wagon Train (TV Series)

The Flint McCullough Story (1959)

Robert Horton: Flint McCullough

Photos 

Quotes 

• Young boy at Fort : Can I take care of your horse, Stranger?

  Flint McCullough : Stranger? Well, you're the stranger, boy. Fort Bridger is my home.

  Young boy at Fort : Your home.

  Flint McCullough : Yeah.

  Young boy at Fort : Well, I been here nearly four years and I ain't never see you- Hold on, now. You ain't- Well, sure, you must be, Mr Bridger's son. Flint McCullough.

  Flint McCullough : That's right.

  Young boy at Fort : Hey, you come home. I'll get Mr Bridger for you.

  Flint McCullough : Oh, no, you don't. I want to surprise him.

  Young boy at Fort : Yessir, McCullough.

• Flint McCullough : Fort Bridger was only a few hours' ride from the territory the wagon train was rolling through and I had reason to go there, good reason. Fort Bridger's where I grew up. I suppose growing up for everybody is sugar and spice, a concoction of happiness and pain. Time waters down unpleasant memories and sort of magnifies the happy ones.

• Jim Bridger : What's happened to you, boy?

  Flint McCullough : I'm sorry, Mr Bridger. I came home to see you, and I found him.

  Jim Bridger : So this is what the war did to you. Are you sick, boy?

  Flint McCullough : I'm gonna kill him at sundown.

• Sergeant Hayes : What are you aiming to do?

  Flint McCullough : I'm gonna kill him.

• Flint McCullough : I was born in Virginia. I owe my allegiance to the South.

  Jim Bridger : You was born in Virginia but this is your home. You was raised here with me and the Injuns. The West is your home.

  Flint McCullough : Mr Bridger, there's lots of people from the West and the North and the South. I say a man's gotta pick a side and do his share.

  Jim Bridger : You know, when you was little and got a stubborn streak, I whooped you good for it.

  Flint McCullough : Would you like to try that now, Mr Bridger?

• Flint McCullough : I get your present... Talk to your folks? Did ya?

  Jean Yates : [Her face has fallen]  Yes.

  Flint McCullough : Is it all right? Is it? Well, is it all right?

  Jean Yates : Well, with my mother, yes. But you know what my father is like.

  Flint McCullough : Jean, we've been through all this before. I love you. What difference does it make what we believe?

  Jean Yates : It doesn't make any difference to me.

  Flint McCullough : I'm going to tell your father right now that we're going to be married.

  Jean Yates : Flint, no, you can't do that.

  Flint McCullough : What else can I do? What do you expect?

  Jean Yates : Well, you know I love you more than anybody in this whole world.

  Flint McCullough : And I love you. Isn't that enough?

  Jean Yates : Oh, Flint, I'm Mormon and you're not. Look, if you just have a little patience. My father will understand in time.

  Flint McCullough : TIME? How much time does he want? It's a month since I asked you and we're no closer to getting married now than we were then. Jean, I don't have any time. I'm going to join the Army.

• Jim Bridger : This is my adopted son, Flint McCullough.

  Colonel Jason 'Jase' Taylor : Adopted, eh?

  Flint McCullough : Mr Bridger's been taking care of me since my real folks died. It's about ten years now, isn't it?

  Lieutenant Quincy Abbott : You must know the countryside around here pretty well.

  Flint McCullough : Mr Bridger says he's taught me everything he knows. If that's true, that's every stick and stone of it.

  Colonel Jason 'Jase' Taylor : Oh, that's interesting.

• Flint McCullough : Well, I was brought up here, Sir. But if someone asked me where I was born, I'd be mighty proud to say Virginia.

• Flint McCullough : Nothing's going to happen to me, so don't worry about it.

• Lieutenant Quincy Abbott : Why don't you stay? As far as Colonel Taylor's concerned you could be as dead as Thorpe.

  Flint McCullough : I've made my decision.

  Lieutenant Quincy Abbott : You're an uncommonly high principled young man, McCullough.

  Flint McCullough : I'm a fool.

  Lieutenant Quincy Abbott : Come on, fool, guide me back to camp.

• Flint McCullough : If you were a man, you'd understand.

  Jean Yates : I'm a woman, Flint. And I don't understand. It just doesn't matter any more.

  Flint McCullough : Doesn't it matter any more? Have you stopped loving me?

• Lieutenant Quincy Abbott : I wasn't laughing at you, McCullough, not exactly. It's the little stupid thing that makes me laugh. You and a million others fired up with the ideal of the glory of war, a hero's death on the battlefield, uniforms, shiny buttons, medals. You listen to me, McCullough, I'm gonna do something for you, set you straight. War is a word. There's glory in the sound of it. That's where it ends. War is a foul, stinking sin, makes men into butchers and rips and tears them apart morally and physically.

  Flint McCullough : But Colonel Taylor said...

  Lieutenant Quincy Abbott : Of course he said. He wanted YOU. Colonel Taylor, my superior officer, McCullough, what do you think of Colonel Taylor? Colonel Taylor, my boy, is a barbarian, a peasant, educated peasant, but a peasant. His father before him was a peasant, and his father before him, peasants. All of them. But Jase Taylor is a good soldier. I respect him for that. Just how much you'll come to know soon enough.

  Flint McCullough : I don't understand.

  Lieutenant Quincy Abbott : My family is one of the most aristocratic strains in all of the South. I was born a gentleman. This war is being fought to preserve my way of life. This is reality, boy. Selfish, idealistic, but it's reality.

• Colonel Jason 'Jase' Taylor : Raise your right hand. Repeat after me. I solemnly pledge all of my allegience...

  Flint McCullough : I solemnly pledge all of my allegiance... to the cause of the Confederate States of America... promising to fight her enemies, protect her people, and to keep with her principles... So help me God.

• Lieutenant Quincy Abbott : First battle's always bad.

  Flint McCullough : It isn't that. It's to see men shot down in cold blood.

  Lieutenant Quincy Abbott : No use brooding about it. In his position, the Colonel had no choice. Lucky it wasn't you.

• Flint McCullough : I don't remember what happened after that. It was a long time before I remembered anything. Then I learnt that Taylor had been sent to prison. That's the only thing that kept him from me. So I tried to forget. And I thought I had until today

  [Voiceover: The nightmare was four years ago but now it seems like yesterday. The man is alive and, as long as he lives, it is not a nightmare, it is reality. I knew this day would come. I know what I have to do]