- Trumpeter Benton: Wishing you could fill up on whiskey, Mr. Riorty?
- Trooper Riorty: I told ya, whiskey don't make a man brave. It just helps him forget he's petrified!
- Lt. Col. Unger: Now I know how officers hate sergeants. Seems to be regulations, so I hate sergeants, especially sergeants who can't remember who's in command. All right, for a couple of months Captain Calhoun had this post, but I've been here long enough for even a sergeant to know I've taken over. So if I catch any sergeants - and I hate sergeants - making a report to Captain Calhoun before he makes it to me, I'll tear off his chevrons so quick his arms will come with 'em.
- [Captain Calhoun has just told his company that Trooper Riorty was decorated for heroism four times during the Civil War]
- Trumpeter Benton: Four separate battles?
- Trooper Riorty: Well, you see, I, uh, I joined up late.
- [to a hard case after breaking up a saloon brawl]
- Capt. Webb Calhoun: If you keep looking for trouble as carefully as you have tonight, you're liable to find it.
- Lt. Col Unger: I don't care a bubble in a dirty river what you think of me. The big point is I don't like the way you let your schoolboy ideas stand in the way of doing a man's job.
- Sgt. Barhydt: Yes sir, Mr. Cutter, I figured maybe you could set me straight.
- Lt. Cutter: On what, Sergeant?
- Sgt. Barhydt: Why is it, sir, meaning no disrespect, sir, nobody wants to be a second lieutenant?
- Lt. Cutter: All right, I guess every shavetail that's been out on a day's patrol with you has had to listen to this one. Let's have it, Sergeant.
- Sgt. Barhydt: Well, sir, and I'll give up a day's pay if I'm wrong. A private wants to be a corporal, and a corporal wants to be a sergeant. But does a sergeant want to be a second lieutenant? Captains are right glad to be captains; majors and colonels are glad to be majors and colonels. But even a second lieutenant doesn't want to be a second lieutenant. Looking for something, sir?
- Lt. Cutter: Yes, a good answer, Sergeant.
- Jake Ledbetter: We didn't move out yesterday when some whipper-snapper Lieutenant told us to, and we're not moving out today! The yellow stuff in that creek back there tells us we're going to stay right here for quite a spell.
- Trooper Muro: (to other troopers) Answer me this. How do they better themselves with the top of their heads gone?
- Capt. Webb Calhoun: Open the gate, Sergeant. Muro, give me your saber.
- Sgt. Barhydt: Sir, you're not going to let 'em in!
- Capt. Webb Calhoun: That's the sign for palaver. I'm going out.
- Sgt. Barhydt: But they're Sioux! That don't mean nothing but a trap. I'm going with you!
- Capt. Webb Calhoun: You'll stay here... just in case. Open the gate!
- Sgt. Barhydt: Just in case he don't come back.
- Trooper Muro: If he don't come back, there won't be any case.
- [Capt. Calhoun senses Sioux warriors are hiding nearby]
- Charlie Grass: Sioux? There's no Sioux around here. I got a nose for Sioux!
- Capt. Webb Calhoun: You gotta nose for whiskey, Charlie!
- [The troopers find Charlie Grass, their Indian scout, shot full of arrows]
- Sgt. Barhydt: You notice he's still got his hair? That's so when he walks around in the hereafter, everybody will know he wasn't even worth scalping.