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A Destiny Which Made Us Brothers (23 January 1966)

Appearing as Lt. Dan Laurence


Broadcast 23 January 1966 on the NBC television network.

Synopsis by Curator@JMDigitalScrapbook.com:

At the height of the Civil War, Jason McCabe (Chuck Connors) stumbles upon a dispirited and downtrodden General Ulysses S. Grant, apparently hiding in an old, disused shack near the enemy lines.

McCabe is startled to see his idol in such bad shape, but Grant is quick to dispel the notion that he is a drunkard, though an unopened bottle of Rye sits on the table beside him.

Realizing the General is suffering under the strain of leading the Union troops, McCabe delivers a pep talk which spurs Grant back to the battle plans he had earlier abandoned and the two begin to work on new strategies and plans.

They are abruptly interrupted by the arrival of three Rebel soldiers: two deserters and their captor, Lt. Laurence (James MacArthur), who are all astonished to realize the importance of the Union officer they have surprised unarmed and whose fate is now in their hands.

The two deserters, a nasty pair of no-good brothers, want to kill Grant then and there, but Laurence stops them. He stoutly maintains that though Grant and McCabe are the enemy, they are still men and they deserve to be treated with respect and dignity.
Although unsure he can trust the brothers, Laurence realizes he hasn't much choice and promises that if they help him capture and bring in Grant and McCabe, he will 'forget' their desertion. The brothers readily agree, only to turn on the lieutenant once they have the weapons they've taken from Grant and McCabe.

After trying without success to talk some sense into the brothers, Laurence silently signals to McCabe that they should rush the deserters. During the ensuing scuffle, Laurence is fatally wounded, but he manages with his dying breath to kill the older brother just as he is about to shoot Grant.

Union soldiers, alerted by the sound of gunfire, come running and after saying a heartfelt prayer of thanks over Laurence's dead body, a renewed and reinvigorated Grant leaves to resume his leadership of his troops.


To view a full gallery of screen captures from this episode click here.


Special Note: No, it's not your browser or your monitor; the images presented on this page really are fuzzy. Due to the scarce availability of this program on video, we've had to make do with a less than perfect copy; however, we thought fans unable to view any version of this program would appreciate even low quality images rather than nothing at all. Therefore, we've cleaned up the images as best we can and present them here for your viewing pleasure. If at some future date we are able to acquire a video with better picture quality, we'll update this page with better images.

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