Keaton plays an American Civil War veteran named Homer Cobb, who tells his story of being a Kentucky youth who enlisted in the Confederate Army, but discovered that his brother, Cyrus Cobb (Monte Collins) joined the Union Army. Homer gets captured but Cyrus frees him. Cyrus is captured by the Confederate army but Homer, in turn, frees him. Homer uses all his wits and a few short logs of wood to save his town.
