Set in the 1850's, twenty years after The Savage Trail, this is a gritty, epic tale of military life. Based on actual diaries of Dragoon officers on expeditions out of Fort Gibson, Requiem at Dawn tells of Doc McReynolds, a military surgeon who fought his way out of a bloody killing field, and has now been ordered to establish a redoubt at Cimarron Crossing. But as McReynolds and the soldiers head to Deep Hole Creek, they face a hard-riding band of Cheyenne warriors bent on revenge -- and a deadly face-off.