During the Civil War a Union Army general officer has a comfortable encampment and a pleasant "agreement" with the enemy: every morning his company fires at them, they fire back, and no one gets hurt. When finally he is ordered to attack, his horse bolts and charges to the rear with the infantry following. As punishment for his apparent cowardice he is put in charge of a company of misfits and sent west to Indian Territory. Through an error, the fact that his unit is replacing one that is protecting Union gold has been overlooked. The men journey westward by riverboat and are joined by a group of camp followers led by Easy Jenny and including Martha Lou Williams, a Confederate spy. A romance develops between Martha Lou and Capt. Jared Heath, though he perceives her devious purpose. Her efforts to obtain information while retaining her virtue result in the misfits' losing their horses, their pants, and the Union gold to a group of renegades and then undertaking a countercharge in their long underwear. They lose their weapons but use their eccentric talents to defend themselves, and they save the gold by building and using a catapult.

Director:
George Marshall	Director
William McGarry	Assistant Director
Jack Barry	Assistant Director
Cast:
Glenn Ford	as Capt. Jared Heath
Stella Stevens	as Martha Lou Williams
Melvyn Douglas	as Col. Claude Brackenby
Jim Backus	as General Willoughby
Joan Blondell	as Easy Jenny
Andrew Prine	as Pvt. Owen Selous
Jesse Pearson	as Cpl. Silas Geary
Alan Hale Jr.	as Sgt. Beauregard Davis
James Griffith	as Hugo Zattig
Yvonne Craig	as Ora
Whit Bissell	as Captain Queeg
Michael Pate	as Thin Elk
Preston Foster	as General
Cinematography:
Milton Krasner	Director of Photography
Alfred Lebovitz	Camera Operator
Paul Koons	Asst cam op
Owen Marsh	Asst cam op
Writer:
Samuel A. Peeples	Screenwriter
William Bowers	Screenwriter
Jack Schaefer	Story
Producer:
Ted Richmond	Producer
Editing:
Archie Marshek	Film Editor
Leonard Lieberman	Film Editor
Music:
Randy Sparks	Music
Hugo Montenegro	Adpt & cond
Art Director:
George W. Davis	Art Director
Eddie Imazu	Art Director
Visual Effects:
J. McMillan Johnson	Spec visual eff
Make-Up:
William Tuttle	Makeup Supervisor
Lynn Reynolds	Makeup
Terry Miles	Makeup
Ed Butterworth	Makeup
Sydney Guilaroff	Hairstyles
Agnes Flanagan	Hairstyles
Costume-Wardrobe:
Frank Beetson	Men's ward
Lee Plunkett	Men's ward
Luster Bayless	Men's ward
Sylvia Posner	Women's ward
Art Department:
Henry Grace	Set Decoration
Budd S. Friend	Set Decoration
Sound:
Franklin Milton	Recording Supervisor
Paul Kamp	Sd mix
Walter Goss	Recording
A. Murray Jarvis	Boom Operator
Production Companies:
Ted Richmond	Company
Film Production - Main:
Cleo Anton	Script Supervisor
Harold Clifton	Dial dir
Wesley Shanks	Gaffer
Hank Forrester	Head grip
Dick Neblett	Prop
Dick Webb	Wrangler-ramrod

Copyrighted under the working title Company of Cowards? The novel Company of Cowards was published in 1957 under the authorship of Jack Schaefer.

"Company of Cowards," "This Ol' Riverboat," "Today," "Whistlin' Dixie," "Anything Love Can Buy," "Ladies," "Company Q Whistle March," "Way Down in Arkansas," "Brackenby's Mus Box" and "Charleston Town," music and lyrics by Randy Sparks, played and sung by New Christy Minstrels.

Suggested by the short story "Company of Cowards" by William Chamberlain in Saturday Evening Post (10 Mar 1956).