Schreyvogel's work depicts a scene in which a group of US cavalrymen fight against a force of Native Americans, who are left unseen.

One of the cavalrymen has been dismounted in the skirmish, prompting his comrade to rescue him by pulling him onto his own mount.

The scene is based on an account told to Schreyvogel by a cavalry trooper he met in Colorado.

[1] Following its 1899 presentation in New York, Schreyvogel's painting won the Thomas Clarke prize.

The Met describes My Bunkie as portraying "a combination of firsthand experience and masculine escapist fantasy" typical of Schreyvogel's style.