However the film made a significant change, turning the raid into an act of revenge for William Tecumseh Sherman's burning of Atlanta.

They head for Montréal, Quebec and then plan a raid across the border into St. Albans, Vermont, to rob its banks to replenish the Confederate treasury and burn buildings as revenge for Sherman's March to the Sea and to tie up the Union forces.

One drunken member interrupts a church service and is promptly shot dead by Benton, the raid leader, almost giving away the plot.

[citation needed] On the appointed day, Major Benton in town, and the other raiders at the barn, all don Confederate uniforms, take some citizens hostage, rob the bank's strongbox at gunpoint, burn down the town hall, and gallop north just ahead of an arriving Union force.

Burning a bridge behind them, they barely elude the Union forces and make a successful getaway to nearby Canada.