Mountain Fortress (20 September 1955)

"Mountain Fortress" was the first episode of Cheyenne broadcast, and and was a remake, with some changed names, of "Rocky Mountain" (1950). I just saw it on July 1, 2019

Stew Davis was portrayed by Jeffrey Silver, born February 25, 1937, who was thus aged 18 years, 7 months, & 26 days on 20 September 1955 when "Mountain Fortress" was first broadcast, and was probably months younger when the episode was filmed. And he looked younger than that.

Stew Davis, who is very southern and even carries a rebel flag, says that he took dinner to Robert E. Lee just before the battle of Gettysburg. Thus he was probably with Lee's forces during the Gettysburg campaign during June, 1863. He could have been a civilian servant with the Rebel army, but most civilian servants with the Rebel army were black slaves instead of free white persons. Thus it seems probable that Stew Davis was a soldier in the Rebel army in June of 1863.

Assuming that the earliest after the Civil War that all of the former participants in this episode could have reached where they were in the west was June 1865, two year after right before the Battle of Gettysburg, Stew Davis should have been a rebel soldier aged 16 or younger in June 1863. So every year after 1865 that "Mountain Fortress" happens should make Stew Davis one year younger than 16 in June 1863.

Though I cannot say that there was any absolute youngest age that it was utterly impossible for a Rebel soldier to be, Rebel soldiers were rarer and rarer for each year younger or older than normal military age. Thus 16-year-olds would be more common than 15-year-olds, 15-year-olds would be more common than 14-year-olds, and so on, with younger and younger boys being more and more implausible and unlikely in the Rebel army.

If "Mountain Fortress' happens as late as June, 1870, Stew Davis would have been only about 11 when probably being a Rebel Soldier in June, 1863, and 11-year-old Rebel soldiers were not unheard of but very rare. And younger boys ere even rarer in the Rebel army. So it seems probable that the fictional date of Mountain Fortress was intended to be sometime in the period of 1865-1870.

The Shoshone Indians in "Mountain Fortress" were in the script for Rocky Mountain (1950) and should have been changed to Apaches or Comanches. Perado estimates that they are 5 or 6 days from the Mexican border. If they make an average of 20 to 50 miles per day for 5 or 6 days they should be only about 100 to 300 miles from the Mexican border, and the southernmost Shoshone Indians should have been found hundreds of miles farther north.