The Undefeated (1969 film)  The Undefeated is a 1969 American Western and Civil War era film directed by Andrew V. McLaglen and John Wayne (uncredited) and starring John Wayne and Rock Hudson. The film portrays events surrounding the French Imperial intervention in Mexico during the 1860s period of the neighboring American Civil War with the Archduke Maximillian of Austria set up as Emperor in Mexico in 1863 by French Emperor Napoleon III and is also loosely based on Confederate States Army General Joseph Orville Shelby's factual escape to Mexico after the American Civil War (1861-1865). and his attempt to join with Maximilian's Imperial Mexican forces supported by French Imperial regiments sent by Emperor Napoleon III from Europe. In the closing days of the American Civil War, Union Army Colonel John Henry Thomas (John Wayne) and company organize one final attack on a small unit of Confederate soldiers, only to be informed after bloodily defeating them that the war had ended three days ago at Appomattox Courthouse in Virginia. Saddened and weary, Thomas leads his men out west towards home with the intention of rounding up and selling wild horses in the Arizona and New Mexico Territories to compensate them for their loyalty, friendship, and war service. Meanwhile, a band of Confederate States Army soldiers led by Colonel James Langdon (Rock Hudson) feel the war has left them with no home, and they prepare to emigrate south to Mexico and serve as reinforcements to Emperor Maximilian, leader of the French intervention invasion of Mexico against the republican government of President Benito Juarez. Langdon torches his plantation home before he departs rather than seeing it fall into the hands of Northern carpetbaggers. At the same time, Thomas and the surviving members of his command meet up with Thomas' adopted Indian son, Blue Boy (Roman Gabriel), and other members of his tribe from the Oklahoma and Indian Territories. Together they round up a herd of 3,000 horses and take them across the Rio Grande River of the North for sale to Maximilian's representatives in Durango, Mexico. Halfway there, Blue Boy discovers tracks indicating that Mexican Comanchero bandits are planning an ambush on the group of Confederate travelers. Blue Boy and Thomas go to warn the emigrating Confederates and Thomas and Langdon meet. Despite their differences, the Americans - Northerners, Southerners, and Cherokee Indians - repel the group of Mexican "bandidos" attacking the Confederate camp, with Thomas' former Union Army troopers saving the day. Col. Langdon thanks the Northerners by inviting them to celebrate at a "Fourth of July" party - "Southern style".