In 1865, former Confederate soldier Cullen Bohannon journeys to the Union Pacific Railroad's westward construction of the First Transcontinental Railroad to seek work and vengeance on the Union soldiers who killed his wife and son. Cullen gets hired by the railroad and supervises an all-black "cut crew", including Elam , whose job is to prepare the terrain for track laying. Through conversation with the railroad foreman, Daniel Johnson , Cullen learns more about his wife's death. But tragedy strikes before the name of her killer is revealed to him. Thomas "Doc" Durant begins his "mad, noble quest" to expand his Union Pacific Railroad westward in order to complete the transcontinental railroad. Lily Bell accompanies her ailing husband, Robert, as he surveys the landscape for the Union Pacific. Robert is killed by the Cheyenne natives, and Lily must cope with being a widow on foreign soil. Reverend Nathaniel Cole baptizes Joseph Black Moon, a Cheyenne, then takes him under his tutelage in the church. Season one ends with Bohannon killing a man he believes was responsible for the rape and murder of his wife only to discover that man was not there at the time, thus killing the wrong man.