The series premiered in 1968.

The series takes place during the American Civil War (1861-1865), but it is a humorous series despite the serious main subject. We follow the two North State officers, Sergeant Cornélius M. Chesterfield and Corporal Blutch, who are fighting their own battle within the war. Chesterfield is a devoted career soldier, while Blutch is the reluctant, laid-back type. Although the two antagonists often fight each other, they also manage to produce heroic wartime results from time to time.
The series has realistic undertones; Chester and Blutch participate in several real historic sequences and battles, and historical figures participate in more scenes. Examples are President Lincoln, the generals Grant and Lee, and guerilla leader Quantrill.

Military experts find the stories to be quite correct in most respects. One exception is Chesterfield's rank as a sergeant despite the fact that he is wearing the insignia of a sergeant major (illustrated by the half-circles attached to his stripes), but this was done deliberately in order not to make it graphically harder to confuse his rank with that of Blutch's. The latter carries two stripes, but a sergeant carries three.