From the Annals of Comancheria – In 1883, Ranald Slidell Mackenzie, a renowned U.S. Army cavalry officer, was diagnosed as suffering from “paralysis of the insane.” Mackenzie was a native New Yorker but gained fame during the Civil War and later in Texas.  He was first in the 1862 class at West Point and immediately began active service in the Union cavalry during the Civil War.  By the end of the war he was a Brevet Major General.  His best known service after the war was a commander of the Fourth United States Cavalry stationed primarily at Fort Griffin near Albany, Texas.  Alone among commanders of the day, Mackenzie formulated a plan for dealing with the Comanches and their allies.  He was the first to take the fight effectively to the Comanche stomping grounds of the Llano Estacado.  He is best known for his victory against the Comanches at Palo Duro Canyon and for the extralegal Remolino raid into Mexico in pursuit of Kickapoo raiders. Mackenzie’s plans to marry and to retire near Boerne, Texas, in 1883 never materialized as he was plagued by increasing mental problems which resulted in commitment to a New York asylum in 1884. He died on Staten Island in 1889.