Mackenzie's Raiders

[holding a knife at Margaret's throat]

Forsythe's Woman:
If anything happens to my man, you won't live to find one for yourself.

[last lines]

[after a desperate fight and a hard ride, Colonel Mackenzie and Margaret Donovan sneak back into the fort just before the General knocks on Margaret's door]

General Donavan:
You're looking very fresh this morning. You must have rested well.

Margaret Donavan:
Yes, father, quite well.

[Margaret winks at Colonel Mackenzie]

[first lines]

Narrator:
June 13, 1864 - The end of another arduous patrol led by Colonel Ranald Mackenzie. For six months Mackenzie had sought his two missing raiders in Mexico and for six months, each mission was marked by failure.

[last lines]

Dr. Leon Hemphill:
Colonel, I don't know how you did it, because you're not suffering from exhaustion - you've got cholera... and you've had it some time.

Col. Ranald S. Mackenzie:
Will I make it?

Dr. Leon Hemphill:
Yes, you're through the worst.

Col. Ranald S. Mackenzie:
How about Trout?

Dr. Leon Hemphill:
Too much caustic soap and an overdose of morphine. How in the world did he get so much?

Col. Ranald S. Mackenzie:
Pull him through, Doc... I want to see him hang.

[discussing a trooper arrested for gun-running and murder]

Col. Ranald S. Mackenzie:
He may lose a little of that arrogance when he faces the court martial.

Sgt. Fife:
He'll lose a mite more when he faces the gallows.

Sgt. Briarly:
Anytime they sent me out after a deserter, he'll be brought back slung over his saddle!

Sgt. Fife:
Well, don't think the Colonel would like it better that way as far as Grimes is concerned.

Sgt. Stanfield:
That's one reason I'm glad I'm no officer... that rulebook - it keeps gettin' in the way.

[last lines]

Col. Ranald S. Mackenzie:
It's all over for Grimes; it's all over for Trooper Matthews, and if Diablito had gotten a hold of those repeating rifles, it would be all over for a lot of other people.

Army Chaplain:
Colonel, I'm not questioning your orders.

Col. Ranald S. Mackenzie:
I know you're not. It's just an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth...

Army Chaplain:
Wait a minute. You can't understand unless you complete the quotation. "An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth. Vengeance is mine. I will repay, sayeth the Lord."

Col. Ranald S. Mackenzie:
I understand and I accept... but I don't have to like it.

Army Chaplain:
Yours isn't an easy job.

Col. Ranald S. Mackenzie:
Sometimes it isn't. Believe me, Chaplain, sometimes it isn't.

Army Chaplain:
Good night, Ranald.

Col. Ranald S. Mackenzie:
Good night, Chaplain. Thanks again.

Col. Ranald S. Mackenzie:
Sergeant, I'll need you and three other raiders - volunteers from our group.

Sgt. Teal:
Yes, sir. There's me and Dixon, Brown...

Col. Ranald S. Mackenzie:
Sergeant, I said *volunteers*.

Sgt. Teal:
Yes, sir. Volunteers for what, sir?

Sgt. Teal:
We're going to take a ride into Mexico.

Col. Ranald S. Mackenzie:
Yes, sir.

Sgt. Teal:
About 340 miles into Mexico.

Col. Ranald S. Mackenzie:
Yes, sir.

Sgt. Teal:
I must say you took it better than I did.

Col. Ranald S. Mackenzie:
There's every possibility that we may fail on the mission we are about to undertake. There's every need that we do *not* fail, because if we do the United States will probably be at war with Mexico. I imagine that you've all heard of Michael Lucas O'Hara.

Cpl. Brown:
General Michael Lucas O'Hara?

Cpl. Dixon:
The Yankee who sold out his battalion at Pine Ridge?

Sgt. Teal:
He disappeared in '64!

Col. Ranald S. Mackenzie:
He's reappeared in San Rodrigo, Mexico. Our orders are to go in and get him. Further, our orders are to bring him out... and within a week's time... and without being seen by Federales. San Rodrigo is 340 miles below the Mexican border. I think you all understand what that means.

Sgt. Teal:
Sir, if the Colonel will pardon me asking...

Col. Ranald S. Mackenzie:
If you close the door, the Colonel will pardon you asking.

Col. Ranald S. Mackenzie:
Tell me, Mr. O'Hara, was it easier to sell out your country in Mexico than it was to sell out your men at Pine Ridge.

Lewis Michael O'Hara:
Colonel, I found out when I was quite young a man's conscience is too often a barrier to personal gain. I have simply denied mine. It's interesting. I've never talked to anyone else like this before.

Col. Ranald S. Mackenzie:
It's too bad you haven't.

Lewis Michael O'Hara:
Hmm?

Col. Ranald S. Mackenzie:
Maybe those men wouldn't have had to die at Andersonville prison.

Col. Ranald S. Mackenzie:
Private Lewis, Corporal Brown, Corporal Dixon... thank you for the *volunteers*, Sergeant.

Col. Ranald S. Mackenzie:
Tell me something, Sergeant, what would you do if they defamed you - if they smeared your name as a soldier in public?

Sgt. Wells:
Oh, I'd, ah... I'd...

Col. Ranald S. Mackenzie:
Go on, go on. Tell me.

Sgt. Wells:
Well, I've been with the Colonel for ten years. I think he knows what I do.

Col. Ranald S. Mackenzie:
Unfortunately, however, Adam Davis hasn't had that ten years.

Sgt. Wells:
Well, he has his oath as a Raider.

Col. Ranald S. Mackenzie:
His oath, yes. An oath, Sergeant, is a calling upon God to witness the truth of something we say. I'm afraid that by the time this trial is over Corporal Adam Davis may well believe that God has completely deserted him.

[Mackenzie and his men have followed Carter's gang of outlaws and commenced an attack]

Henchman:
They can't be here, Val! They ain't allow on this territory.

Val Carter:
They're here just the same.

Henchman:
What about the law?

[a bullet riccochets off a nearby rock]

Val Carter:
I don't think those bullets know anything about the law.

Richard Stone:
The fact remains my son is dead. You're the Army, what are you going to do about it!

Col. Ranald S. Mackenzie:
Rich, Rich, there is nothing I can do about it. By now those Apaches are a hundred miles away.

Richard Stone:
I'm not talking about just those Apaches! I'm talking about every mother's son of 'em! I spent over half my life fightin' 'em. They killed my two sons; they killed the woman who bore them. I've built up the biggest spread in the entire state of Texas for what? For the dust of my family?

[disguised as a bandit, Mackenzie holds up an Army payroll wagon]

Col. Ranald S. Mackenzie:
You're robbing Mackenzie's 4th Cavalry!

Lt. Paxson:
Well, I didn't take you for Navy.

Lt. Paxson:
Colonel, if I may, I've been thinking...

Col. Ranald S. Mackenzie:
Well, the Army, Lieutenant, does not forbid junior officers from thinking... but it hardly approves.