Set at Fort Clark, Texas in the year 1873, this was the story US 4th Cavalry officer Colonel Ranald S. Mackenzie (Richard Carlson) who formed a band of raiders to battle bandits and outlaws who attacked settlements along the Rio Grande river between Mexico and the US.

Mackenzie organized his raiders under a secret communiqué from President US Grant who wanted to "Bring law and order back to Texas" and "Make the border region "a fit place for Americans to live!"

Soldiers interacting with Colonel Mackenzie included:

• George Gilbreth as Lieutenant Tom Paxon
• Craig Duncan as Sergeant Banfield
• Riley Hill as Sergeant Fife
• Dennis Moore as Sergeant Teal B
• Charles Boaz as Corporal Dixon
• Rand Brooks as Corporal Brown
• Doug McClure as Corporal Adam Davis
• Jim Bridges as Private Lewis
• Michael Vandever as Young Trooper
• Morris Ankrum as Raider
• Kenneth Alton as Raider
• Louis Jean Heydt as Raider
• Brett King as Raider

Colonel Ranald S. Mackenzie

Here is a list of some of Colonel Mackenzie's engagements with hostile forces along the Mexican Border:

• Col. Mackenzie captures Indian Chief Monitu, but when armed gunslingers attack, Mackenzie and Monitu join forces to save each others lives.
• Col. Mackenzie attack marauders who have been killing Cavalry convoys with Gatling gun fire.
• Col. Mackenzie thwarts the plan of a crooked Indian agent who encourages Indian braves on the reservation to rob and terrorize the region.
• Col. Mackenzie uses signaling mirrors to communicate across the distance to defeat bandits ambushing ammunition convoys going to the Mexican government.  
• Col. Mackenzie's rescues a general's daughter who was taken hostage by a bandit who escaped from Fort Clark.
• Col. Mackenzie's capture of an infamous outlaw motivates the man's brother to take a Mexican official hostage to exchange for his brother.
• Col. Mackenzie is captured by a Mexican forces when discovered illegally crossing International borders between American and Mexico. Although caught, he never reveals his activities were directed by the US president.
• Col Mackenzie holds back Texans who want to invade Mexico during the unrest after the fall of Maximillian.
• Col. Mackenzie thwarts the plans of gunmen who steal medical supplies needed to cure Cholera.
• Col. Mackenzie inadvertently offends sacred tribal law when he comes to the aid of an Indian left to die in the desert.
• Col. Mackenzie infiltrates a band of renegades posing as soldiers who are raiding army supply wagons and killing settlers near Fort Clark in Texas..
• Col. Mackenzie surreptitiously returns a white boy raised as an Apache back to the Indian lifestyle that he prefers.
• Col. Mackenzie thwarts a plan of outlaws to take over a ranch the is now on Mexican soil due to a Hurricane changing the course of the river.
• Col. Mackenzie comes to the rescue of a town where a land grabber is killing off ranchers and buying up auctioned properties at rock bottom prices.
• Col. Mackenzie is confronted with a disgruntled rancher who resents a plan to teach Indians how to farm on land he wanted.
• Col. Mackenzie is ordered into Mexico to capture a former general who wants to overthrow Mexico and attack the US.
• Col. Mackenzie must stop a revenge motivated scalping party put together by a grieving rancher whose son was killed by renegade Apaches.
• Col. Mackenzie is confronted with a revenge scheme from a man whom Mackenzie had court-martialed years ago.
• Col. Mackenzie must rescue a captured news reporter who threatens to reveal Mackenzie's secret Presidential mandate.
• Col. Mackenzie uses photographic evidence to uncover a murderer and stop a potential range war brewing over the preference of long-horned verses short-horned cattle.
• Col. Mackenzie enters Mexico to capture outlaws using their  headquarters as a staging ground to attack Texas stagecoaches.
• Col. Mackenzie must bring down a gunman and lawyer who are taking control of Brackettville, the town next to Fort Clark.
• Col. Mackenzie uses dynamite to return water horded by a rancher who wants to create his own empire.
• Col. Mackenzie is attacked by Comanche's encouraged by the defeat of Custer at Little Big Horn.
• Col. Mackenzie must protect a survey party planning a national road through Texas by a rancher and his renegade supporters.
• Col. Mackenzie tracks down a renegade ex-Army Major responsible for an Indian massacre who is on a killing spree.

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Memorabilia

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TRIVIA NOTE: Produced by ZIV Television, the 39-episode series was based on 'The MacKenzie Raid' by Russell Potter Reeder and Russell Potter Reeder Jr..  Outdoor scenes filmed at the Iverson Ranch, Chatsworth, Los Angeles, California.

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External Links

• MacKenzie's Raiders (IMDb)

 

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