This much may be said, however, it is certain that notwithstanding his physical condition, and his mental temperament resulting therefrom, he never sought to inflict an injury or punishment upon anybody unnecessarily--never became a petty or malicious persecutor, hounding a man into his grave--and when it became evident to him as well as to others that he had done any of his officers or men an act of injustice, nobody could have been more open, free and frank in his disavowal of that act, or quicker to apologize and render all the reparation possible in his power-- This applied to any and all down to the last Second Lieutenant and private soldier in the regiment-- One man never knows another so well, even intimately--as when he is thrown closely in contact with or lives and sleeps and eats with him-- The writer had done all with Mackenzie during a greater part of this period of 1871--having been his Post Adjutant twice--during Gen. Sherman's inspection in May, at the time of the massacre of Salt Creek Prairie, and prior to our Expedition of that year, and his Field Adjutant on his entire campaign in his abortive attempt to strike Kicking Bird's band of Ki-o-was before he could be stampeded into the Fort Sill Reservation--from May 1st until Oct. 3--I had got to know him very well-- Causes for Desertion Both officers and men had been under a terrific high-keyed pressure--a very great mental and physical strain, almost to the breaking point; were tired and dispirited because the results and the hard work performed, had not justified their expectations and because they could not then see any immediate relief from the performance of such exacting duty-- The pace had been a little too fast even for the Fourth Cavalry-- Much of the spirit and enthusiasm for such unremunerative work was at a very low ebb-- While it had not yet approached a complete discouragement, it was a condition of supreme disgust and contempt at the methods employed-- They felt that with the Government at Washington nullifying and rendering most of their hard labor abortive, that success in those long, weary and extremely exhausting Indian campaigns was not so much dependent upon their absolute loyalty to duty and perfect willingness to sacrifice themselves when necessary in achieving results, as upon the paralyzing acts and influence of the "Indian Ring" in Washington and the ever changing political cesspools of a politically ridden country-- They wanted to see the tangible results or fruits of such terribly hard service and to feel that such hardships, privations and sacrifices as they had experienced, had not been in vain or wasted by a gang of cold blooded, unscrupulous plunderers and grafters remote from the scene of these border activities. We have but recently passed through a similar experience with the same class--in fact are doing it now. Like "_death_ and _Taxes_," we have them with us always, especially in time of wars-- It is then the vultures abound-- It is