Maybe he was a "PTSD Cursed" combat veteran?

Medal of Honor recipient Adam Paine blown away by Kinney County Deputy Sheriff Claron Windus.

January 1, 1877.

Brackettville, Texas 78832.


Snippet from Kevin Mulroy's Frredom on the Border: the Seminole Maroons in Florida, the Indian Territory , Coahuila, and Texas. 1993.



Page 152.


"The maroons had been disturbed greatly by the attack on John Horse and Titus Payne in May 1876, but the violence reached a new peak early in the morning of New Year's Day, 1877.

"Adam Paine, who had won the Medal of Honor for his part in the Red River War, had been discharged from the scouts on February 19, 1875, at the end of his term of service.

"Instead of reenlisting, Paine had taken to frequenting the border towns and was suspected of stealing horses and cattle and running them into Mexico.

"Of more importance, he was wanted in Brownsville for stabbing a private of the Eighth Cavalry.

"On the afternoon of December 31, Brackettville law enforcement officers received word that he had returned to Fort Clark.

"Paine was attending a New Year's dance in the Bowleg's yard at the maroon settlement when, shortly after midnight, Deputy Sheiff Claron Windus blasted him with a shotgun at such short range, it has been said, that his clothes were set afire.."