As the trail became fresh, Captain Grier ordered the men to supply themselves with bread for eight days for the final pursuit. They would make only cold camps at night after pushing hard every day. About two hours before sundown on November 16, the scouts found the abandoned Apache camp with cottonwood still smoldering in the ashes of the fires. Scouts were sent out, but it was too late in the day to find the Jicarillas. Having traveled a punishing 40 miles that day, Grier decided to encamp in a grove of nearby cottonwoods to rest his horses and men for the final push forward.

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At dawn on November 17, Grier moved his command out at the gallop, the scouts in advance. He gambled that even though they had to travel across the exposed prairie to make speed, the Indians might not spy them until too late. “All former precautions had been eliminated,” recounted Sergeant Kronig. “The company started on a trot and kept up this pace until we were in sight of some Indian horses, grazing on the hills above their camp.” The Jicarillas, encamped on the Canadian River some 15 miles south of the landmark called Tucumcari Butte, were taken by surprise.

Carson, far in advance, could see that the Apaches had been alerted to the troops and were breaking camp. As he galloped forward, he called back to the men to follow him. Wootton and others rushed forward to join Carson in charging the camp when Grier suddenly ordered the men to halt. Wootton was stunned, calling Grier’s action “one of the strangest ideas that ever entered the head of a commanding officer, who was about to engage an Indian or any other enemy.”

Carson galloped back, cursing Grier and demanding an immediate charge, but Leroux had suggested a parley and the captain was adamant. One enraged volunteer sergeant rode up to Grier and threw down his gun and saber in disgust. By this time Indian warriors were rushing toward the troops, screening the escape of their families. Grier suddenly reeled in his saddle, shot in the chest by one of the Apaches. His gauntlets, stuffed into his coat pocket, saved him by stopping the spent ball. Gasping for breath, he ordered the charge. It was too late.

As the soldiers rushed the village, the last of the warriors melted away before them with their families now safely across the river. Fisher shot one warrior as he swam the river. He was the only Apache killed. The Indians, with their fresh horses, easily outdistanced the pursuing soldiers and quickly scattered.

In the camp Carson found the body of Ann White, “perfectly warm, had not been killed more than five minutes—shot through the heart with an arrow.” Carson was uncharacteristically bitter. “I am certain that if the Indians had been charged immediately on our arrival, she would have been saved,” he noted. Sergeant Kronig also came on the tragic scene: “She was running toward us when shot and the arrow that took her life, struck at her back, seemed to have passed through her heart. It was a pitiful sight to see an American woman so ruthlessly killed by these heartless savages. They still had her baby and the Negro nurse.”

With pursuit fruitless, the soldiers gathered up camp equipment, buffalo robes, saddles and food and tore down some 30 lodges. These were all gathered over Mrs. White’s grave and burned, so that the Apaches would not find the burial site. Seventy ponies were taken, which Grier gave to the volunteers. Two Apache children were found, and Grier turned them over to Jesus Silva to take back to Rayado (the taking of Indian children as slaves was still commonplace among New Mexicans).

While all the Indian property was gathered for destruction, Mrs. White’s baggage was also found, and there a remarkable discovery was made. Carson never forgot the moment: “In camp was found a book, the first of the kind I have ever seen, in which I was made a great hero, slaying Indians by the hundred, and I have often thought that as Mrs. White would read the same, and knowing that I lived near, she would pray for my appearance and that she would be saved. I did come, but had not the power to convince those that were in command over me to pursue my plan for her rescue.”

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