On April 6, the main force under the expedition's commander in chief, Maj. Gen. Frederick Dobson Middleton, started marching north from Qu'Appelle toward revel headquarters at Batoche. Farther west, Colonel William D. Otter was leading 543 men from Swift Current to Battleford, while a battalion under Maj. Gen. Thomas Bland Strange was to move from Calgary to the Feat Western prairies to pacify the area around Edmonton, then veer east in a pincer movement with Middleton to subdue the Cree near Fort Pitt.

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A portly-white-bearded Sandhurst graduate, Middleton was a veteran of successful campaigns in India and New Zealand. Not renowned for swiftness of maneuver, he retained a faith in the massed infantry attack and the defensive power of the British square that was inappropriate for Canada, where mobility and concealment were of greater tactical advantage. Leaving most of his cavalry behind to guard supply depots and the railway, he marched his two columns of 800 troops 150 miles in three weeks.

The morning of April 24 found Middleton's force encamped 20 miles from Batoche. A few miles away, in a small ravine at Fish Creek, 130 Métis and Indians lay in wait. Dumont had placed them in rifle pits concealed among the trees and brush, facing uphill to catch the advancing soldiers as they reached the brow of the hill, silhouetted against the sky.

In spite of the warning signs left by some young Métis horsemen who had been chasing stray cattle, Middleton marched his orderly ranks forward — right into the killing zone Dumont had prepared. As the Canadians arrived at the crest of the ravine, they were greeted by a hail of lead. Two artillery pieces were wheeled up, but could not be depressed enough to hit the Métis positions. After two bayonet rushes were thrown back, the Métis began signing 'The Falcon's Song,' a traditional fighting air among the mixed-bloods, while another joined in on a flute. When Middleton called back his main force at nightfall, eight Métis were dead and 11 wounded, but the Canadians casualties came to 10 dead and 42 wounded.

Meanwhile, Otter's relief force reached Battleford to the cheers of its populace. After a few days' rest, he led 325 men, including 75 Mounties, along with two cannons and a Gatling gun, to the Cree camp at Cut Knife Creek to deal with Poundmaker on May 2. While the Canadian cannons fired on the teepees, however, Poundmaker's war chief, Fineday, led his braves into the brush and within 20 minutes Indian muskets and arrows were pinning down Otters' troops. Eventually the Canadians managed to fight their way back to Battleford, with eight men killed and 15 wounded. Fineday's band had suffered five dead and a few wounded.

On May 5, Middleton was ready to resume his drive on Batoche, this time supported by the flat-bottomed riverboat Northcote, commandeered into service armed with a 7-pounder, a Gatling gun and 35 riflemen. The Hudson Bay supply vessel's conversion to a gunboat had not gone unnoticed by Dumont's scouts, however, and when it reached the narrow channel at the edge of town on May 9, gunfire erupted from both banks. As its crew poured on steam, Northcote's captain saw too late that the Métis had strung two heavy steel ferry cables across the river, several hundred feet apart. After Northcote passed under the first cable, both were lowered to entrap the vessel, but the Métis failed to bring them low enough to snag its hull. Instead, the second cable knocked the pilot house ajar, toppled the smokestack overboard and knocked over the mast and loading spars. While its crew put out a fire that had started in the debris, the river current carried Northcote around a bend to safety, but the farcical action had put the improvised gunboat out of the fight.

Later that morning, Middleton's advance guard reached the outskirts of Batoche and his artillery began shelling the town. Middleton then ordered his infantry forward, only to be driven back once more by Métis firing from well concealed pits and trenches. At dusk, the Canadians withdrew behind a stockade of circled transport wagons, where they spent an uncomfortable night on cold rations under intermittent Métis fire and a large rocket improvised by Dumont to explode overhead at midnight, just to unnerve them further.

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