Unknown to Victorio, Morrow’s command had nearly destroyed itself. The merciless desert yielded almost no water, and the Apaches had drained their water tanks. Day after insufferable day, debilitating thirst plagued both men and animals. Horses and mules collapsed. Rations ran short. Morrow hoped to find water at the Corralitos River, which he judged to be only about five miles to his front, but he had no guide familiar with the country and was groping blindly for the river. The quest was interrupted on October 27, when scouts returned with word of the ambush Victorio had set up in the canyon. Morrow decided to attack.

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Intending to hide his horses and attack on foot at dawn, Morrow detached half of his eighty-one cavalrymen to guard the horses and worked slowly forward with the remaining forty, along with eighteen Indian scouts under Lieutenant Gatewood. As the troopers settled in for the night, the Indian scouts crept forward to find Victorio’s camp. Warriors stationed on hills at the entrance to the canyon heard the scouts’ horses and mules braying for want of water and opened fire. His presence discovered, Morrow pushed his forty men quickly to the canyon to fight in the light of a full moon.

The troops easily routed the vedettes at the mouth of the canyon. The latter ran into the canyon to alert their tribesmen, and all scrambled up the canyon wall, where rock breastworks had been thrown up on the crest. Outnumbered more than three to one, the troopers scaled the slope, firing as they moved forward. The Indians returned fire with Winchester rifles and formed a line at the very top of the heights. The gunfire from both sides flashed vividly in the night, with increasing intensity.

Although it was aimed too high to do any damage, the Indians’ fire was so heavy that Morrow’s troops stopped the advance.

Morrow ordered Gatewood to lead the scouts in a swing to the right in an effort to flank the enemy position while his cavalrymen would simultaneously resume their assault. The scouts succeeded in getting within ten feet of the objective, but were pinned down when the Apaches rolled down big rocks from above. They fired steadily until nearly out of ammunition.

At the same time, the cavalry had almost reached the top of the canyon, but were confronted by formidable ledges of rock. Morrow’s men repeatedly tried to push through to the top. Soon they too ran low on ammunition. Recognizing the futility of further effort, at about one o’clock in the morning, Morrow pulled his command back to where the horses had been corralled. There he found them almost completely broken down. They had not had water for three days, and unless the horses were watered at once, his troops would likely be dismounted entirely.

Determined to find the Corralitos River, Morrow resolved to lead the horses there, returning to the canyon on foot at dawn to resume the battle. The river proved twelve miles distant instead of five, and he did not reach it until daylight. No less exhausted than the horses, his men dropped at once and slept. The major thought long and hard about returning to the fray. He had to acknowledge that neither his cavalry nor his scouts could probably attain the objective before expending all their ammunition. Nor were they in any condition to fight. Victorio had won.

The command turned back north and arrived at Fort Bayard on November 2. The pursuit had been long, hard, and persistent. Although he expected the Indians to return and had disposed his command at various strategic points to intercept them, Morrow consoled himself with the fact that at least he had driven Victorio out of the United States. In a tribute to the work of his men, Morrow singled out the Apache scouts from Arizona, whom he credited “entirely” with driving Victorio out of the country. Without their services, he reported, the troopers could never have followed Victorio’s trail.

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