But Victorio had grown careless. Neglecting to post his people on a defensible height, he laid out his camp in a canyon not far from Ojo Caliente. At daybreak on May 24, 1880, carbine fire ripped into his camp. Sleeping warriors scrambled to defend themselves or escape, but in every direction they ran, volleys of fire drove them back. They were surrounded. Hunkering down, they exchanged fire with their attackers all day. Victorio took a bullet in his leg, and thirty or more of his people—men, women, and children—fell dead, while many others sustained wounds. Sporadic firing continued through the next day. Late in the afternoon, the assailants withdrew, having little ammunition left and no water. The Apaches scattered back into the Black Range.

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Victorio had been soundly whipped—the first decisive defeat in his long struggle. Dragging their wounded, leaving some to die, the Apaches headed in three parties for Mexico. Troops pressed from the rear until the remainder of the Indians had escaped across the border. Morrow followed one party so closely that at the border itself he had a brief skirmish in which Victorio’s son Washington was killed.

Colonel Hatch again misrepresented the success, ascribing the victory to the cavalry, with slight assistance from the scouts. In fact, not a single Regular took part in the battle. Hatch’s civilian captain of scouts, Henry K. Parker, had led some seventy Apache scouts on Victorio’s trail, discovered his camp, and during the night succeeded in posting contingents on four sides. They remained undiscovered until close enough to open the battle at dawn. Parker sent back for more ammunition, but it had not arrived by the afternoon of the second day. Almost out of ammunition and entirely out of water, he fell back to Ojo Caliente, allowing Victorio to hurry south.

His people fatigued and short of provisions, Victorio headed southeast into the forbidding Chihauhuan Desert south of West Texas. The disheartened chief did not know where to turn. Another foray into western New Mexico seemed futile. The Mescaleros with him may have tried to persuade him to dash northward to their agency and surrender, or to refit and once more take to the warpath; or he may have resolved on his own to attempt one of those two courses. In any event, late in July 1880, with 150 warriors, he forded the Rio Grande into Texas. Nana seems to have remained in Mexico, caring for the women and children.

After leaving the Rio Grande, their survival as they crossed West Texas depended on having enough water for the horses and men.

Few reliable sources existed. One, called Tinaja de las Palmas, lay in Quitman Canyon. On the morning of July 30, Victorio approached the spring from the south but discovered that a handful of the 10th Cavalry commanded by Colonel Grierson held a commanding height.

Following the fiasco at the Mescalero agency in May 1880, Grierson had returned to Texas, deciding to remain there and make certain that Victorio did not try to cross West Texas to return to New Mexico. Concentrating eight troops of the 10th Cavalry and four companies of the 24th Infantry at Fort Davis, he had strung his units along the Rio Grande at every water hole and other strategic position.

At Tinaja de las Palmas on July 30, Grierson held the height above the spring with only himself, his young son Robert, and twenty-three troopers. Yet he knew that if he could hold Victorio there, other units could be summoned to the battle.

As Victorio turned to bypass the spring on the east, ten soldiers rushed out to confront him. Both sides formed skirmish lines and exchanged fire for about an hour. Suddenly Victorio spotted a large body of cavalry charging toward the battleground from the east. First on the scene were two troops of cavalry, under Capt. Charles D. Viele, that had been posted at Eagle Springs. The skirmish lines dissolved as the ten soldiers withdrew to their defenses and the reinforcements fought their way through to join the beleaguered few. Desperate fighting continued for another hour, when still another force of horsemen charged into the fray: Capt. Nicholas Nolan’s troop, which had been camped farther west in Quitman Canyon. Outnumbered and outfought, Victorio turned back to Mexico.

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