June 13, 1858; Whites City, New Mexico: On the last day of May 1858, Mescalero Apaches, identified as being from the bands of Marco and Gomez, stole some mules from a government mail party north of the Davis Mountains in West Texas. Following the incident, Lt. Col. Washington Sewell, Eighth Infantry, in command at Fort Davis, ordered 2nd Lt. William B. Hazen to "overtake and chasten" the culprits.
Hazen left the fort on 4 June with two Mexican guides, eleven mounted men, and nineteen infantrymen drawn from Companies C, D, F, and H of the Eighth Infantry. Most of the soldiers were quite green, and Hazen would later blame the disastrous expedition on the men's inexperience. The party followed the Indians' trail north across nearly waterless terrain between the Sierra Diablo and the Delaware Mountains to the southern end of the Guadalupe Mountains, then followed the mountain edge northeast into New Mexico Territory. Finally, on 13 June, Hazen's guides discovered an Indian camp cut into an escarpment in a canyon.
Hazen planned to surround the camp, which contained about fifteen lodges and about 100 Indians, during the night. The guides, however, overestimated the distance to the camp, and the soldiers found themselves standing just above the camp before sundown. Taking a chance, Hazen decided to attack at once, but the Indians saw them coming and fled up the canyon. Only one Mescalero warrior was killed and one woman was captured before nightfall ended the fight. The next morning, Hazen rounded up twenty-nine government horses and mules and burned the abandoned camp. The soldiers found fifty white scalps-evidence that this band had been killing settlers. Hazen scouted for the Mescaleros through the rugged Guadalupes for a day and a half before calling it quits.
The return march was an ordeal. The soldiers suffered from lack of water and food, and the grain-fed horses were so broken down that the men had to dismount and walk. On the way to the Salt Springs, it got so hot that the men could not touch the metal parts of their rifles, and the little water they had left in their canteens was almost too hot to drink. Soon, even that was gone. Hazen reported that several men drank their own urine, which only increased their thirst.
The expedition camped at Salt Springs on 16 June. That evening, Pvt. Michael Kellett, Company D, went outside the perimeter to sleep. When he stumbled back about 4 a.m., the nervous sentry, issuing no verbal challenge, shot him dead. The sentry then yelled, "Indians!" startling the entire camp and causing another sentry, Pvt. Michael Heyers of Company C, to panic. When Heyers came running into camp screaming, the men mistook him for a charging Indian and blasted away at him, knocking him dead in his tracks. Stray bullets hit several horses, and pandemonium ensued. Not until dawn did everything calm down enough for Hazen to piece together what had happened.
The soldiers buried Kellett and Heyers in the desert and proceeded sadly home. They reached Fort Davis on 20 June. Hazen later praised his scouts and a few of the soldiers, but of the remainder he wrote: "I never saw so worthless a set of men thrown together before in my life."
