August 16, 1849; Cobre, New Mexico: Gold seekers heading to California quickly wore out their tentative welcome while crossing through Apache lands in New Mexico Territory. When some of them tried to work the old mines abandoned by the Mexicans at Santa Rita del Cobre, hostilities increased. Capt. Enoch Steen, First Dragoons, arrived in Santa Fe from Fort Leavenworth in July 1849 and marched down the Rio Grande to Dona Ana, where he established a post on 1 August. Stationed at Dona Ana during its first few months were Companies D, F, and H of the First Dragoons and Company B of the Third Infantry.
Only a week after the post was established, Apache raiders under Mangas Coloradas came through the area. Steen led about fifty dragoons of Company H in pursuit. The Indians' trail led northwest past the Mimbres River to the foot of the Pinos Altos Range and the old copper mines. There Steen met a large band of Apaches and got the worst of the encounter. Three dragoons were wounded, while the Indians may have taken no casualties. Steen was severely wounded by a man known as "Apache Jack" Gordon, a white renegade who had lived with the Chiricahuas for several years. The dragoons marched back to Dona Ana and claimed they had defeated the Indians, but the Apaches continued to raid in the area nearly unchallenged.
