A detachment of 66 men of the 1st Cavalry Regiment and 61 men of Company G under Lieutenant John Lafferty of the 8th Cavalry had tracked the Apaches into the Chiricahua Mountains and eventually to an engagement what some called the Campaign of the Rocky Mesa. The combined troops were led by Captain Reuben F. Bernard of the 1st Cavalry. The cool overcast day became a miserable day, cold with rain and hail, when the cavalrymen attacked. The Apaches were well entrenched and defending behind rocks and boulders near the top of a ridge. The soldiers had to climb a defile or a steep-sided and narrow passage of loose slick rocks to go over and around as they moved up toward the top of the mesa. More than one fell due to the weather conditions. Under these deplorable conditions Scott and his fellow soldiers advanced upwards toward the hostile Indians.