Battle of Ojo Caliente Canyon

Battle of Ojo Caliente Canyon
Part of the Jicarilla War, Apache Wars, Ute Wars, American Indian Wars
DateApril 8, 1854
Location
near Ojo Caliente, New Mexico Territory
Result United States victory
Belligerents
 United States Apache
Ute
Commanders and leaders
United States Philip St. George Cooke
United States Kit Carson		 Chacon
Strength
200 cavalry
100 infantry
32 native scouts[1]		 ~150 warriors
Casualties and losses
none 5 killed
6 wounded,[2][3]
This engagement should not be confused with the 1879 Battle of Ojo Caliente between Victorio's band and the 9th Cavalry.

The Battle of Ojo Caliente Canyon, or simply the Battle of Ojo Caliente was an engagement of the Jicarilla War on April 8, 1854. Combatants were Jicarilla Apache warriors, and their Ute allies, against the United States Army. The skirmish was fought as result of the pursuit of the Jicarilla after the Battle of Cieneguilla just over a week earlier.[4][5]

  1. ^ Utley, Frontiersmen in Blue, pg.144-145
  2. ^ Utley, Frontiersmen in Blue, pg.145
  3. ^ Additionally some Jicarilla women and children and some of the Indians' horses drowned while crossing the Ojo Caliente River. Later the fleeing Indians without the food lost with their camp suffered from exposure and seventeen women and children perished in the snow. FORT UNION Historic Resource Study: CHAPTER THREE: MILITARY OPERATIONS BEFORE THE CIVIL WAR, and note 56
  4. ^ Utley, Robert M. (1967). Frontiersmen in Blue: The United States Army and the Indian, 1848-1865. MacMillan. pp. 144–146. ISBN 978-0026212403.
  5. ^ "MILITARY OPERATIONS BEFORE THE CIVIL WAR". santafetrailresearch.com. Archived from the original on 2022-07-02. Retrieved 2023-08-24.