[1][3] During November 1927, marine reconnaissance aircraft detected the fortress of El Chipote, which was the main base of the Sandinista rebels, located near the border with Honduras.

Colonel Francisco Estrada was in command of the rebels and he had about 400 men armed with several machine guns, rifles, pistols and dynamite, positioned in parapets made of pine trees.

After the first shots, Richal ordered his men to return the enemy's fire which had mortally wounded Sergeant Thomas G. Bruce who was serving as a lieutenant and commander of the Nicaraguan Guardsmen.

The Sandinistas then charged and forced the Marines and Guardsmen back fifty yards placing the latter within the protection of their 3-inch Stokes mortar and a Lewis machine gun which then opened up against the hill along with a 37-millimeter field piece positioned some distance up the trail.

Gunnery Sergeant Edward G. Brown, who assumed command after Richal was hit, counterattacked with a handful of men and captured the hill as the rebels fled.

Captain Livingston, knowing Richal was likely to run into an ambush during the march, sent a platoon of sharpshooters under Second Lieutenant A. T. Hunt, to reinforce the column.

Meanwhile, Sandino reinforced his defeated troops and besieged Quilali for a few days, which forced the Marines and guardsmen to abandon the expedition to El Chipote.