Mangas Coloradas, chief of the Gila River Apaches, fought Confederate soldiers throughout Arizona's rebellious period.

In early August, a group of Arizonans known as the Ake Party were traveling from the Tucson region to the western side of the Rio Grande near Mesilla.

Word of the engagement and the plunder of hundreds of heads of livestock led to the Arizona Guards' involvement in this Apache campaign.

As soon as Thomas J. Mastin, captain of the Arizona Guards, received the Ake Party's distress call, he realized that a nighttime pursuit would likely lead to an ambush of the pursuers.

The Arizona Guards occupied their new post in the Florida Mountains for only a short time when their pickets reported the approach of the Native warriors.