Various incidents in the next half decade continued to raise tensions between the Americans and the Jicarillas, leading both sides to increasingly mistrust the other until the winter of 1853 to 1854 when the Army began operations.

On the next day, the conflict escalated when a band of Jicarillas and Utes raided a herd of cattle near Fort Union, killing two herdsmen in the process.

The first engagement was fought on March 30 when First Lieutenant John Davidson's launched an unauthorized attack on a Jicarilla village near the present day Pilar, New Mexico.

[5] In the subsequent Battle of Cieneguilla, sixty American cavalrymen fought an estimated 250 Apaches and Ute warriors under the war chief Flechas Rayadas.

A week later on April 8, a large force of about 200 American cavalrymen, 100 men of the 3rd Infantry, and 32 scouts, found the Jicarillas of Chief Chacon in Ojo Caliente Canyon.