A well-organized force of militia and regulars, under the capable leadership of famed Texas Ranger Col. John C. "Jack" Hays, defeated the Paiute warriors under Chief Numaga.

[4] In the meantime, Hays had marched out of Virginia City to Williams Station, where he skirmished with 150 Paiutes before the warriors pulled back to Pyramid Lake.

Colonel Hays retraced Ormsby's path along the Truckee River and encamped near present-day Wadsworth.

On June 2, the battle began[5] when Hays sent out an advance party of two companies, while the main force moved eight miles downriver from their camp, much more cautiously than Ormsby had before.

It was a narrow canyon, about a mile wide, anchored to the west by steep mountains of the Virginia Range.

To the west of this butte, rain had cut lateral gullies into the sandy ground, providing natural breastworks, which either side could have used to make successive stands in the case he was forced to retreat.

Captain Stewart deployed his regulars in a skirmish line to the west of the butte along the base of the mountains, while the volunteers formed to the east along the river.

Van Hagan, commanding two companies of volunteers from Virginia City and California, respectively, decided to make a charge against the butte even before Hays got the entire main force in place.

Storey and Van Hagan succeeded in seizing the butte and for a short time were subjected to flanking fire as the natives began to surround them from the river bank and mountain slopes.

Eventually, the two sides maintained a continuous line of battle opposing each other roughly a mile long.

[4] On June 4, Captain Stewart took up pursuit of the natives coming upon the abandoned village at the mouth of the Truckee River.

Major Ormsby's body was temporarily interred where it lay near Pyramid Lake, but was later moved to a cemetery in Carson City.