Early on the morning of April 6th, Carroll took two companies (D&F; 71 men) and moved into the mountains north of Hembrillo by way of Sulphur Canyon. At first he ordered the other two companies south, then sent a courier instructing them to follow his trail into Hembrillo.

Late in the afternoon of April 6th, Carroll and his two companies rode down the north rim of the Hembrillo Basin toward the location of the Apache camp, which was hidden by the limestone uplifts. The camp which had recently been added to by families from Mescalero, held almost 500 Apaches, at least 135 of which were men of fighting age.

Victorio had a reputation among his pursuers for systematically building defensive breastworks around each of his camps. James Gillette, a Texas Ranger who saw some 25 of Victorio's camps said that the breastworks were always there, even if Victorio only stopped for an hour.

Apache lookouts quickly spotted Carroll's approach and Victorio prepared to defend the camp, which was filled with women and children, by positioning his men on the bluffs of limestone ridges which formed a natural V-shaped trap. Carroll was forced to cross the flat ground north of the trap and when the first volley of Apache fire hit, the only place left to go was forward. Charging the lowest section of the ridge in front of them, the troops forced the Apache in that area to abandon their position.

The spring was only 300 more yards in front of Carroll's troops but Victorio had stationed men with repeating rifles to guard the spring. If Carroll had continued toward the needed water, he would have abandoned the high ground that was available and would have faced the intensive firepower from the Winchesters. Other Apache held the high ground of Victorio Ridge above the spring location. It was the dark that saved Carroll's troops. The sun went down at 6:30 p.m. and the moon did not come up until 4:30 a.m. the next morning. The moon was only an 8% sliver. It was a very dark night. An attempt to fill canteens from the springs resulted in Carroll and two men being seriously wounded.

The cartridge analysis reveals the intensity of the fighting. Carroll had his companies arranged in two skirmish lines, one along the higher northeast side of the ridge and another along the lower southwestern slope.

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