Hatch attacks Mescalero at agency, 22 killed

Hatch found himself outgeneraled and outfought by the hostile chief ^[1]. To regain lost prestige, he made an unprovoked attack on the then peaceable Mescaleros ^[1]. He invited them to meet him in council at the Mescalero Agency ^[1]. Unsuspicious of danger, they came; Hatch surrounded them with the Ninth and Tenth Cavalry and, without warning, opened fire on men, women, and children ^[1]. Twenty-two Mescaleros, mostly women and children, were left dead; the remainder broke through the lines and fled to the mountains, threatening ^[1].