The land around Carrizo Canyon in southern New Mexico was deceiving.

The terrain was rough, with low ridges of volcanic rock and clusters of mesquite, pinion, and scrub oak.

But the canyon itself was shallow, more of a winding draw than a towering gorge.

Its sandy floor was carved by rains that had long since dried in the August sun.

To the men of the 9th cavalry, it looked like another stretch of hard country,

but it was a fantastic place for an ambush. On the morning of August 12, 1881, Captain Charles

Parker and 18 Buffalo soldiers of K-troop of the 9th Cavalry had been riding for days,

and now they were in south-central New Mexico

near the Mescalero Reservation. According to the legend, Billy the Kid had been killed one month earlier,

about 150 miles away at Fort Sumner. That event was likely the furthest thing from the minds of the

soldiers as they endured yet another long ride.

The cavalry patrol was worn thin. The troopers and their horses were covered in dust,

parched from the dry wind, and soaked with sweat from the summer heat.

They were on the trail of a white-haired Apache leader called Nana. His age was impossible to determine,

but most believed he was nearly 80 years old. He was leading one of the fiercest campaigns of his life,

and as usual, he and his warriors were hard to find. But the signs were there, a broken branch,

a faint hoof print, the charred remnants of a

small campfire. The Apache were close, fatally close as the patrol was about to learn.

Rifle fire exploded from the ridges as the patrol rode into the canyon.

Bullets snapped past the troopers and sent the soldiers' horses into a panic.

Shouts rang out as men scrambled for cover.

From the broken slopes above, Nana's warriors were invisible among the rocks and brush.

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