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The Second Battle of Pyramid Lake (also known as the Battle of Truckee River) took place in response to the U.S. defeat at the
Colonel Hays retraced Ormsby's path along the Truckee River and encamped near present-day 
The Paiute charge had taken possession of the butte and now extended their own line from the river well into the rocks of the mountains to the west. The Paiutes had advanced so quickly that all geographical features advantageous to the fight were now in their hands. The soldiers were forced to deploy on level ground to the south. 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.
Captain Edward Farris Storey and Captain J. B. 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. This forward position was relieved as Hays advanced the main body forward. Stewart drove the warriors from the mountain slopes while Hays and the volunteers steadily advanced along the river. Eventually, the two sides maintained a continuous line of battle opposing each other roughly a mile long.
The battle continued for some time, with neither side gaining a clear advantage. After fighting for nearly three hours, the Paiutes finally retreated up the canyon toward the lake.
On June 4, Captain Stewart took up pursuit of the natives coming upon the abandoned village at the mouth of the Truckee River. Colonel Hays followed Stewart northward in pursuit. On June 5, Hays sent a group of scouts through a canyon northeast of Pyramid Lake. These scouts were ambushed and Private William Allen was killed. He was the last casualty of the war.
Shortly after Allen's death, Colonel Hays returned with the Washoe Regiment to Carson City, where he disbanded the regiment. Major Ormsby's body was temporarily interred where it lay near Pyramid Lake, but was later moved to a cemetery in Carson City. Captain Storey, who was mortally wounded in the battle, was buried in Virginia City. Both Ormsby and
First Battle of Pyramid Lake
The First Battle of Pyramid Lake in 1860 was one of the opening conflicts of the Paiute War in Nevada between the American people and the Northern Paiute, Paiute people, who had resisted the increasing numbers of migrants who traveled the Califor ...
. 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
Numaga ( 1830 – November 5, 1871) was a Paiute leader during the Paiute War of 1860 that centered on Pyramid Lake in what is now Nevada in the United States. The war was caused by an influx of miners and ranchers after silver was discove ...
. This was the final engagement of the Pyramid Lake War
The Paiute War, also known as the Pyramid Lake War, Washoe Indian War and the Pah Ute War, was an armed conflict between Northern Paiutes allied with the Shoshone and the Bannock against settlers from the United States, supported by military f ...
of 1860.
Background
On May 6, 1860, a band of Paiutes raided Williams Station along theCarson River
The Carson River is a northwestern Nevada river that empties into the Carson Sink, an endorheic basin. The main stem of the river is long although the addition of the East Fork makes the total length , traversing five counties: Alpine Count ...
, near present-day Silver Springs, Nevada
Silver Springs is a census-designated place (CDP) in Lyon County, Nevada, United States at the intersection of US 50 (California Trail) and US 95A. The population was 5,296 at the 2010 census. Lahontan Reservoir, Lahontan State Recreation Area ...
, killing three white settlers at the station. In response, Major William Ormsby led a group of vigilantes
Vigilantism () is the act of preventing, investigating, and punishing perceived offenses and crimes without legal authority.
A vigilante is a person who practices or partakes in vigilantism, or undertakes public safety and retributive justice ...
from Carson City and Virginia City against the Paiutes near Pyramid Lake. The vigilante force was ingloriously defeated and Ormsby was killed. This defeat prompted local settlers to send a call for help to nearby California.
Prelude
Colonel John C. Hays responded to the call and traveled to Carson City to organize a regiment of 500 volunteers, whom he dubbed the "Washoe Regiment". Another 165 volunteers came from the nearby California communities of Placerville, Sacramento, Nevada City and Downieville. Hays then marched his regiment to Virginia City. The U.S. Army also responded to the call. Captain Joseph Stewart leftFort Alcatraz
Fort Alcatraz was a United States Army coastal fortification on Alcatraz Island near the mouth of San Francisco Bay in California, part of the Seacoast defense in the United States#Third System, Third System of fixed fortifications, although very ...
with 144 Regulars from the 3rd U.S. Artillery and 6th U.S. Infantry regiments. Stewart arrived in Carson City to await further developments. 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.
The Paiutes returned to their village at Pyramid Lake near the mouth of the Truckee River. They sent their women and children into the Black Rock Desert
The Black Rock Desert is a semi-arid region (in the Great Basin shrub steppe ecoregion) of lava beds and Dry lake, playa, or alkali flats, situated in the Black Rock Desert–High Rock Canyon Emigrant Trails National Conservation Area, a silt ...
as a protective measure.
Battle
Colonel Hays retraced Ormsby's path along the Truckee River and encamped near present-day Wadsworth Wadsworth may refer to:
People
* Wadsworth (given name)
* Wadsworth (surname)
Places
* Wadsworth, Illinois, United States, a village
* Wadsworth, Kansas, United States
* Wadsworth, Nevada, United States, a census-designated place
* Wadswort ...
. There, Captain Stewart joined the volunteers with Colonel Hays in overall command.
On June 2, the battle began 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. The advance party, moving toward the Paiute village, encountered the remains of Ormsby's command on the previous battlefield that remained unburied. The Paiutes then made a rapid advance upon the soldiers in the shape of a wedge. The advance party made a hasty withdrawal.
Colonel Hays selected an ideal location to make a stand. It was a narrow canyon, about a mile wide, anchored to the west by steep mountains of the Virginia Range. To the east ran the Truckee River. Both geographical features prevented any flanking maneuver by the natives. A rocky butte
In geomorphology, a butte ( ) is an isolated hill with steep, often vertical sides and a small, relatively flat top; buttes are smaller landforms than mesas, plateaus, and table (landform), tablelands. The word ''butte'' comes from the French l ...
lay in the center of the field. 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.
The Paiute charge had taken possession of the butte and now extended their own line from the river well into the rocks of the mountains to the west. The Paiutes had advanced so quickly that all geographical features advantageous to the fight were now in their hands. The soldiers were forced to deploy on level ground to the south. 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.
Captain Edward Farris Storey and Captain J. B. 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. This forward position was relieved as Hays advanced the main body forward. Stewart drove the warriors from the mountain slopes while Hays and the volunteers steadily advanced along the river. Eventually, the two sides maintained a continuous line of battle opposing each other roughly a mile long.
The battle continued for some time, with neither side gaining a clear advantage. After fighting for nearly three hours, the Paiutes finally retreated up the canyon toward the lake.
On June 4, Captain Stewart took up pursuit of the natives coming upon the abandoned village at the mouth of the Truckee River. Colonel Hays followed Stewart northward in pursuit. On June 5, Hays sent a group of scouts through a canyon northeast of Pyramid Lake. These scouts were ambushed and Private William Allen was killed. He was the last casualty of the war.
Aftermath
Shortly after Allen's death, Colonel Hays returned with the Washoe Regiment to Carson City, where he disbanded the regiment. Major Ormsby's body was temporarily interred where it lay near Pyramid Lake, but was later moved to a cemetery in Carson City. Captain Storey, who was mortally wounded in the battle, was buried in Virginia City. Both Ormsby and Storey
A storey (English in the Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth English) or story (American English), is any level part of a building with a floor that could be used by people (for living, work, storage, recreation, etc.). Plurals for the wor ...
had Nevada counties named after them.
Captain Stewart stayed in the Pyramid Lake area for a few more weeks, but the Paiutes never returned. His soldiers eventually built several earthen forts around the lake. Stewart abandoned these forts in favor of a larger fort along the Carson River. Stewart began construction in 1861 and named the post Fort Churchill.
Battlefield
The battle site is located within thePyramid Lake Indian Reservation
The Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribe Reservation () is an Indian Reservation in northwestern Nevada, approximately northeast of Reno, in Washoe, Storey, and Lyon counties.
It is governed by the federally recognized Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribe, which r ...
. Except for Nevada State Route 447
State Route 447 (SR 447) is a state highway in the U.S. state of Nevada. The highway is almost entirely within Washoe County but does for a brief time enter Pershing County, Nevada. The highway connects the town of Gerlach to the remainder of ...
and a former railroad, the landscape is relatively the same as it was in 1860. Nevada Historical Marker #148 is located near the intersection of S.R. 447 and Chicken Road on what would have been the north end of the battlefield. The marker, titled "The Two Battles of Pyramid Lake", describes both battles.
References