Second Battle of Pyramid Lake The Second Battle of Pyramid Lake ( a . k . a . Battle of Truckee River ) took place in response to the U . S . defeat at the First Battle of Pyramid Lake . 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 . This was the final engagement of the Pyramid Lake War of 1860 . Background . On May 6 , 1860 a band of Paiutes raided Williams Station along the Carson River , near present - day Silver Springs , Nevada , killing three white settlers at the station . In response to this Maj . William Ormsby led a group of vigilantes from Carson City and Virginia City against the Paiutes near Pyramid Lake . The vigilante force was ingloriously defeated and Ormsby 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 which he dubbed the “ Washoe Regiment ” . Another 165 volunteers came from the nearby California communities of Placerville , Sacramento and Nevada City . Hays then marched his regiment to Virginia City . The U . S . Army also responded to the call . Captain Joseph Stewart left Fort Alcatraz 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 as a protective measure . Battle . Colonel Hays retraced Ormsby ’ s path along the Truckee River and encamped near present - day Wadsworth . 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 8 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 field of the previous battle which remained unburied . The Natives 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 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 to be 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 would have 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 the Pyramid Lake Indian Reservation . Except for Nevada State Route 447 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 .