Part 47 (1/2)

On October 9 wagons sent back by the earlier emigrants for their unfortunate brethren had arrived, and the start for the Missouri began.

Bullock relates that, just as they were ready to set out, a great flight of quails settled in the camp, running around the wagons so near that they could be knocked over with sticks, and the children caught some alive. One bird lighted upon their tea board, in the midst of the cups, while they were at breakfast. It was estimated that five hundred of the birds were flying about the camp that day, but when one hundred had been killed or caught, the captain forbade the killing of any more, ”as it was a direct manifestation and visitation by the Lord.” Young closes his account of this incident with the words, ”Tell this to the nations of the earth! Tell it to the kings and n.o.bles and great ones.”

Wells, in his ma.n.u.script, ”Utah Notes” (quoted by H. H. Bancroft), says: ”This phenomenon extended some thirty or forty miles along the river, and was generally observed. The quail in immense quant.i.ties had attempted to cross the river, but this being beyond their strength, had dropped into the river boats or on the banks.”*

* Bancroft's ”History of Utah,” p. 234, note.

The westward march of these refugees was marked by more hards.h.i.+ps than that of the earlier bodies, because they were in bad physical condition and were in no sense properly equipped. Council Bluffs was not reached till November 27.

The division of the emigrants and their progress was thus noted in an interview, printed in the Nauvoo Eagle of July 10, with a person who had left Council Bluffs on June 26, coming East. The advance company, including the Twelve, with a train of 1000 wagons, was then encamped on the east bank of the Missouri, the men being busy building boats. The second company, 3000 strong, were at Mt. Pisgah, recruiting their cattle for a new start. The third company had halted at Garden Grove. Between Garden Grove and the Mississippi River the Eagle's informant counted more than 1000 wagons on their way west. He estimated the total number of teams engaged in this movement at about 3700, and the number of persons on the road at 12,000. The Eagle added:--

”From 2000 to 3000 have disappeared from Nauvoo in various directions, and about 800 or less still remain in Illinois. This comprises the entire Mormon population that once flourished in Hanc.o.c.k County. In their palmy days they probably numbered 15,000 or 16,000.”

The camp that had been formed at Mt. Pisgah suffered severely from the start. Provisions were scarce, and a number of families were dependent for food on neighbors who had little enough for themselves. Fodder for the cattle gave out, too, and in the early spring the only subst.i.tute was buds and twigs of trees. Snow notes as a calamity the death of his milch cow, which had been driven all the way from Ohio. Along with their dest.i.tution came sickness, and at times during the following winter it seemed as if there were not enough of the well to supply the needed nurses. So many deaths occurred during that autumn and winter that a funeral came to be conducted with little ceremony, and even the customary burial clothes could not be provided.* Elder W. Huntington, the presiding officer of the settlement, was among the early victims, and Lorenzo Snow, the recent head of the Mormon church, succeeded him.

During Snow's stay there three of his four wives gave birth to children.

* ”Biography of Lorenzo Snow,” p. 90.

Notwithstanding these depressing circ.u.mstances, the camp was by no means inactive during the winter. Those who were well were kept busy repairing wagons, and making, in a rude way, such household articles as were most needed--chairs, tubs, and baskets. Parties were sent out to the settlements within reach to work, accepting food and clothing as pay, and two elders were selected to visit the states in search of contributions. These efforts were so successful that about $600 was raised, and the camp sent to Brigham Young at Council Bluffs a load of provisions as a New Year's gift.

The usual religious meetings were kept up during the winter, and the utility of amus.e.m.e.nts in such a settlement was not forgotten. Ingenuity was taxed to give variety to the social entertainments. Snow describes a ”party” that he gave in his family mansion--”a one-story edifice about fifteen by thirty feet, constructed of logs, with a dirt roof, a ground floor, and a chimney made of sod.” Many a man compelled to house four wives (one of them with three sons by a former husband) in such a mansion would have felt excused from entertaining company. But the Snows did not. For a carpet the floor was strewn with straw. The logs of the sides of the room were concealed with sheets. Hollowed turnips provided candelabras, which were stuck around the walls and suspended from the roof. The company were entertained with songs, recitations, conundrums, etc., and all voted that they had a very jolly time.

In the larger camps the travellers were accustomed to make what they called ”boweries”--large arbors covered with a framework of poles, and thatched with brush or branches. The making of such ”boweries” was continued by the Saints in Utah.

CHAPTER III. -- THE MORMON BATTALION

During the halt of a part of the main body of the Mormons at Mt. Pisgah, an incident occurred which has been made the subject of a good deal of literature, and has been held up by the Mormons as a proof both of the severity of the American government toward them and of their own patriotism. There is so little ground for either of these claims that the story of the Battalion should be correctly told.

When hostilities against Mexico began, early in 1846, the plan of campaign designed by the United States authorities comprised an invasion of Mexico at two points, by Generals Taylor and Wool, and a descent on Santa Fe, and thence a march into California. This march was to be made by General Stephen F. Kearney, who was to command the volunteers raised in Missouri, and the few hundred regular troops then at Fort Leavenworth. In gathering his force General (then Colonel) Kearney sent Captain J. Allen of the First Dragoons to the Mormons at Mt. Pisgah, not with an order of any kind, but with a written proposition, dated June 26, 1846, that he ”would accept the service, for twelve months, of four or five companies of Mormon men” (each numbering from 73 to 109), to unite with the Army of the West at Santa Fe, and march thence to California, where they would be discharged. These volunteers were to have the regular volunteers' pay and allowances, and permission to retain at their discharge the arms and equipments with which they would be provided, the age limit to be between eighteen and forty-five years.

The most practical inducement held out to the Mormons to enlist was thus explained: ”Thus is offered to the Mormon people now--this year--an opportunity of sending a portion of their young and intelligent men to the ultimate destination of their whole people, and entirely at the expense of the United States; and this advance party can thus pave the way and look out the land for their brethren to come after them.”

There was nothing like a ”demand” on the Mormons in this invitation, and the advantage of accepting it was largely on the Mormon side. If it had not been, it would have been rejected. That the government was in no stress for volunteers is shown by the fact that General Kearney reported to the War Department in the following August that he had more troops than he needed, and that he proposed to use some of them to reenforce General Wool.*

* Chase's ”History of the Polk Administration,” p. 16.

The initial suggestion about the raising of these Mormon volunteers came from a Mormon source.* In the spring of 1846 Jesse C. Little, a Mormon elder of the Eastern states, visited Was.h.i.+ngton with letters of introduction from Governor Steele of New Hamps.h.i.+re and Colonel Thomas L.

Kane of Philadelphia, hoping to secure from the government a contract to carry provisions or naval stores to the Pacific coast, and thus pay part of the expense of conveying Mormons to California by water. According to Little, this matter was laid before the cabinet, who proposed that he should visit the Mormon camp and raise 1000 picked men to make a dash for California overland, while as many more would be sent around Cape Horn from the Eastern states. This big scheme, according to Mormon accounts, was upset by one of the hated Missourians, Senator Thomas H.

Benton, whose Macchiavellian mind had designed the plan of taking from the Mormons 500 of their best men for the Battalion, thus crippling them while in the Indian country. All this part of their account is utterly unworthy of belief. If 500 volunteers for the army ”crippled” the immigrants where they were, what would have been their condition if 1000 of their number had been hurried on to California? **

* Tullidge's ”Life of Brigham Young,” p. 47.