LITMIR.BIZ

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it will be seen that the "Camp of Israel" now partook very much of a military character, with all of an army's organic efficiency.

      Towards the end of April the camp came to a place the leaders named Garden Grove. Here they determined to form a small settlement, open farms, and make a temporary gathering place for "the poor," while the better prepared were to push on the way and make other settlements.

      On the morning of the 27th of April the bugle sounded at Garden Grove, and all the men assembled to organize for labor. Immediately hundreds of men were at work cutting trees, splitting rails, making fences, cutting logs for houses, building bridges, digging wells, making plows, and herding cattle. Quite a number were sent into the Missouri settlements to exchange horses for oxen, valuable feather beds and the like for provisions and articles most needed in the camp, and the remainder engaged in plowing and planting. Messengers were also dispatched to call in the bands of pioneers scattered over the country seeking work, with instructions to hasten them up to help form the new settlements before the season had passed; so that, in a scarcely conceivable time, at Garden Grove and Mount Pisgah, industrious settlements sprang up almost as if by magic. The main body also hurried on towards old Council Bluffs, under the President and his chief men, to locate winter quarters, and to send on a picked company of pioneers that year to the Rocky Mountains. Reaching the Missouri River, they were welcomed by the Pottowatomie and Omaha Indians.

      By this time Apostle Orson Hyde had arrived at headquarters from Nauvoo, and Apostle Woodruff, home from his mission to England, was at Mount Pisgah.

      To this place an express from the President at Council Bluffs came to raise one hundred men for the expedition to the mountains. Apostle Woodruff called for the mounted volunteers, and sixty at once followed him out into the line; but the next day an event occurred which caused the postponement of the journey to the mountains till the following year.

      It was on the 26th of June when the camp at Mount Pisgah was thrown into consternation by the cry, "The United States troops are upon us!" But soon afterwards, Captain James Allen arriving with only three dragoons, the excitement subsided. The High Council was called, and Captain Allen laid before it his business, which is set forth in the following '' Circular to the Mormons: I have come among you, instructed by Col. S. F. Kearney, of the U. S. Army, now commanding the Army of the West, to visit the Mormon camp, and to accept the service for twelve months of four or five companies of Mormon men who may be willing to serve their country for that period in our present war with Mexico; this force to unite with the Army of the West at Santa Fe, and be marched thence to California, where they will be discharged.

      "They will receive pay and rations, and other allowances, such as other volunteers or regular soldiers receive, from the day they shall be mustered into the service, and will be entitled to all comforts and benefits of regular soldiers of the army, and when discharged, as contemplated, at California, they will be given gratis their arms and accoutrements, with which they will be fully equipped at Fort Leavenworth. This 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 advanced party can thus pave the way and look out the land for their brethren to come after them.

      "Those of the Mormons who are desirous of serving their country on the conditions here enumerated, are requested to meet me without delay at their principal camp at the Council Bluffs, whither I am now going to consult with their principal men, and to receive and organize the force contemplated to be raised.

      "I will receive all healthy, able-bodied men of from eighteen to forty-five years of age.

      J. Allen, Capt., 1st Dragoons.

      "Camp of the Mormons at Mount Pisgah, 138 miles east of Council Bluff, June 26th, 1846.

      "Note.—I hope to complete the organization of this battalion in six days after my reaching Council Bluffs, or within nine days from this time."

      The High Council of Mount Pisgah treated the military envoy with studied courtesy, but the matter was of too great importance for even an opinion to be hazarded in the absence of the master mind; so Captain Allen was furnished with a letter of introduction to Brigham Young and the authorities at headquarters, and a special messenger was dispatched by Apostle Woodruff to prepare the President for the business of the government agent.

      CHAPTER III.

       THE CALL FOR THE MORMON BATTALION. INTERVIEWS WITH PRESIDENT POLK. THE APOSTLES ENLISTING SOLDIERS FROM THEIR PEOPLE FOR THE SERVICE OF THE NATION. THE BATTALION ON THE MARCH.

      We now come to a subject in Mormon history of which two opposite views have been taken, neither of which, perhaps, are unqualifiedly correct. It is that of the calling of a Mormon battalion to serve the nation in its war with Mexico, as set forth in the circular already given. One view is that the Government, prompted by such men as Senator Benton of Missouri, sought to destroy, or at least to cripple the Mormons, by taking from them five hundred of their best men, in an Indian country, and in their exodus; while the other view is that the Government designed their good and honor. The truth is that a few honorable gentlemen like Colonel Thomas L. Kane did so design; but it is equally true that the great majority heartily wished for their utter extinction; while Senator Douglass and many other politicians, seeing in this vast migration of the Mormons towards the Pacific the ready and most efficient means to wrest California from Mexico, favored the calling of the battalion for national conquest, without caring what afterwards became of those heroic men who left their families and people in the " wilderness," or whether those families perished by the way or not. Moreover, the Mormon leaders are in possession of what appears to be very positive evidence that, after President Polk issued the " call," Senator Thomas Benton obtained from him the pledge that, should the Mormons refuse to respond, United States troops should pursue, cut off their route, and disperse them.

      Such a covenant was villainous beyond expression; for, to have dispersed the Mormon pilgrims at that moment would have been to have devoted a whole people to the crudest martyrdom.

      In any view of the case, it shows that the Mormons were an essentially loyal and patriotic people; and, if we take the darkest view, which be it emphatically affirmed was the one of that hour, then does the masterly policy of Brigham Young, and the conduct of the Mormons, stand out sublime and farseeing beyond most of the examples of history. The reader has noted Mr. Brannan's letter, received by the leaders before starting on their journey; they looked upon this "call" for, from five hundred to a thousand, of the flower of their camps as the fulfillment of the "threat." The excuse to annihilate them they believed was sought; even the General Government dared not disperse and disarm them without an excuse. At the best an extraordinary test of their loyalty was asked of them, under circumstances that would have required the thrice hardening of a Pharaoh's heart to have exacted.

      Here it will only be just to both sides to give Colonel Kane's statement, in his historical discourse on the Mormons, delivered before the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, as that gentleman sustained in the case very much the character of a special agent of the Administration to the Mormons. He said: "At the commencement of the Mexican war, the President considered it desirable to march a body of reliable infantry to California, at as early a period as practicable, and the known hardihood and habits of discipline of the Mormons were supposed peculiarly to fit them for this service. As California was supposed also to be their ultimate destination, the long march might cost them less than other citizens. They were accordingly invited to furnish a battalion of volunteers early in the month of July.

      "The call could hardly have been more inconveniently timed. The young and those who could best have been spared, were then away from the main body, either with pioneer companies in the van, or, their faith unannounced, seeking work and food about the north-western settlements, to support them till the return of the season for commencing emigration. The force was, therefore, to be recruited from among the fathers of families, and others, whose presence it was most desirable to retain.

      "There were some, too, who could

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