On this
pleasant and clear morning, Brigham Young and others met in council at Albert
P. Rockwood’s tent. They finally made a
firm decision that an advance company would not be sent over the mountains this
season.
A letter
was composed to Bishop George Miller who was more than one hundred miles to the
west at the Pawnee Mission on the Platte River. They informed him that members of the Twelve and about three
hundred wagons were at Cold Spring, about four miles west of the Missouri. Many wagons were crossing each day to join
them. “The health of the camp on this
side of the river is generally good, on the other side considerable sickness
prevails.” The Saints at the Missouri River
would search for a winter settlement on the west side of the river, probably
about forty files to the north. There,
they would turn the cattle out on the range to fatten them up for beef. This would be a good location to spend the
winter because they would still be near settlements to obtain provisions. They would be also sent to St. Louis to buy
equipment needed for a mill, carding machine, and other necessities.
Bishop
Miller was told not to cross over the mountains, but he was given an option to
spent the winter at the Pawnee village or Grand Island. He could send a small company to Fort
Laramie if he wished, but the preferred location seemed to be the Pawnee
village which soon would be vacated.
This might make another good location for a settlement. In the spring, Brigham Young would overtake
them and they would all go over the mountains together. The letter was closed with the news that a
man in Miller’s company had passed bogus gold.
He was to return to make restitution and show repentance.
Early in
the morning, Hosea Stout was considering how he was going to get his wagons the
rest of the way up the bluffs. He had
spent the night in a narrow ravine.
Soon Reynolds Cahoon’s company came up from the river. Brother Stout was hopeful that they would
help him up the hill because his teams had not eaten and had no strength. He was disappointed when William F. Cahoon
just asked him to move his wagons out of the road so they could pass.
Brother
Stout moved them to a narrow place in the road where no wagons could pass. Soon Reynolds Cahoon came to see what was
the reason for the delay. Brother Stout
explained that he could not take his wagons up and that help from Cold Spring
would arrive by 9‑10 a.m. By this
time the wagons were backed up clear to the river but still no one offered to
help Brother Stout, so he said that he was going to take his cattle to the
prairie to feed. This got Brother
Cahoon’s attention and he helped move Brother Stout’s wagons up to a place
halfway up the ravine where he wouldn’t be in the way. Soon John Tanner came from Cold Spring and
helped Brother Stout take his wagons up the hill toward Cold Spring Camp.
Lorenzo
Dow Young took Ezra T. Benson to the river.
Elder Benson was on his way to Boston for his mission. Later that night he spent the night with
Phinehas Richards’ family at the camp on Mosquito Creek. He offered the evening prayer. Mary Richards wrote, “After he rose from his
knees, said the Spirit of the Lord was under our tent and he knew it, and what
was that? The Spirit of peace and Love.”
In the
afternoon, Brigham Young and Heber C. Kimball took their wives to the Omaha
village of Bellevue where they purchased some green corn. They passed Hosea Stout heading to camp and
President Young told him to select a clean place near him by the spring.
After they
returned from Bellevue, some Otoe Indians came into camp selling roasted ears
of corn. However, President Young
suspected that the corn had been stolen from the Omaha Indian’s corn fields, so
he advised the brethren not to purchase any of the corn.
Hosea Stout
described the Cold Spring Camp.
This was
the most singular springs I ever saw.
It came out of the ground in a place where there was no hills only on
the side of a common declivity and affords water sufficient for the whole camp. In fact there was a continual dipping of
water out of it which did not seem to lessen the stream. . . . There was
numerous hosts of Indians strolling about camp all the time. They were the Otos and . . . Omahas and
differed widely in appearance from the Pottawatomies on the other side of the
river. They were not so well
dressed. Instead of good blankets, they
were at best dressed in old blankets & some entirely in dressed skins in
their pure wild native dress, but they were uncommonly friendly.
On the
east side of the river, William Clayton went down to the ferry to see when he
would be able to take his wagons across.
It looked like a spot would be available on a ferry on the next morning. He spent the day moving his company’s wagon
to the ferry landing. He also made a
trip to visit Robert Mitchell at Trader’s Point to try to trade his music box
for a cow, but was not successful.
The
advance company of 150 wagons sent by Brigham Young arrived at the Pawnee
Village on the Loup Fork of the Platte River.1 They met in council with Bishop George
Miller. It was proposed to send Bishop
Miller to visit Brigham Young as soon as possible to ask what the companies
should do next. George Miller wrote a
letter to Brigham Young asking for a cannon, two coils of large rope, and he
also mentioned that he had taken a load of gun powder by mistake.
Louisa
Pratt’s group left Mount Pisgah. She
had mixed feelings about moving on.
“Left Mount Pisgah with an agitated mind, sorrowful for the afflicted
ones and regretting that I must leave them.”
In the
morning the battalion got an early start and marched toward the ferry crossing
to Fort Leavenworth. At 8 a.m., the
battalion arrived at the ferry across the river from Fort Leavenworth. By 2 p.m., all of the companies had crossed
over the river and arrived at the fort.
Many soldiers came out of the fort to greet Colonel Allen and his
men. Some remarked that they thought
the Mormons had previous training. Many
of the troops had already left the fort, but there still were four hundred
volunteers from Missouri and seventy regular soldiers to receive the troops.
Henry
Bigler wrote, “The weather was hot and the roads very dusty and it was remarked
by those who came out to see us that we were a noble looking lot of men. They were wonderfully taken up with our
martial music and especially with our young drummer Jesse Earl, a youth
scarcely 18.”2
The
battalion camped on the west side of Fort Leavenworth in the public
square. By evening, they received their
tents, one for every six men. They were
very thankful to have tents, because they had so far traveled about 180 miles
without them, lying on the open ground.
They pitched the tents in military order which Daniel Tyler described
“presented a grand appearance, and the merry songs which resounded through the
camp made all feel like ‘casting dull cares away.’” Another soldier wrote, “It looked well to see 100 tents all
filled with the Elders of Israel.” A
number of the men, including Henry W. Bigler were very ill, shaking with the
ague.
Dr. George B. Sanderson, of Platte County
Missouri was appointed by Colonel Allen as a surgeon for the camp.3
The
anxious passengers on the Brooklyn remained on board, preparing to land
and unload the ship.
Watson, ed., Manuscript
History of Brigham Young, 290‑91, 294; Journal of Henry Standage in
Golder, The March of the Mormon Battalion, 141‑42; Tyler, a
Concise History of the Mormon Battalion, 134; “Journal Extracts of Henry W.
Bigler,” Utah Historical Quarterly, 5:2:37; “Diary of Lorenzo Dow
Young,” Utah Historical Quarterly, 14:146; Brooks, ed., On the Mormon
Frontier, The Diary of Hosea Stout 1844‑1861, 182‑83; Rich, Ensign
to the Nations, 84; “Louisa Pratt Autobiography,” Heart Throbs of the
West 8:241; William Clayton’s Journal, 58; Kimball, Historic Sites
and Markers along the Mormon and Other Great Western Trails, 185‑86;
Yurtinus, a Ram in the Thicket, 74; Ward, ed., Winter Quarters,
87
In the
morning, Brigham Young traveled to find a better location for a road up the
west bank of the Missouri River. At
about noon, Brother Matthews arrived with thirty letters from the Mormon
Battalion that were given to him to bring back when he was about thirty miles
north of Fort Leavenworth.
Joshua
Holman arrived from the Elkhorn River.
He reported that there were only about fifteen men at that camp. They continued to work on the bridge across
the river. With the new plans to winter
near the Missouri River, Brother Holman was instructed to see that the
abutments of the bridge were finished, but save the rest of the work on the
bridge for the winter.
The
Council met together and heard Brother Matthews’ report that the Mormon
Battalion was feeling well and in good spirits. Colonel Allen was treating them well. The Council wrote a letter to Thomas L. Kane, informing him of
the plans to winter near the Missouri River, between fifteen and thirty miles
to the north.
In the evening,
Brigham Young and Willard Richards called at the tent of Wilford Woodruff and
united in the bonds of marriage Wilford Woodruff and Mary Ann Jackson. President Brigham Young performed the sacred
ordinance. In Wilford Woodruff’s
journal for this day, he drew a large heart with four keys and wrote “President
Brigham Young called at my tent and delivered an interesting lecture upon the
priesthood and the principles of sealing.
Present was Phoebe W. Woodruff, Mary Jackson, Caroline Barton and Sarah
Brown.”
Elder
Woodruff, who took great pride in his journal wrote, “I have been so busy in
journeying taking care of cattle & heards and being so few men to assist .
. . that I have not been able to do justice to my journals and keep an account
of the travels of this great people to the wilderness and the mountains as I
would like to have done.”
Herding
cattle occupied an extraordinary amount of time. Thomas L. Kane later described,
The
manliest as well as the most general daily labor was the herding of cattle; the
only wealth of the Mormons and more and more cherished by them with the
increasing pastoral character of their lives.
A camp could not be pitched in any spot without soon exhausting the
freshness of the pasture around it, and it became an ever‑recurring task
to guide the cattle in unbroken droves to the nearest place where it was still
fresh and fattening.
William
Clayton had trouble with one of his teamsters, Pelatiah Brown. Brother Brown shirked his duty and went
swimming in the river. When the other
teamsters asked him for help he was said to have stated that he would not, even
if Jesus Christ would ask him. Brother
Clayton told him that if he did not feel like helping, he could go somewhere
else, that he was not wanted. Brother
Brown left. At noon, William Clayton
started to cross his wagons over the river.
By dusk, all the wagons had been ferried over. The road up the west bank was full of wagons, so he had to crowd
his wagons together in the road just above the river and spent the night there.
On the
Bluffs, a Sabbath meeting was held.
Mary Richards wrote, “Bro G[eorge] A. Smith called to see us and
informed us of the death of Hyrum Spencer, at meeting.4 Preached to us first & gave us some good
instructions was followed by Bro [Ezra T.] Benson who did the same. Had a firstrate meeting.”
Luman
Shurtliff felt it was best to start working on a house for the winter. He described what the house came to be: “I built my house of rough split logs. We had no lumber, glass, or nails. I had for my floor the earth, for carpet,
hay and bark, for a door, split wood, for windows, holes between the logs, and
for a partition, a wagon cover.”
The battalion
remained in their tents for this Sabbath day.
They were happy to have the new tents, but as Daniel Tyler put it,
“every rose has its thorn, so with our movable houses; the hot sun beating upon
them ‘made it warm for us’ in the middle of the day, though we were very
comfortable compared with our previous condition.” Adjutant George P. Dykes ordered the men to place shady branches
in front of their tents in order to cool the canvas of the tents.
William
Hyde wrote: “All was quiet and in good
order, save the humming and singing of the soldiers in their tents, which at
times would almost cause the listener to fancy himself in a Methodist camp
meeting.” The fort was relatively
deserted, and John Tippets remarked that everything looked solitary and lonesome.
The
military men on the Portsmouth, anchored near the Brooklyn,
observed the Sabbath by holding a service.
U.S. Captain Montgomery invited the Mormons to attend this service on
the main deck of the Portsmouth. Many
preparations were made, a canvas spread, and seating was made available for the
women and children. The sailors were eager
to get a glimpse of the Mormon woman.
One was heard remarking, “I’ll be derned, they look like any other
women!”
Watson, ed., Manuscript
History of Brigham Young, 291‑93 William Clayton’s Journal, 58‑9;
Journal of Henry Standage in Golder, The March of the Mormon Battalion,
142; Tyler, A Concise History of the Mormon Battalion, 134 Our
Pioneer Heritage, Vol. 10, p.233; Wilford
Woodruff’s Journal, 3:64‑5; Whitney, History of Utah, 4:89,
321; Ward, ed., Winter Quarters, 87; “Pacific Pilgrims,” Our Pioneer
Heritage 494‑95; Millennial Star 13:148‑49; Nibley, Exodus
to Greatness, 219; Yurtinus, A Ram in the Thicket, 74; “William Hyde
Journal”; “Luman Shurtliff Autobiography,” typescript, BYU, 67
Brigham
Young was feeling ill during the morning.
To make matters worse, one of his oxen fell in the creek and broke its
neck. The meat was distributed to the
camp.
Wilford
Woodruff started on a journey to the north to find a location for Winter
Quarters and Colonel Thomas L. Kane traveled with him. They went nine miles and then camped for the
night. After they set up camp, Colonel
Kane’s horse ran into Elder Woodruff’s tent and broke all the poles and tore
the tent into pieces.
In the
afternoon, a council meeting was held in the post office. A letter was written to Isaac Morley, the
presiding member of the High Council at Council Bluffs. The letter discussed how to take care of the
poor at the bluffs. The High Council
had considered instituting the law of tithing to raise money for the poor, but
in this letter it was suggested that instead they organize and distribute the
destitute families equally within the camp to be taken care of by other
families who had the means. They
commended the High Council for their faithfulness and informed them about the
intention to find an additional place to settle for the winter, west of the
Missouri River. Those who desired to
cross the river were welcome to go across.
William
Clayton started in the morning to work at getting his wagons up the hill to the
Cold Spring Camp. The road was very
narrow and muddy. It took four yoke of
oxen just to take up a very light load.
Soon several yoke of oxen arrived from the camp to help. Brother Clayton arrived at the top by
noon. After feeding his cattle on the
prairie, he pushed on to the camp. He
wrote: “When we got to camp, we were
all completely tired. My feet were sore
and my limbs ached and had to go to bed.
We camped on the north end of Heber’s company.” Brother Clayton still had nine head of
cattle lost somewhere over the river on the bluffs.
In the
evening, the camp was called to a meeting in front of Heber C. Kimball’s
tent. There were about seventy men
present. A vote was taken to proceed up
the river in search of a place for Winter Quarters.
Louisa
Pratt, wife of missionary Addison Pratt, wrote,
Camped by a
beautiful stream where we found a spring of clear, cold water, the first cold
water I have tasted since my arrival in Mt. Pisgah. At that place the water was fearful. We met Brother [Clark] Hallet on the way returning from the
Bluffs. Informed him of the sickness of
his family [at Mount Pisgah]. He seemed
much affected with the news, assured us he should lose no time. Neither did he, but was soon taken sick and
the first news we heard he was dead, likewise a little girl twelve years old,
and the babe.
John M.
Bernhisel wrote a letter to Brigham Young, informing him that Emma Smith sold
the lot where the Nauvoo House stands.
“She informed me, to my great surprise and deep regret, that she had
sold the lot for five thousand dollars to a speculator in real estate named
Furness, from Quincy, who has since taken possession of one or two of the
basement rooms of the building.”
Elders
Orson Hyde, Parley P. Pratt, John Taylor, and Jesse C. Little arrived at St.
Joseph. The Presbyterian missionaries
who they had been traveling with, at that point sold them the flat boat.
News came
to Fort Leavenworth that a steamboat sank in the river which was bringing
ammunition and provisions for the army.
But still, members of the Mormon Battalion (the first three companies)
were issued their arms on this day.
Quite a crowd gathered around the arsenal before it was opened up to
distribute the guns. Colonel Allen,
seeing the anxious men crowding around the door called out, “Stand back boys. Don’t be in a hurry to get your
muskets. You will want to throw the
damned things away before you get to California.” They were “flint‑lock muskets, with a few cap lock yaugers
for sharpshooting and hunting purposes.”
The muskets weighed about twelve to fifteen pounds and were said to be
able to shoot a ball about one mile.
They were instructed to clean the muskets often.
Along with
the muskets, each man received a large cartridge box with a heavy white leather
belt which they carried over their left shoulder. A similar belt with a bayonet and scabbard was issued to be
carried over the right shoulder. A
waist belt was also issued along with a knapsack for clothing and other
items. Finally, they were issued a half
quart canteen and a “haversack” which was used to carry dinner and a day or two
of rations. Groups of six men were
organized into messes and given cooking utensils and pots.
Abner
Blackburn noted, “We had to be sworn into the service. The officer read the military law to
us. It was death to desert and death
for several other offences.”
Early in
the morning, Captain Montgomery detailed men to help the Saints unload the Brooklyn. The cargo was a great wonder to the
men. One man remarked that it “compared
favorably with the ark of Noah.” The
Saints were greeted at the little town of Yerba Buena by about a half dozen
American settlers, several members of Spanish families and about one hundred Indians. The town was located on a cove at the base
of Telegraph Hill. The Saints set foot
on the rocks at what was later known as Clark’s Point.
That
night, many of the Saints slept in tents pitched near what is now Washington
and Montgomery Streets in San Francisco.
Sixteen families found shelter in a small adobe house, on what is now
Grant Avenue (between Clay and Washington), which they partitioned off with
quilts. Others found shelter in the
deserted Mission Dolores (on today’s Dolores Street near 16th Street) a few
miles over the hills. The new sleeping
quarters were a very welcome relief after spending almost six months on the Brooklyn. They were all very happy to stand once again
on solid ground.
Watson, ed., Manuscript
History of Brigham Young, 293-94; Wilford Woodruff’s Journal, 3:65; William
Clayton’s Journal, 59; Journal of Henry Standage in Golder, The March of
the Mormon Battalion, 142; Talbot, A Historical Guide to the Mormon
Battalion and Butterfield Trail, 22; “Norton Jacob Autobiography,” BYU, 33;
Tullidge, Women of Mormondom, 447‑48; Bailey, Samuel Brannan,
44; Our Pioneer Heritage, 3:492, 532; “Diary of Daniel Stark.” Our
Pioneer Heritage 3:498; Caroline A. Joyce, Our Pioneer Heritage 3:506;
Bagley, ed., Frontiersman: Abner Blackburn’s Narrative, 39‑40;
“Zadoc Judd Autobiography,” BYU, 24; “Louisa Pratt Autobiography,” Heart
Throbs of the West 8:241; Autobiography of Parley P. Pratt, 345;
Newell and Avery, Mormon Enigma:
Emma Hale Smith, 233
Heber C.
Kimball and his company, headed up the river in the morning, to search for a
suitable location for a winter quarters.
They hoped to find a spot within thirty miles of Cold Spring Camp. Many teams went with him and were rolling
out all day.
In the
afternoon, John Kay and Newel K. Knight arrived from the Pawnee Village, about
110 miles to the west, with a letter from George Miller. (See August 1, 1846.) The Council wrote a letter in reply stating
that they would send him what he requested.
Again, they reiterated, “We are satisfied that it will be impolitic for
any company to attempt to cross the mountains this fall” and they were
encouraged to prepare for the winter.
In language of a parable, they were instructed to do missionary work
among the Indians. They were authorized
to organize a High Council, to attend to the spiritual and temporal matters of
the Saints. Bishop George Miller was
appointed to preside in this Council.
In closing, they rescinded their recommendation to maybe go to Fort Laramie
or Grand Island for the winter. This
would be too far away from the main camp and they would be in danger of having
their supply line cut off.
At 4 p.m.,
Brigham Young and his company started up the river to find a winter
quarters. He, along with Wilford
Woodruff, travelled nine miles and camped on a prairie ridge near some timber.
A son,
Castina Johnson, was born to Joseph and Elizabeth Johnson.5
Jeremiah
Leavett, age fifty, died. He was the
husband of Sarah Sturtevant Leavett and father of twelve children.
Hugh Moon
had been living near Montrose, Iowa, because of the mob activities around
Nauvoo. On this day he crossed back
over the river, returning to Nauvoo, and was married to Maria E. Mott by Elder
Thomas Cottom at the William Moses home.6
Orson
Hyde, Parley P. Pratt, and John Taylor, on their way to England, and Jesse C.
Little, on his way to the Eastern States, arrived at Fort Leavenworth and had a
happy reunion with members of the battalion.
There was a “general how‑de‑do and rejoicing in the
camp.” The last two companies of the
battalion received their muskets and other items.
News
spread through camp that among the Missouri volunteers, a man struck another
man with a hatchet and severely wounded him.
Corporal Daniel Tyler, of the battalion wrote, “Volunteers from
different parts of the country arrived at the garrison daily, to get their
outfits. Many of them were rough,
desperate‑looking characters.
Quarreling and fighting were not unusual among those from Upper
Missouri.” Captain James S. Brown
noted, “Many of the new recruits were very rough indeed, and drinking and
fighting seemed to be their pastime; myself and companions were amazed and
shocked at the profane and vulgar language and vile actions that we were
compelled to listen to and witness.”
Watson, ed., Manuscript
History of Brigham Young, 294‑95; Brooks, ed., On the Mormon
Frontier, The Diary of Hosea Stout 1844‑1861, 184; Journal of Henry
Standage in Golder, The March of the Mormon Battalion, 142; William
Clayton’s Journal, 59; Wilford Woodruff’s Journal, 3:65; Tyler, A
Concise History of the Mormon Battalion, 134 Brown, Life of a Pioneer,
29; “Hugh Moon, autobiography,” typescript, BYU, 5; “William Hyde Journal”;
Yurtinus, A Ram in the Thicket, 76
Brigham
Young rode out with other members of the Twelve to look at the woods and to
find the next encampment. He also
returned to Cold Spring Camp for a short visit. While there, he gave Hosea Stout the use of a span of horses and a
wagon to move on with his family.
Brigham
Young returned to the advance company, and the camp traveled a few miles. After the wagons had formed into a circle to
make an enclosure for the horses, Sister Helen Mar Whitney met Colonel Thomas
L. Kane for the first time. It had been
a weary, hot day. She discussed with
her sister‑in‑law, Sarah Ann Whitney, the unpleasant circumstances
and trials which they were experiencing.
We were
going on in this strain while washing the dust from our hands and faces
preparatory to getting dinner. But our
conversation came to a sudden stop, for as I went to the tent door to dash out
some water, who should I see but a young stranger in a listening attitude,
which stood hardly a yard away from our tent.
He looked up as I threw out the water and I felt my cheeks crimson as
our eyes met, and I made a hasty retreat, wondering who he was and what we had
said, that he could take advantage of if so disposed . . . we soon learned who
he was. He came, as it were like an
angel of mercy and one whom the Lord, no doubt, raised up to act as a mediator
in behalf of a homeless and afflicted people.
William
Clayton moved to one of the recently vacated camping spots, closer to the
spring. He spent the day fixing a wagon
and sent one of his men back over the Missouri River to search for his lost
oxen. The man returned in the evening
with one yoke.
Brother
Stout crossed back over the Missouri, did some trading, and returned to prepare
to break camp.
Mary
Richards recorded her activities of the day in your journal, “In the morn baked
3 loafs of bread for Uncle Levis folks, & one for our selfs. Helped mother do the work, & assisted
Uncle Levis folks to prepare for their departure to the other side of the
River. The weather was very hot. Myself rather unwell.”
A
daughter, Hannah Marian McEwen, was born to Matthew and Mary McEwen.7
Severe
sickness of chills and fevers continued to plague the settlement. Elder Ezra T. Benson and Brother Sidwell
arrived at Mount Pisgah in the evening.
Elder Benson was on his way to a mission in the States. He had counted one hundred wagons between
Mount Pisgah and Council Bluffs. The
arrival of these two men turned out to be a great blessing for the Charles C.
Rich family.
Sarah Rich
related:
A poor
woman, one of the wives of one of the men that had gone with the Mormon
Battalion to Mexico, came to my husband who was still sick in bed, and told him
that she had no bread for her children to eat.
I, by this time was able to be up and see to my little babe. This sister was crying and told us how
destitute she was. My husband turned to
me and said, “Let this sister have some flour.” This was a puzzle to me knowing
that we did not have twenty pounds of flour in the house, and none in the place
to get. He looked at me and smiled, and
said, “Sarah, let her have all that there is in the house, and trust in the
Lord to provide for us.” I arose, and did as I was bid, but we did not know how
our children were to get bread.
When the
sister was gone, Mr. Rich said, “I know the Lord will open the way for us to
live; so do not feel uneasy, for there will be a way opened for us having a
loaf of bread in the house.” I too began to ask the Lord to open the way for us
to live, and along towards evening we saw some covered wagons coming down the
hill towards the house; so the man in front drove up and came into the house;
it proved to be Brother Sidwell that was with Brother Benson that had called on
us as they went East. Brother Sidwell
said he wished to stop overnight with us.
My husband told him he could do so.
He then turned to Mr. Rich and said to him, “The Spirit tells me you are
out of money and told me to help thee” (he used thee as [if] he had been a
Quaker). He then handed Mr. Rich fifty
dollars. Mr. Rich turned to me, handed
me the money saying, “Now, you see, the Lord has opened a way for us to get
flour.” He was quite overcome with thanks in his heart.
Brother
Sidwell, after understanding the situation, said, “we have bread in our wagons
enough for tonight and in the morning, and we passed a wagon load of flour a
little way back that was heading this way and will reach here either tonight or
in the morning, so you can be supplied with bread stuff.” We both burst into
tears to think the Lord had so blessed us for blessing the poor sister and her
little children.
William
Casper, age sixty‑two, died. He
was the husband of Avarilla Durbin Casper.
The
battalion started to receive their clothing money from the paymaster. They each received $42 for the
clothing. They had decided to use their
current clothing and send back much of the pay to help their families and the
Church. Many also donated several
hundred dollars to Elders Hyde, Pratt, Taylor and Little, who were on their way
to their mission fields of labor.
When the
battalion received their pay, the paymaster was very surprised to see that
every man was able to sign his own name to the pay roll, while only about one
in three of the Missouri volunteers could do likewise.
Daniel
Tyler wrote that Colonel Allen was overheard talking to an important officer of
Fort Leavenworth. He told him that he
never had to issue a command a second time to the Mormon Battalion. While the men were unacquainted to military
tactics, they understood very well the importance of obeying orders from their
officers.
Samuel W.
Richards and Franklin D. Richards arrived in Columbia, near Philadelphia and
spent the night with Brother John P. Smith.
They were on the way to England for a mission. It had been a very long journey from St. Louis, where they had
been twenty days earlier. During the
journey, Franklin had been ill with a fever.
Watson, ed., Manuscript
History of Brigham Young, 295‑96; William Clayton’s Journal,
59‑60; Autobiography of Parley P. Pratt, 345; “Journal Extracts of
Henry W. Bigler,” Utah Historical Quarterly, 5:2:37; Tyler, A Concise
History of the Mormon Battalion, 136‑37; Brooks, ed., On the
Mormon Frontier, The Diary of Hosea Stout 1844‑1861, 184; “Sarah Rich
Autobiography,” typescript, BYU, 58‑63;
Woman’s Exponent, 13:50; Ward, ed., Winter Quarters, 87, 301‑02
Brigham
Young met in council with members of the Twelve and afterwards rode out to
continue his search for a site for Winter Quarters. His brother, Lorenzo Dow Young, caught up with the lead camp and
went with Heber C. Kimball in his carriage to examine a location. They also visited a mound where a Brother
Allen had some men digging up some bones which were supposed to have been
buried by the Indians.
Hosea
Stout broke camp and started moving to catch up with Brigham Young and the
advance group. The weather was very hot
and muggy which made traveling difficult for the teams that needed to be rested
often. He traveled about six miles and
camped for the night on top of the river bluff, about six miles to the west of
the river. He wrote, “It was a
beautiful camping place and all those who had gone before, had stopped here by
the appearance of the ground. There was
a good spring near by.”
Mary
Richards bid good‑bye to the family of Levi Richards who were crossing
over the river to Cold Spring. In the
evening she took a walk with Melinda Wood.
She wrote, “Came home & went to bed but the misskateos haveing taken
possesion of our tent we was [not] permited to sleep all night.”
Elder Ezra
T. Benson discovered that William Huntington, the president of Mount Pisgah
settlement was very ill with a fever.
Elder Benson and Charles C. Rich met in council, prayed, and
administered to President Huntington.
Elder Benson wrote in a letter to Brigham Young,
There has
been much sickness here and some bad cases, but many are recovering, although
some are still feeble. The Saints here
are enjoying peace and plenty; the crops are growing very fast and likely to
produce abundantly. . . . The field is well fenced and the saints will no doubt
have good times here. I took a ride
round the field and find the corn silked out and some of the Buckwheat in
flower.