XXXIII

I.

By mid-summer of 1846, a mighty host of "Mormon" exiles-known among themselves as Latter-day Saints had gathered on the eastern shores of the Missouri river in the midst of the swampy, pestilential lands claimed by the Pottawatomie Indians. Driven from their own fertile, well-tilled farms in Illinois, and from Nauvoo, their beautiful hallowed city-the fairest in all the Mississippi valley, the Saints had been thrust beyond the confines of civilization and expelled from what then was the border of the United States. Many were descendants of the sturdy Puritan stock that had hewn its way into America's wilderness. They were outcasts, now, from the same country their fathers and grandfathers had helped to free from old world dominion.

The Saints turned their faces westward, toward the land of the setting sun; the land of boundless horizons ---with its innumerable mountains, valleys, streams-and beyond these -the sweep of the whole Pacific seaboard. There in the heart of the Rockies, beyond the power of intolerance and oppression, they would make a new home and establish a new freedom of worship.

Twelve thousand of these exiles men, women, the aged, and children

No. 4

--were congregated upon the Missouri river bottom, at a point where Council Bluffs, Iowa, now stands. All day long, from morning till night, long caravans of wagons drawn by horses and oxen, toiled over the dusty, deep-worn road bringing more banished members to join the Saints. Their covered wagons and tents, set in martial array, made a vast and imposing camp. Before these exiles was an unknown wilderness inhabited only by savage beasts and warrior bands of red men. Yet they were strangely light of heart, and still of good cheer. They were buoyed by a faith and hope not of this world. The kingdom of God was within them. They trusted in a wise, over-ruling providence to lead them safely to a haven of peace and freedom far, far away in the West. In the early morning when the clear notes of the trumpet called them to prayer, thousands of humble, fervent souls sought God's benison upon their lives and their labors. At twilight, when the flocks and herds were under safe guard for the night, when hundreds of brightly blazing campfires beat back the onsweeping gloom, the Saints gathered together, and accompanied by their great band of Welsh players-themselves making a multitudinous chorus-they sang songs of praise and thanksgiving.

Holding first place in leadership was Brigham Young, a man of extraordinary intuition; having absolute confidence in himself and a firm, unswerving belief in the divinity of his mission to lead. He was shrewd, sagacious, masterful in executive ability; yet, withal, genial, magnanimous, and greatly beloved by his people. Before him was a task of Herculean magnitude: to convey this host of people across hundreds of miles of desolate country where savage beasts and Indians roamed; to settle in the wilderness; to subdue the desert and transform it into a home.

Besides those Saints already encamped on the banks of the Missouri, there were more than fifty thousand of their brethren in the States and in Great Britain who were eager to gath. er with them to a place where, unmolested, they might worship God according to the dictates of their conscience. The Saints had frequently made vain appeals to Federal authorities for redress against their persecutors. Once more, Brigham Young had concluded to ask the government for aid. Accordingly, he had sent Jesse C. Little to President Polk with the injunction to embrace any facility for migration to the West, which the Government might offer-such as building forts and trading posts along the Oregon Trail and transporting military supplies.

Jesse Little reached Washington May 21, 1846-a time most opportune for the mission he had to execute, since just six days before his arrival, Congress had declared war against Mexico. Plans for the strategy of war were fast being formulated. These included the plan of gathering the army of the West at Fort Leavenworth under General Stephen W. Kearney. President Polk offered to take five hundred infantry volun

teers, and thus the Mormon Battalion was called into service.

The Church leaders accepted this call for five hundred volunteers as advantageous to the Saints who were sadly in need of the pay which the scldiers would get, to buy supplies for their westward journey. Then, too, although they had been driven out, they loved their country. They were glad and eager to help extend her borders, so that they might still remain in the United States. Brigham Young said, "This thing is from above, and for our good. This is the first time the government has stretched forth its arm for our assistance, and we receive their offer with joy and thankfulness."

II.

Captain James Allen of the First Dragoons was sent to the "Mormon” Camps to raise five companies of volunteers. He was to be in command of the entire Battalion, while each company was to be officered by some of its own men. They were to enlist for twelve months; to receive the same pay and rations as other infantry volunteers; and, at the expiration of the year's service, were to be discharged, retaining as their own. property the arms and accoutrements furnished them. The Battalion was to march to Fort Leavenworth where they would be armed and equipped, after which they were to proceed to California by way of Santa Fe.

Captain Allen went to the "Mormon" camp on the Missouri. Upon consultation with him the Church authorities determined, July first, that the Battalion should be raised. A trumpet call sounded for the mighty assemblage to gather. The band played rousing martial music. One of the exiles had a flag which he had

packed away in a chest of cherished possessions, to be brought forth to wave over this people in a land that was really free. The flag was now taken out, unfurled and fastened to the limb of a spreading tree. About the stars and stripes the host of exiles convened. Brigham Young stood on a slight eminence before them. All were silent. A spirit of rapt attention pervaded the crowd when their leader spoke. In a steadfast, determined voice he said, "We must raise this Battalion. If there aren't enough young men, we will take the old ones. If needs be, I, myself, will go." A drummer boy marched by, beating his drum. One by one the men filed into line after him. This scene was repeated at the "Mormon" camp at Mount Pisgah, Iowa, until the full quota of men had responded to the call.

The situation was fraught with nuch hardship and heart rending sacrifice. Many of the new exiles. had not enough food, so the limited supply at the river encampment would have to be divided with them. So large a percentage of the able bodied men were taken into the Battalion, that the strength of the camp was weakened, and the heavy work would now fall upon the women and children, the aged and infirm, who remained to continue the march west

ward. Already, gaunt, grim pestilence had begun to stalk abroad among these people, for the marshy river lands exhaled deadly miasma. Before the year was out, this swampy stretch became a veritable sepulcher.

There were many fathers of families who came forward and offered themselves, at this call for volunteers. It must have required a great courage and power of self renunciation for these men to respond to their country's call, and leave their families in this critical situation, dwelling in wagons and tents in the midst of a wild, Indian country, far from the land they had once called civilization, and out of which they had been driven. There they left them in the scorching mid-summer sunoff for a year-with a foreboding that grim winter would find them in the same place. Friends and relatives of the volunteers promised to provide equally well for all families, but as every man was already overburdened trying to secure food and shelter for his own wife and children, as well as for destitute emigrants who were daily arriving, this requisition made a threefold charge. So great, though, was the spirit of unison and co-operation among this people, that the men came forward gladly, saying, "Here am I. Take me." (To Be Continued.)