History of Utah, 1540-1886 - Brigham Young University

MARCH OF THE BATTALION. 243
ceived their arms and accoutrements, and to each was
given a bounty of forty dollars, most of the money being
sent back to the brethren by the hands of elders
Hyde, Taylor, and others, who accompanied the battalion
to that point, and there bade them God speed. 1*
About the middle of August the corps resumed its
march toward Santa Fe, a distance of seven hundred
miles, arriving at that place in two parties on the 9th
and 12th of October. There eighty-eight men were
invalided and sent back to Pueblo for the winter, and
later a second detachment of fifty-five, being found
unfit for service, was also ordered to Pueblo. 15 Many
of them found their way during the following year to
the valley of Great Salt Lake.
From Santa Fe the remainder of the troops set
forth for San Diego, a journey of more than eleven
hundred miles, the entire distance between that town
and the Mormon camps on the Missouri exceeding
two thousand miles. Much of the route lay through
a pathless desert; at few points could food be obtained
in sufficient quantity for man or beast, and sometimes
even water failed. Wells were sunk in the wilderness;
but on one occasion, at least, the men travelled for a
hundred miles without water. 16 Before leaving Santa
14 ' Here they received 100 tents, one for every 6 privates. '
' The pay-
master remarked that every one of the Mormon battalion could write his own
name, but only about one third of the volunteers he had previously paid could
do so.' Hist. B. Young, MS., 1S46, IS. 'Five thousand eight hundred and
sixty dollars was brought in by Parley Pratt from Ft Leavenworth, being a portion
of the allowance for clothing paid the battalion. It was counselled that
this money be expended in St Louis for the families; three prices have to be
.we wish they should all act voluntarily, so that they may have
paid here;. .
no reflections to cast upon themselves or counsellors.' Id., MS., 1846, 150.
'When the goods were bought, prices had advanced and ferriage was very
high, all of which brought the goods higher than was anticipated, and produced
some grumbling in camp.' Id., MS., 1S47, 12.
15 Families accompanying the battalion were ordered to Pueblo for winter
quarters. Hist. B. Young, MS., 1S46, 260. A detachment was sent to Pueblo
consisting of S9 men and 18 laundresses. Later in this vol., I refer to affairs
at Pueblo as furnished me in a very valuable manuscript by Judge Stone of
Colorado.
16 In a general order issued at San Diego on Jan. 30, 1S47, by command of
Lieut-col St George Cooke, then in charge of the battalion, vice Col Allen, deceased,
the men are thus complimented on their safe arrival at the shores of
the Pacific: ' History may be searched in vaiu for an equal march of infantry;
nine tenths of it through a wilderness, where nothing but savages and