History of Utah, 1540-1886 - Brigham Young University

PREPARATIONS FOR DEFENCE. 505
gers rode in hot haste up the canon, and announced
to the brethren the approach of the army of Utah.
All eyes turned at once to Brigham. It was at
times like the present, when the hearts of the others
sank within them, that his genius rose superior to all
obstacles, proving him the born leader that all acknowledged
him to be. Gathering the people around
him, he repeated the words uttered ten years before,
prophesying even now that at no distant day he would
himself become president of the United States, or
dictate who should be president. Then festivities
were renewed, and when the day was far spent the
people returned to their homes with trust in Brigham
and the God of Joseph.
Then war became the universal theme. Fire-arms
were manufactured or repaired; scythes were turned
into bayonets; long-unused sabres were burnished and
sharpened, and from all parts of the earth the saints
were summoned to the defence of Zion. Apostles
Lyman and Rich, who were in charge of the saints at
San Bernardino, and Orson Hyde, who, as we shall
see, had founded a thriving colony in Carson Valley,
were ordered to break up their settlements and gather
to the defence of Zion. Messengers were sent to the
Atlantic states and to Europe to summon home the
elders and apostles, 45 and, had it been possible, thousands
of converts from all parts of the world would
have rallied this year round the standard of the
prophet.
On the 8th of September Captain Van Vliet arrived
in Salt Lake City, 46 with orders to purchase
forage and lumber, and to assure the Mormons that
45 The elders returning from Europe landed as secretly as possible in New
York, fearing that they would be molested by the authorities, and most of
them journeyed to Utah overland by various routes. The apostles crossed
the Atlantic incognito, and remaining there in disguise until the steamer
sailed for Panama, travelled by way of San Francisco and southern California,
accompanied by a small body-guard of elders. Stenhouse's Itocly Mountain
Saints, 354-5.
46 According to special instructions, dated army headquarters, Fort Leavenworth,
July '28, 1857. See Van Vliet's rept to the acting assistant adj.general
army of Utah, in II. Ex. Doc, 35th Cong. 1st Sess., ii. pt 2, p. 25.