History of Utah, 1540-1886 - Brigham Young University

510
THE GOVERNMENT IN ARMS.
arms, ammunition, and accoutrements. Those who
failed to provide their equipments were fined, and
those who disposed of them were tried by court-martial
and doubly fined. Penalties were also imposed
for non-attendance at muster and drill. 53 The cavalry
arm was for a time abolished 54 as unsuited to mountain
warfare, and a corps of topographical engineers
organized, together with an ordnance corps.
All able-bodied males in the territory, except those
exempt by law, were liable, as we have seen, to military
service, and it is probable that the Mormons
could put in the field not less than seven thousand
raw troops, half disciplined, indeed, but inured to hardship,
and most of them excellent marksmen. If Brigham
had now carried out his threat of letting loose
the Indian tribes of Utah, the United States forces
would have been hopelessly outnumbered. Arms and
ammunition were supplied in part from San Bernardino,
55 though no considerable reinforcements from
southern California arrived until after the crisis was
over, and those from Carson Valley did not exceed
one hundred men capable of bearing arms. 66
It was not, of course, the intention of the saints to
encounter the army of Utah in the open field, or even
behind breastworks, if it could be avoided. In order
63 Utah, Acts Legist, (ed. 1866), 190-3, where is a copy of an act, approved
Jan. 15, 1857, for the organization of the militia, and of the regulations adopted
six months later. The regulations were first published in the Deseret News,
Apr. 1st of this year. Previous acts relating to the militia, approved in 1S52,
will be found in Utah, Acts Legist (ed. 1855), 207-22, 231-2. Daniel H. Wells
remained lieutenant-general, James Ferguson was adjutant-general, and A. P.
Rockwood commissary-general. The names of other officers will be found in
Id. (ed. 1866), 193; Deseret Netvs, Apr. 29, 1857. All the officers were elected
except those in the engineers' and ordnance corps. Further items concerning
the legion will be found in Id., July 6, 1859; S. F. Alta, Aug. 11, 1857; Or.
Statesman, Oct. 20, 1857.
64 By general order issued at the headquarters of the legion. A copy of it
will be found in the Deseret News, July 1, 1857.
65 In Hayes' Scraps, San Bernardino, i. 53, we read: 'Arms and ammunition
continue to be forwarded from San Bernardino. The last mail-rider
took along—in Nov. 1857—500 revolvers, which passed through this city.'
66 With the exception of a few persons, the Carson Mormons started for S.
L. City Sept. 26, 1857, and arrived Nov. 2d. They mustered about 450 persons,
several being from Or. and Cal., had with them 123 wagons, and were
in charge of Chester Loveland. Early Hist. Carson Valley, MS., 5.