History of Utah, 1540-1886 - Brigham Young University

THE TROOPS APPROACH. 513
United States troops, and report to headquarters. On
the 22d of September the colonel, accompanied by
three others, the remainder of his command being ordered
to return slowly toward Salt Lake City, selecting
on their way the best points for a defensive campaign,
encountered the vanguard of the army of Utah,
in the vicinity of Devil's Gate, thence accompanied
them to Camp Winfield, on Ham Fork, and afterward
proceeded to Fort Bridger.
The Utah Campaign.
A few days later General Wells, in command of
1,250 men, supplied with thirty days' rations, established
his headquarters at Echo Canon, a defile
some twenty-five miles in length, and whose walls are
in places almost within pistol-shot of each other.
Through this canon, the Mormons supposed, lay
the path of the invading army, the only means of
avoiding the gorge being by a circuitous route northward
to Soda Springs, and thence by way of Bear
Kiver Valley, or the Wind Biver Mountains. On
the western side of the canon dams and ditches were
constructed, by means of which the road could be submerged
to a depth of several feet; at the eastern side