History of Utah, 1540-1886 - Brigham Young University

518
THE UTAH WAR.
wagons through the dense brush, their trains being
still of such unwieldy length that the vanguard had
reached its camping-ground at nightfall before the
rear-guard had moved from its camp of the preceding
day. Meanwhile bands of Mormons, under their
nimble and ubiquitous leaders, hung on their flanks,
just out of rifle-shot, harassing them at every step,
700 oxen being captured and driven to Salt Lake
City on the 13th. There was as yet no cavalry in
the force. A few infantry companies were mounted
on mules and sent in pursuit of the guerrillas, but the
saints merely laughed at them, terming them jackass
cavalry. The grass had been burned along the line
of route, and the draught-animals were so weak that
they could travel but three miles a day. When the
point was reached where Smith's detachment was
expected to join the army, the commander, disappointed
and sore perplexed, called a second council,
at which many of the officers were in favor of cutting
their way through the canons at all hazard.
At this juncture a despatch was received from
Johnston, who was now at South Pass, ordering
the troops to proceed to Fontenelle Creek, where
pasture was abundant; and a few days later a second
despatch directed them to march to a point three
miles below the junction of Ham and Black forks,
the colonel stating that he would join them at the
latter point. On the 3d of November they reached
the point of rendezvous, where Johnston arrived
the following day, with a reenforcement of cavalry
and the supply trains in charge of Smith. 6
Albert Sidney Johnston was a favorite officer, and
had already given earnest of the qualities that he displayed
a few years later in the campaigns of the civil
war. The morale of the army was at once restored,
and at the touch of this great general each man put
forth his utmost energy. But their troubles were
6 Johnston's despatch, in House. Ex. Doc, 33th Cong. 1st Sess,, no. 71,
pp. 65-6; Stenhouse's Rocky Mountain Saints, 369.