Life of Heber C. Kimball, an apostle

by Orson F. Whitney

CHAPTER LII.

DESTINATION OF THE SAINTS—THE CALL FOR THE MORMON BATTALION—HEROIC RESPONSE OF THE EXILES—BRIGHAM, HEBER AND WILLARD AS RECRUITING SERGEANTS—DEPARTURE OF THE BATTALION—THE CAMP OF ISRAEL GOES INTO WINTER QUARTERS—THE FALL OF NAUVOO.

Where now shall fancy's roving pinion rest?
'Mid barren regions of the boundless West,
Where silvery streams through silent valleys flow
From mountains crested with eternal snow;
Where reigns no creed its rival creed to bind,
Where exiled faith a resting-place shall find,
Where builds the eagle on the beetling height
And wings o'er freedom's hills unfearing flight.

The point in view of the leaders of Israel was the Valley of the Great Salt Lake, a portion of Mexican territory located in the tops of the mountains, in the very heart of the American desert. Discouraging as were all reports relating to this barren and inhospitable region, a thousand miles farther on over trackless plains and bleak mountains swarming with wild beasts and savages, these intrepid men resolved to go forward, trusting in God and braving every peril. At least it was a land of liberty, uninfested by mobs and heartless priests and politicians, and with the wintry sky above, and the frozen earth beneath, or in summer the burning rocks and waterless wastes around them, they felt safer far in the society of wild Indians and savage wolves, than in the midst of the Christian civilization they had left behind.

Far from the realms where civilization reigns,
Where Freedom's bastards bind her sons in chains,
They sought a home within the western wild,
And fraternized the forest's dusky child;
No fiercer found, less savage in the test,
Than priestly tyrants trampling the oppressed.

Journeying towards the Missouri river they founded temporary settlements, or "traveling stakes of Zion," recruiting their strength with needed rest along the way, and putting in crops for their own use or for their brethren to reap who came after them. Two of these settlements were named Garden Grove and Mt. Pisgah, the latter over a hundred miles in the rear of the vanguard now resting on the Missouri river.

It was the design of the leaders to leave the main body of the people in these places, while they, with a picked band of pioneers, hastened on to the Rocky Mountains that season. But an incident now occurred which changed their plans and delayed the departure of the pioneers until the following spring.

Word was brought to head-quarters on the Missouri, that a United States army officer with a squad of soldiers had arrived at Mt. Pisgah, with a requisition for five hundred men, to be furnished by the Mormons, to enter the army and march to California to take part in the war against Mexico.

Imagination can alone picture the surprise, almost dismay, with which this startling news was received. What! the nation whose people had thrust them from its borders, robbed them of their homes and driven them into the wilderness, where it was hoped they might perish, now calling upon them for aid? And this in full face of the fact that their own oft reiterated appeals for help had been denied?

It was even so; five hundred able-bodied men, the flower of the camp, were wanted. And this in the heart of an Indian country, in the midst of an exodus unparalleled for its dangers and hardships, when every active man was needed as a bulwark of defense and a staff for the aged and feeble. For even delicate women, thus far, had in some instances been driving teams and tending stock, owing to the limited number of men available.

On the other hand, it was their country calling, and these sons and daughters of the pilgrims and patriots loved their country, loved its institutions and its laws, though the government of that country, in the hands of self-seeking demagogues and politicians, had been as a cruel step-mother rather than a tender parent to them.

What was to be done? What would the leaders decide to do? Such were the questions that flew like lightning through the camp, as these thoughts came rushing to mind. They were not left long unanswered.

On the 1st of July, Capt. James Allen, the recruiting officer, acting under orders of Col. S. F. Kearney at Fort Leavenworth, having arrived at "The Bluffs," went into council with Brigham Young, Heber C. Kimball, Orson Hyde, Orson Pratt, Willard Richards, George A. Smith, John Taylor, John Smith and Levi Richards. Wilford Woodruff was at Mount Pisgah, where he had received Captain Allen and his party a few days before. The brethren were assured that the offer to accept the services of a battalion of Mormon soldiers in the Mexican war, was made by the government in kindness, and meant as a means of assistance to the community, whose young and intelligent men might thus proceed, at the government's expense, to the ultimate destination of their whole people, and look out the land and prepare the way for their brethren who came after them. This was the object, it was said, quite as much as to enlist their services in their country's cause.

Whether convinced or not that such was the case, the result of the council's deliberations was a resolve to raise the troops. Brigham Young, Heber C. Kimball and Willard Richards, in the role of recruiting sergeants, at once set out for Mt. Pisgah, a distance of one hundred and thirty miles, to execute the order for the Battalion. Colonel Thomas L. Kane, that noble friend of the Mormon people, who had arrived at the Bluffs, thus summarizes the result: "A central mass meeting for council, some harangues at the more remotely scattered camps, an American flag brought out from the storehouse of things rescued, and hoisted to the top of a tree-mast, and, in three days, the force was reported, mustered, organized and ready to march."

The Mormon Battalion set out for the west about the middle of July.

The project of the Pioneers, of going to the mountains that season, was now of course abandoned, and the Camp of Israel prepared to go into "Winter Quarters." This was the name given to their settlement on the Missouri, the principal part of which was on the west side of the river, five miles above Omaha of to-day. It is now known as Florence. Seven hundred houses of log, turf and other primitive materials, neatly arranged and laid out with streets and byways; well supplied with workshops, mills and factories, and with a tabernacle of worship in the midst; the whole arising from a pretty plateau overlooking the river, and well fortified with breast-work, stockade and block-houses, after the fashion of the frontier;—such was Winter Quarters, the principal one of these so-called "traveling stakes of Zion." Here, in these humble, prairie settlements, surrounded by Indians, whose savage hearts God had wondrously softened into sympathy and friendship for His exiled people, the Camp of Israel, the residue of twenty thousand souls, which the Saints had numbered in Illinois, passed the winter of 1846.

Meanwhile, in September of that year, the remnant left in Nauvoo, between six and seven hundred souls, after a gallant defense of their city against the mob, which, in violation of every treaty, came upon them in overwhelming numbers, were driven from their homes at the point of the bayonet, and thrown, men, women and children, sick, dying and shelterless, upon the western shores of the Mississippi. And this—shades of the patriots!—while their brethren, the heroes of the Mormon Battalion, were marching to fight their country's battles on the plains of Mexico!