In addition to the wagon road opened westward through southern New Mexico, Arizona, and California, we have seen that it was a detachment of twenty-five discharged members of the Battalion which brought the first wagon through from the coast via Cajon Pass to Salt Lake Valley, following what is now the general course of the San Pedro, Los Angeles and Salt Lake railroad, and which became known in the early Utah California times as the southern California route to the coast. Also, as we have seen, the Battalion members returning from the gold fields of the American river region cut a new wagon road, much of the way, for their seventeen wagons and two cannons from the western side of the Sierra, across the summit of that lofty range, thence down to the eastern sloping deserts of Nevada, and so to Salt Lake Valley.
The conquest of Northern Mexico, including, of course, California and Utah, as well as New Mexico and [Transcriber's Note: text is missing in the original] lence of their conduct, not only on the march to the Pacific fleet of the American navy, and the "Army of the West," the main division of which was under the command of General Stephen W. Kearny. The Battalion's part in the conquest is detailed in the foregoing narrative, and also is acknowledged in the military order by Col. Cooke, referred to several times and given in full in a preceding page of this book.
In addition to all this, the Battalion reflected great credit upon the community of Utah pioneers—of whom it never ceased to be a part—by reason of the excellence of their conduct not only on the march to the Pacific coast, but also when doing garrison duty in southern California. The efforts to secure the re-enlistment of the Battalion, and, failing that, the effort to secure the enlistment of a second Mormon Battalion, were the conscious confessions of both California and federal officials—since both participated in such efforts—to the worth of these United States soldiers. "They religiously respected their rights and feelings of the conquered people of California; not a syllable of complaint of a single insult offered, or any outrage done by a Mormon volunteer," is the record of the Battalion, and the re-enlisted volunteers, according to the report of them by Governor Mason. Such is the reputation of the Battalion; of its officers, chosen from its ranks; and of its men, the rank and file.
The part the Battalion played in the discovery of gold has already been detailed.
Connection with Irrigation.—The connection of members of the Battalion with the introduction of irrigation among an Anglo-Saxon people, and most likely coming from their suggestion, is a deduction from circumstances rather than a fact sustained by direct and positive proof. When Brigham Young's company of pioneers were about to leave Green River on July 4, 1847, they were overtaken by a detachment of thirteen men from the Battalion, who were in pursuit of men who had stolen horses from their camps some seven days' travel eastward. These men had been with the several invalided detachments from the Battalion—about 150 in all—that had wintered at Pueblo, in what is now the state of Colorado. They were incorporated into the pioneer company and came on with it to Salt Lake valley, and undoubtedly members of this group would be upon the ground that 23rd day of July, when ploughing was first attempted on the south fork of City Creek, on the present site of Great Salt Lake City.
The annals of that day say that the ground was so dry and hard that in the attempt to plow it several plows were broken. Whereupon, at someone's suggestion—who it was that made it the annals do not disclose, and it is not known—a company was set at work to put in a dam in the creek and flood the land in order to plow it. This was the beginning of Anglo-Saxon irrigation.
As already stated, who it was that made the fortunate suggestion that the water be turned out upon the land in order to make it possible to plow it, is not known, but we have seen that thirteen members of the Battalion were among the pioneers, and some of them had seen irrigation in operation among the Mexicans at Santa Fe and further south in the valley of the Rio Grande. What more likely than that some of those men who had seen irrigation in progress should suggest the flooding of the land to prepare it for plowing, as they had seen it conducted over the land to convey moisture to the growing vegetation? The probability of it has moral certainty.
FOOTNOTES:
[78:a] History U. S. (Morris), 1877 ed., p. 326.