As we returned to camp the man said:
"We will make it hot for the Mormons yet before we are done with them, and if you have not got enough of them now, you will have, and you will remember my words when it is too late to serve you."
"I may," said I; "when I do I will own up like a little man. But until I am so convinced I will never turn my coat."
"Well," said he, "you are not so bad, after all. I like a firm man."
The Mormons were locked in the public schoolhouses and kept without rations being issued to them. The grain fields and gardens that belonged to the Mormons were thrown open to the stock and wasted. Our cattle and other stock were shot down for sport and left for the wolves and birds of prey to devour. We were closely guarded, and not allowed to go from our quarters without an escort. We were nearly starved for several days, until I obtained permission to go out and bring in some of the cattle that the soldiers had killed for sport. The weather was cold and the snow deep, so the meat was good. I also got permission to gather in some vegetables, and from that time, while we remained prisoners, the men had plenty to eat, yet often it was of a poor quality. While a prisoner I learned that the loud and self- conceited men were of little account when danger stared them in the face.
Arrangements had been made to carry the treaty into effect. It was found necessary to send Gen. Wilson with five hundred men to Adam-on-Diamond to compel the surrender and the signing of the treaty, as had been done at Far West, and the people of that place were to be treated just as we had been. I was recommended to Gen. Wilson by the officer who had ordered his men to blow my brains out, as a suitable man for a guide to Adam-on-Diamond. He said that I was as stubborn as a mule, but still there was something about me he respected; that he believed I was honest, and certainly no coward. Gen. Wilson said:
"Young man, do you live at Adam-on-Diamond?"
"I cannot say that I do; but I did once, and I have a wife and child there that I would like to see; but as to a home, I have none left."
"Where did you live before you came here?"
"In Illinois," I answered.