Topics.—1. From Nauvoo to Garden Grove. 2. Garden Grove and Mount Pisgah. 3. Winter Quarters.
Questions and Review.—1. What might this last move of the Saints be likened to? 2. After leaving Nauvoo where was the first stopping place? 3. When did the camp start west? 4. What hindered the traveling? 5. How was the camp organized? 6. What did the Saints do for amusement? 7. Where were Garden Grove and Mount Pisgah? 8. What was the object in making these settlements? 9. What prevented a band of pioneers from going to the mountains that summer? 10. Where was Winter Quarters? 11. Describe the place. 12. About how many people were traveling across Iowa that summer?
CHAPTER XXVIII.
THE MORMON BATTALION.
During the summer of 1846 the United States was at war with the republic of Mexico. A number of battles had been fought in Texas. What is now California, Nevada, Utah, and Arizona belonged to Mexico, and as President Polk desired to get this large district of country for the United States, he sent soldiers westward to the Pacific ocean.
The "Mormon" people traveling from Nauvoo had asked President Polk for assistance in their journey to the west. They said they wanted to remain under the protection of the government, and were willing to aid in holding the western country for the United States.
In the month of June, 1846, Captain James Allen, an officer of the United States army arrived at Mount Pisgah, Iowa. What he wanted was five hundred men with which to form a battalion and march across the continent to California, and take part in the war with Mexico.
This was startling news indeed. The Saints had not expected this kind of "help" in their journeying through the wilderness. Many of the Saints looked upon the call as a plan to destroy them. You can hardly blame them for that, can you, knowing some of their past history?
But President Young and the leading brethren told the officer he should have his men. They thought it was a test to see if they were true to their country. Though it was a pretty hard test, thus to take their best and strongest men away from such a camp as theirs, yet the "Mormon" people would show to the government and to the whole world that they were loyal to their country, even though that country had failed to protect them in their rights to live in peace and worship God.