Preparatory to the march across the plains the coming summer, some explorations were begun. Elder Woodruff traveled along the country of the Big Pigeon River on which the camp of the Saints was established. On the 25th of July he crossed the river to the Nebraska side with his family, wagons, and household effects. On the 2nd of August the Twelve met in council and decided that Winter Quarters should be established on the site then occupied by the camp. On the evening of that day President Young and Elder Richards called at the tent of Wilford Woodruff where President Young gave him and his family some instructions on the subject of the priesthood and of the sealing power. That day was also marked by the arrival of a messenger from the Mormon Battalion that was now within thirty miles from Leavenworth.
After settling the question of a location for the winter, twelve men were selected to serve in the joint capacity of a High Council and City Council for the transaction of all business relating to the settlement of the Saints during the winter.
About this time there was a meeting of the Saints with Colonel Kane, and in it the adoption of certain resolutions of respect and gratitude to President Polk for the steps taken by him in arming five hundred men and of furnishing them an opportunity to reach the valleys of the Rocky Mountains. At this time they also urgently protested against the appointment of Lilburn W. Boggs, the former governor of Missouri, and a bitter enemy of the people, as governor of California and Oregon, a position he was anxious to occupy and one which his friends were helping him to secure.
At this time President Young informed Colonel Kane that it was the intention of the Saints to settle in the Great Basin, and that as soon as they were located to apply for a territorial government. Thus their plans were early revealed to a tried and trusted friend.
The Sunday following, a meeting was held at a place prepared for worship, a place capable of seating about three hundred people. After the people were addressed by Apostle Woodruff, President Young declared that when the Latter-day Saints should finally reach their resting place, he would labor hard to build another temple. The erection of a temple whose blessings they so meagerly enjoyed in Nauvoo was constantly in the mind of the leaders who were inspired by a desire to enjoy the ordinances for the living and dead which belonged, peculiarly, to the temples of God.
In the management of the affairs at Winter Quarters, the Saints were divided into encampments and these again into subdivisions. President Young took charge of division 1. That allotted to Elder Woodruff was No 10. It consisted of thirty-six men, thirty-two wagons, nine horses, 129 oxen, 59 cows, four mules, and forty sheep. The whole of Winter Quarters consisted at this time of 549 men, 597 wagons, 229 horses, 2,110 oxen, 1,168 cows, 49 mules, and 660 sheep.
The entire population of those that located at Council Bluffs at that time is not stated in his journal.
On August 17 Orrin P. Rockwell arrived in camp and brought with him the mail from Nauvoo. The letters from home showed that the mob were still active, that some of the Saints had been whipped in a shameful manner and that there was no hope of any return to the city they loved so well. There was nothing in the information that reached them from Nauvoo to give the least encouragement to any of their number to turn back; their hope was now all directed westward.
There was naturally much suffering in the midst of all the exposure to which the Saints were subjected. Elder Woodruff records the fact that his wife suffered a great deal from sickness and it was with great difficulty that she was kept alive.
The Mormon Battalion constituted the advance-guard for the pioneer movement. It is true that they were taking a route different from that which the body of the Saints intended to follow, but the Battalion was penetrating the great and unknown wilderness. Its difficulties would be their difficulties, its hardships, their hardships. All news therefore brought back from the Battalion was discussed by the Saints on the banks of the Missouri with intense interest. They had reason to be proud of their representatives in blue. The soldiers were making a good record. They were spoken highly of because of their exemplary habits, their willing service, and their powers of endurance.