The express which arrived on the 16th of October brought a threatening letter from Col. Alexander to President Young. He threatened extermination if the Saints resisted, and expressed confidence in his ability to carry out the orders of the government. Governor Young sent the Colonel a strong reply; wanted to know why he spent an entire month on Ham's Fork if he was confident in his ability to carry out orders. He gave the Colonel to understand that on our part there was no surrender. "We shall trust in God and go ahead."
The Sunday following, President Young addressed the Saints and declared his belief in their ability to keep the enemy back, and counseled the people to go on with their farming, fruit raising, etc. President Kimball arose and prophesied that if the Saints would hearken to counsel they would continue to live in their own homes in the valleys, produce crops, and remain until they returned to Jackson County, Missouri. President Young thereupon shouted out, "I believe it." At the same time, communications were coming in from the army, but they only received from him the same determined answer that the army should not enter Salt Lake Valley until conditions had changed and the sentiment of bitterness and hostility had been allayed.
About the same time Governor Cumming arrived at the headquarters of the army and sent a communication to Governor Young, in which he declared himself the Governor of Utah. At the same time he charged with treason all who opposed his and the army's movement. Mr. Cumming no doubt felt some misgivings from the fact that the horses and mules belonging to the army were dying by the hundreds, and the soldiers were short of provisions. The difficulty of the situation was rendered worse from the fact that there existed both among the officers and soldiers a pronounced division. Some of them openly declared that Governor Young was perfectly justified in his course in defending the rights of the people of Utah.
In December the Mormon soldiers were disbanded and allowed to return home for the winter, and the change was welcomed by them. Their provisions were not more than half their actual wants, and there were no comforts on the frontier. In summing up the condition of affairs at the close of the year Apostle Woodruff writes: "The expedition of the season is now entirely closed, and we have clearly seen the hand of the Lord made visible in our behalf. An army has been sent by the United States to make war upon us for the sole purpose of destroying the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The Church has been driven from the confines of the United States into the Rocky Mountains, then a Mexican Territory, with the hope of the nation that we should perish; but as soon as they found that we were to live and prosper they became alarmed and resolved upon our destruction. As soon as this intention was known to us, the leader of the Church and Kingdom of God arose up in the strength of Israel's God and proclaimed Israel free. In this, his counselors, Heber C. Kimball and D. H. Wells, with the Twelve Apostles, sustained him, and all the people said, 'Amen.'"
Continuing, Elder Woodruff wrote: "From two to three thousand of the brethren, who went into the mountains under the command of Gen. D. H. Wells to hedge up the way of the enemy, have arrived. Our brethren made large entrenchments and ditches and piled up large masses of rocks above the narrow passes for the purpose of rolling them down upon the enemy; but the Lord has fought our battles and hedged up the way. When the army reached Ham's Fork, 150 miles from our city, the storms and cold killed their horses, mules, and cattle, by the hundreds, so that when the whole army got together with the governors and judges, whom the government had sent to rule over us, they had not teams enough left to draw one-third of their train and were obliged to stop and pass the winter in the storms of the mountains. Their wisdom seems to be taken from them, and our brethren have been able to herd them like a herd of cattle. The soldiers shot grape and musket and many balls at our men from time to time, and those balls fell like hail around the servants of God, but not a drop of their blood has been shed, neither did the brethren return fire upon the enemy even in a single instance. Fear had so taken hold of the soldiers that they would flee into the main body of the army at the approach of a small number of our brethren.
"Through all this President Young has been as calm as a summer's day. The army of Zion is now returning to its home with the same spirit of composure and quietude that it carried with it into the mountains. As the men passed, on their return, by President Young, they gave him a quiet salute and went silently to their homes, while President Young gazed upon them with thanksgiving and praise to the God of Israel."
President Woodruff here relates the circumstance of a Brother Maxwell who had been in charge of a small scouting party: "After going into camp for the night, Elder Maxwell felt strongly impressed that danger confronted him and his companions, and so informed them. He said they would have to leave, but some were opposed to his recommendation and they retired to rest. The same impression, however, increased upon Elder Maxwell until he promptly arose from his bed and said they must all leave or serious trouble would befall them. His brethren quickly followed, and it was only a short time when a hundred men surrounded the place of their encampment with the expectation of taking them prisoners."
"At another time, Col. Allen of the Mormons, fell a prisoner in the hands of the enemy. Col. Johnston threatened to hang him. At the camp fire at night Col. Allen took off his boots and pretended to warm his feet. Suddenly, he leaped by the guard and ran into a herd of cattle. His pursuers became confused and he made good his escape. He ran thirty miles to the camp of his brethren, in his stocking feet."
During these trying circumstances in the army, President Young sent some salt which they needed very much. One of the sacks of salt which was sent, however, was lost, and later picked up by a traveler who sold it to merchants for twenty dollars. They in turn sold it to the soldiers for two hundred dollars. Ben Simons, a Cherokee, took to the army nine hundred pounds of salt, which he sold for two dollars and a half a pound, or a total of two thousand two hundred and fifty dollars. He sold them service berries for one dollar a pound. It will be seen that the expedition was becoming a very expensive piece of folly.
As the year was closing, the legislature convened, and Elder Woodruff was again a member of that body. In his journal, speaking of these times, he prophecies: "The judgments of God will now begin to rest more fully upon this nation and will be increased upon it, year by year. Calamities will come speedily upon it and it will be visited with thunder, lightning, storms, whirlwinds, floods pestilence, plagues, war and devouring fire; and the wicked will slay the wicked until the wicked are wasted away."