Page:History of Utah.djvu/295

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ceived their arms and accoutrements, and to each was given a bounty of forty dollars, most of the money be- ing sent back to the brethren by the hands of elders Hyde, Taylor, and others, who accompanied the bat- talion to that point, and there bade them God speed."

About the middle of August the corps resumed its march toward Santa ¥6, a distance of seven hundred miles, arriving at that place in two parties on the 9th and 12th of October. There eighty-eight men were invalided and sent back to Pueblo for the winter, and later a second detachment of fifty-five, being found unfit for service, was also ordered to Pueblo. ^^ Many of them found their way during the following year to the valley of Great Salt Lake.

From Santa Fe the remainder of the troops set forth for San Diego, a journey of more than eleven hundred miles, the entire distance between that town and the Mormon camps on the Missouri exceeding two thousand miles. Much of the route lay through a pathless desert; at few points could food be obtained in sufficient quantit}^ for man or beast, and sometimes even water failed. Wells were sunk in the wilderness; but on one occasion, at least, the men travelled for a hundred miles without water. ^^ Before leaving Santa

1* ' Here they received 100 tents, one for every 6 privates. ' ' The pay- master remarked that every one of the Mormon battalion could write his own name, but only about one third of the volunteers he had previously paid could do so.' Hist. B. Young, MS., 1846, IS. 'Five thousand eight hupdred and sixty dollars was brought in by Parley Pratt from Ft Leavenworth, being a por- tion of the allowance for clothing paid the battalion. It was counselled that this money be expended in St Louis for the families; three prices have to be paid here;. . .we wish they should all act voluntarily, so that they may have no reflections to cast upon themselves or counsellors.' Id., MS., 1846, 150. ' When the goods were bought, prices had advanced and ferriage was very high, all of which brought the goods higher than was anticipated, and pro- duced some grumbling in camp.' Id., MS., 1847, 12.

^* Families accompanying the battalion were ordered to Pueblo for winter quarters. Hist. B. Young, MS., 1S46, 2G0. A detachment was sent to Pueblo consisting of 89 men and 18 laundresses. Later in this vol., I refer to affairs at Pueblo as furnished me in a very valuable manuscript by Judge Stone of Colorado.

16 In a general order issued at San Diego on Jan. 30, 1847, by command of Lieut-col St George Cooke, then in charge of the battalion, vice Col Allen, de- ceased, the men are thus complimented on their safe arrival at the shores of the Pacific: ' History may be searched in vain for an equal march of infan- try; nine tenths of it through a wilderness, where nothing but