On the 12th of June, Elder Little, in company with Colonel Thomas L. Kane, started for the West, the Colonel bearing special dispatches from the Government to General Kearney, who was at Fort Leavenworth. Judge Kane journeyed with his son as far as St. Louis.
The following is the order under which the Battalion was mustered into service:
"Headquarters, Army of the West, Fort Leavenworth, June 19, 1846.
"Sir: It is understood that there is a large body of Mormons who are desirous of emigrating to California, for the purpose of settling in that country, and I have therefore to direct that you will proceed to their camps and endeavor to raise from amongst them four or five companies of volunteers, to join me in my expedition to that country, each company to consist of any number between 73 and 109, the officers of each company will be a captain, first lieutenant, and second lieutenant, who will be elected by the privates, and subject to your approval, and the captains then to appoint the non-commissioned officers, also subject to your approval. The companies, upon being thus organized, will be mustered by you into the service of the United States, and from that day will commence to receive the pay, rations, and other allowances given to the other infantry volunteers, each according to his rank. You will, upon mustering into service the fourth company, be considered as having the rank, pay, and emoluments of a lieutenant-colonel of infantry, and are authorized to appoint an adjutant, sergeant-major, and quartermaster-sergeant for the battalion.
"The companies, after being organized, will be marched to this post, where they will be armed and prepared for the field, after which they will, under your command, follow on my trail in the direction of Santa Fe, and where you will receive further orders from me.
"You will, upon organizing the companies, require provisions, wagons, horses, mules, etc. You must purchase everything that is necessary and give the necessary drafts upon the quartermaster and commissary departments at this post, which drafts will be paid upon presentation.
"You will have the Mormons distinctly to understand that I wish to have them as volunteers for twelve months; that they will be marched to California, receiving pay and allowances during the above time, and at its expiration they will be discharged, and allowed to retain, as their private property, the guns and accoutrements furnished to them at this post.
"Each company will be allowed four women as laundresses, who will travel with the company, receiving rations and other allowances given to the laundresses of our army.
"With the foregoing conditions, which are hereby pledged to the Mormons, and which will be faithfully kept by me and other officers in behalf of the Government of the United States, I cannot doubt but that you will in a few days be able to raise five hundred young and efficient men for this expedition.
"Very respectfully your obedient servant, (Signed) S. F. Kearney, Col. of First Dragoons.
Per Capt. James Allen, First. Reg. Dragoons, Fort Leavenworth."
The following from important documents sent from the War Office a quarter of a century later, to aid this author in his investigation of the call of the Mormon Battalion is presented here to perfect the view: "Adjutant General's Office.
"Sir. I send herewith such papers as I have been able to find relating to the way the Mormon Battalion was received into service during the Mexican war.
Your obedient servant, E. D. Townsend, Adjutant-General."
"Hon. W. L. Marcy, Secretary of War, in a letter to General Kearney, dated Jure 3, 1846, states that it is known that a large body of Mormon emigrants are en route to California, for the purpose of settling in that country, desires the General to use all proper means to have a good understanding with them, to the end that the United States may have their co-operation in taking possession of and holding the country; authorizes the General to muster into service such as can be induced to volunteer, not, however, to a number exceeding one third of his entire force. Should they enter the service they were to be paid as other volunteers; to be allowed to designate, as far as it could be properly done, the persons to act as officers.
"This appears to be the authority under which General Kearney mustered the Mormon Battalion into service.
"The command was mustered out of service in California, in 1847, and one company was again mustered in immediately after to serve for twelve months.
This company was mustered out in 1848 at San Diego."
The other document of this Battalion history, furnished by the Adjutant General, is General Kearney's order under which the Battalion was mustered into service.
It will be seen from the above abstract of Secretary Marcy's letter to General Kearney, that there exists in the War Office to-day positive proof that the United States did design to colonize California by the aid of the Mormons.
Extraordinary was the wording, that the United States Government " desires the General to use ail proper means to have a good understanding with them, to the end that the United States may have their co-operation in taking possession of and holding the country.''' We return to the Pioneer narrative: It will be remembered that Brigham Young, while believing the Battalion call to be a test of loyalty, hastened with Heber C. Kimball and Willard Richards to Mount Pisgah, 130 miles, to execute the "demand," as they deemed it, for a battalion of their picked men to serve their country. They immediately sent messengers, with official dispatches from their High Council to Nauvoo, Garden, Grove, and the regions around, calling to headquarters their old men and able-bodied boys to supply the place of their picked men going for the service of their country.
Returning to Council Bluffs, the Twelve gathered the " Camp of Israel" to enroll the companies of volunteers. While Major Hunt, of the volunteers, was calling out the first company, Brigham Young conversed with Colonel Kane in Woodruff's carriage about the affairs of the nation and told him the time would come when the Mormons would "have to save the Government of the United States, or it would crumble to atoms."
Forty minutes after twelve of the same day, July 15, the Elders and the people assembled in the Bowery. President Young then delivered to the congregation a simple but earnest speech, in which he told the brethren, with a touch of subdued pathos, "not to mention families to-day;" that they had "not time to reason now." "We want," he said, "to conform to the requisition made upon us, and we will do nothing else until we accomplish this thing. If we want the privilege of going where we can worship God according to the dictates of our consciences, we must raise the Battalion. I say, it is right; and who cares for sacrificing our comfort for a few years?"
Nobly did the Mormons respond to this call of their country. The Apostles acted as recruiting sergeants; nor did they wait for their reinforcements, but moved as though they intended to apply their leader's closing sentence literally; he said: "After we get through talking, we will call out the companies; and if there are not young men enough we will take the old men, and if they are not enough we will take the women. I want to say to every man, the Constitution of the United States, as framed by our fathers, was dictated, was revealed, was put into their hearts by the Almighty, who sits enthroned in the midst of the heavens; although unknown to them it was dictated by the revelations of Jesus Christ, and I tell you, in the name of Jesus Christ, it is as good as ever I could ask for. I say unto you, magnify the laws. There is no law in the United States, or in the Constitution, but I am ready to make honorable."
"There was no sentimental affectation at their leave-taking," said Thomas L. Kane, in relating the story to the Historical Society of Pennsylvania. "The afternoon before their march was devoted to a farewell ball; and a more merry rout I have never seen, though the company went without refreshments, and their ball was of the most primitive. It was the custom, whenever the larger camps rested for a few days together, to make great arbors, or boweries, as they called them, of poles, and brush, and wattling, as places of shelter for their meetings of devotion or conference. In one of these, where the ground had been trodden firm and hard by the worshippers,