Mormon Battalion

Mormon Battalion—Shortly after this Colonel Allen came with a requisition from the Government for five hundred men to go to Mexico to help fight their battles. President Young put out a proclamation for the Saints to gather at Council Bluffs, preparatory to making up the five hundred men. Orson B. Adams, my son-in-law, had by this time joined me at Pisgah. He and I with our families went immediately up to the Bluffs, leaving my winter house and farm with instructions for it to be turned over to some poor brother that might come on too late to build and plant before winter set in. We arrived at the Bluffs on the 4th of July. We stopped three miles out from the place of rendezvous and walked into where we had to meet the Twelve Apostles with Brigham Young at their head. They made some of the most impressive calls for volunteers that I ever heard. Orson B. Adams was the second man to turn out to volunteer.
President Young said to the brethren if the five hundred men could not be had without, he and The Twelve Apostles would go themselves, for it was the salvation of the Church. Here was a splendid chance to show who was willing to make a sacrifice for the Kingdom of God; but the five hundred were raised without among the Saints that was truly gratifying. So the Battalion was soon dispatched, while the aged and sick and cripples and all that was left of the men, had to take charge of the women and children. It fell to my lot to have charge of Adams’ effects with two children, his wife going with him in the Battalion.