The Lions of the Lord: A Tale of the Old West

by Harry Leon Wilson

  CHAPTER XIX.

  _The Host of Israel Goes forth to Battle_

  He went north in answer to the call for soldiers. He went gladly. Itpromised activity--and company.

  A score of them left Cedar City with much warlike talk, with manyringing prophecies of confusion to the army now marching against them,and to the man who had sent it. They cited Fremont, Presidentialcandidate of the newly organised Republican party the year before, withhis catch phrase, "The abolition of slavery and polygamy, the twinrelics of barbarism." Fremont had been defeated. And there was StephenA. Douglas, once their staunch friend and advocate in Illinois; but theyear before he had turned against them, styling polygamy "the loathsomeulcer of the body politic," asserting that the people of Utah were boundby oath to recognise only the authority of Brigham Young; that they wereforming alliances with Indians and organising Danite bands to rob andmurder American citizens; and urging a rigid investigation into theseenormities. For this slander Brigham had hurled upon him the anathemaof the priesthood, in consequence of which Douglas had failed to secureeven a nomination for the high office which he sought.

  And now Buchanan was in a way to draw upon himself that retributionwhich must ever descend upon the foes of Israel. Brigham was at last tounleash the dogs of war. They recalled his saying when they came intothe valley, "If they will let us alone for ten years, we will ask noodds of Uncle Sam or the Devil." The ten years had passed and the Devilwas taking them at their word. One of them recalled the prophecy ofanother inspired leader, Parley Pratt, the Archer of Paradise: "Withinten years from now the people of this country who are not Mormons willbe entirely subdued by the Latter-day Saints or swept from the face ofthe earth; and if this prophecy fails, then you may know the Book ofMormon is not true."

  Their great day was surely at hand. Their God of Battles reigned. Allthrough the Territory the leaders preached, prayed, and taught nothingbut war; the poets made songs only of war; and the people sang onlythese. Public works and private were alike suspended, save themanufacture of new arms, the repairing of old, and the sharpening ofsabers and bayonets.

  On the way, to fire their ardour, they were met by Brigham'sproclamation. It recited that "for the last twenty-five years we havetrusted officials of the government from constables and justices tojudges, governors, and presidents, only to be scorned, held inderision, insulted, and betrayed. Our houses have been plundered andburned, our fields laid waste, our chief men butchered while under thepledged faith of the government for their safety; and our familiesdriven from their homes to find that shelter in the wilderness and thatprotection among hostile savages which were denied them in the boastedabodes of Christianity and civilisation." It concluded by forbidding allarmed forces of every description to enter the Territory under anypretence whatever, and declaring martial law to exist until furthernotice. The little band hurried on, eager to be at the front.

  The day he reached Salt Lake City, Joel Rae was made major of militia.The following day, he attended the meeting at the tabernacle. He needed,for reasons he did not fully explain to himself, to receive freshassurance of Brigham's infallibility, of his touch with the Holy Ghost,of his goodness as well as his might; to be caught once more by thecompelling magnetism of his presence, the flash of his eye, and theinciting tones of his voice. All this he found.

  "Is there," asked Brigham, "a collision between us and the UnitedStates? No, we have not collashed--that is the word that sounds nearestto what I mean. But the thread is cut between us and we will never gybeagain, no, never--worlds without end. I am not going to have theirtroops here to protect the priests and rabble in their efforts to driveus from the land we possess. The Lord does not want us to be driven. Hehas said to me, 'If you will assert your rights and keep mycommandments, you shall never again be brought into bondage by yourenemies.' The United States says that their army is legal, but I saythat such a statement is false as hell, and that those States are asrotten as an old pumpkin that has been frozen seven times over and thenthawed in a harvest sun. We can't have that army here and havepeace--you might as well tell me you could make hell into apowder-house. And so we shall melt those troops away. I promise you ourenemies shall never 'slip the bow on old Bright's neck again.'"

  Joel Rae was again under the sway of his old warlike feelings. Brighamhad revived his fainting faith. He went out into the noise and hurry ofwar preparations in a sort of intoxication. Underneath he never ceasedto be conscious of the dreadful specter that would not be gone--thatstood impassive and immovable as one of the mountains about him, waitingfor him to come to it and face it and live his day of reckoning,--theday of his own judgment upon himself. But he drank thirstily of themartial draught and lived the time in a fever of tumultuous drunkennessto the awful truth.

  He saw to it that he was never alone by day or night. Once a new thoughtand a sudden hope came to him, and he had been about to pray that in thecampaign he was entering he might be killed. But a second thoughtstayed him; he had no right to die until he had faced his own judgment.

  The army of Israel was now well organised. It had taken all able-bodiedmales between the ages of eighteen and forty-five. There were alieutenant-general, four generals, eleven colonels, and six majors. Inaddition to the Saints' own forces there were the Indians, for Brighamhad told a messenger who came to ascertain his disposition toward theapproaching army that he would "no longer hold the Indians by thewrist." This messenger had suggested that, while the army might be keptfrom entering the valley that winter, it would assuredly march in, thefollowing spring. Brigham's reply had not lacked the point thatsharpened most of his words.

  "Before we shall suffer what we have in times gone by we will burn andlay waste our improvements, and you will find the desert here again.There will not be left one building, nor one foot of lumber, nor a stickor tree or particle of grass or hay that will burn. I will lay thisvalley utterly waste in the name of Israel's God. We have three years'provisions, which we will cache, and then take to the mountains." Themessenger had returned to Fort Bridger and the measures of defense wentforward in the valley.

  Forces were sent into Echo Canon, the narrow defile between themountains through which an army would have to pass. On the east side menwere put to building stone ramparts as a protection for riflemen. Onthe west, where the side was sloping, they dug pits for the samepurpose. They also built dams to throw large bodies of water along thewest side of the canon so that an army would be forced to the east side;and here at the top of the cliff, great quantities of boulders wereplaced so that a slight leverage would suffice to hail them down uponthe army as it marched below.

  When word came that the invaders had crossed the Utah line, Brigham sentforward a copy of his proclamation and a friendly note of warning to theofficer in command. In this he directed that officer to retire from theTerritory by the same route he had entered it; adding, however, "shouldyou deem this impracticable and prefer to remain until spring in thevicinity of your present position at Black's Fork or Green River, youcan do so in peace and unmolested on condition that you deposit yourarms and ammunition with Lewis Robinson, Quartermaster-General of theTerritory, and leave as soon in the spring as the roads will permit youto march. And should you fall short of provisions they will be furnishedyou upon making the proper application." The officer who received thisnote had replied somewhat curtly that the forces he commanded were inUtah by order of the President of the United States and that theirfuture movements would depend wholly upon orders issued by competentmilitary authority. Thus the issue was forced.

  In addition to the defense of Echo Canon, certain aggressive moves weremade. To Joel Rae was allotted command of one of these. His orderspromised all he could wish of action. He read them and felt somethinglike his old truculent enthusiasm.

  "You will proceed with all possible dispatch, without injuring youranimals, to the Oregon Road near the bend of Bear River, north by eastof this place. When you approach the road, send scouts ahead toascertain if the invading troops have passed
that way. Should they havepassed, take a concealed route and get ahead of them. On ascertainingthe locality of the troops, proceed at once to annoy them in everypossible way. Use every exertion to stampede their animals and set fireto their trains. Burn the whole country before them and on their flanks.Keep them from sleeping, by night surprises; blockade the road byfelling trees, or destroying river fords where you can. Watch foropportunities to set fire to the grass on their windward, so as toenvelope their trains if possible. Leave no grass before them that canbe burned. Keep your men concealed as much as possible, and guardagainst surprise. God bless you and give you success.

  "YOUR BROTHER IN CHRIST."

  Forty-four men were placed under his command to perform this work, andall of them were soon impressed, even to alarm, by the very evidentreliance of their leader upon the God of Israel rather than upon anymerely human wisdom of his own.

  The first capture was not difficult. After an all-night ride they cameup with a supply-train of twenty-five wagons drawn by oxen. The captainof this train was ordered to "go the other way" until he reached theStates. He started; but as he retraced his steps as often as they movedaway, they at length burned his train and left him.

  And then the recklessness of the new-fledged major became manifest. Hesent one of his captains with twenty men to capture or stampede themules of the Tenth Regiment, while he with the remainder of his forceset off toward Sandy Fork in search of more wagon-trains. When hisscouts late in the day reported a train of twenty-six wagons, he wasadvised by them that he ought not to attack it with so small a force;but to this advice he was deaf, rebuking the men for their little faith.

  He allowed the train to proceed until after dark, and then drewcautiously near. Learning, however, that the drivers were drunk, he hadhis force lie concealed for a time, fearing that they might provebelligerent and thus compel him to shed blood, which he wished not todo.

  At midnight the scouts reported that the train was drawn up in two linesfor the night and that all was quiet. He mounted his command and orderedan advance. Approaching the camp, they discovered a fact that the scoutshad failed to note; a second train had joined the first, and the littlehost of Israel was now confronted by twice the anticipated force. Thisdiscovery was made too late for them to retire unobserved. The men,however, expected their leader to make some inquiry concerning the roadand then ride on. But they had not plumbed the depth of his faith.

  As the force neared the camp-fire close to the wagons, the rear of thecolumn was lost in the darkness. What the teamsters about the fire sawwas an apparently endless column of men advancing upon them. Theirleader halted the column, called for the captain of the train, orderedhim to have his men stack their arms, collect their property, and standby under guard. Dismounting from his horse, he fashioned a torch anddirected one of the drivers to apply it to the wagons, in order that"the Gentiles might spoil the Gentiles." By the time the teamsters hadsecured their personal belongings and a little stock of provisions forimmediate necessity the fifty wagons were ablaze. The following day, onthe Big Sandy, they destroyed another train and a few stragglingsutlers' wagons.

  And so the campaign went forward. As the winter came on colder, thescouts brought in moving tales of the enemy's discomfiture. ColonelAlexander of the Federal forces, deciding that the canons could bedefended by the Saints, planned to approach Salt Lake City over aroundabout route to the north. He started in heavy snow, cutting a roadthrough the greasewood and sage-brush. Often his men made but threemiles a day, and his supply-train was so long that sometimes half of itwould be camped for the night before the rear wagons had moved. As therewas no cavalry in the force the hosts of Israel harassed them sorely onthis march, on one day consecrating eight hundred head of their oxen anddriving them to Salt Lake.

  Albert Sidney Johnston, commanding the expedition, had also sufferedgreatly with his forces. The early snows deprived his stock of forage,and the unusual cold froze many oxen and mules.

  Lieutenant-Colonel Cooke of the Second Dragoons, with whom travelled thenewly appointed governor, was another to suffer. At Fort Laramie so manyof his animals had dropped out that numbers of his men were dismounted,and the ambulances used to carry grain. Night after night they huddledat the base of cliffs in the fearful eddies of the snow, and heard abovethe blast the piteous cries of their famished and freezing stock. Dayafter day they pushed against the keen blades of the wind, toilingthrough frozen clouds and stinging ice blasts. The last thirty-fivemiles to Fort Bridger had required fifteen days, and at one camp onBlack's Fork, which they called the "camp of Death," five hundredanimals perished in a night.

  Nor did the hardships of the troops end when they had all reached whatwas to be their winter quarters. Still a hundred and fifteen miles fromthe City of the Saints, they were poorly housed against the bitter cold,poorly fed, and insufficiently clothed, for the burning of the trains bythe Lord's hosts had reduced all supplies.

  Reports of this distress were duly carried to Brigham and published tothe Saints. Their soldiers had made good their resolve to prevent theFederal army from passing the Wasatch Mountains. Aggressive operationsceased for the winter, and the greater part of the militia returned totheir homes. A small outpost of fifty men under the command of MajorJoel Rae--who had earnestly requested this assignment--was left to guardthe narrows of Echo Canon and to keep watch over the enemy during thewinter. This officer was now persuaded that the Lord's hand was withthem. For the enemy had been wasted away even by the elements from thetime he had crossed the forbidden line.

  In Salt Lake City that winter, the same opinion prevailed. They werehenceforth to be the free and independent State of Deseret.

  "Do you want to know," asked Brigham, in the tabernacle, "what is to bedone with the enemy now on our borders? As soon as they start to comeinto our settlements, let sleep depart from their eyes until they sleepin death! Men shall be secreted along the route and shall waste themaway in the name of the God of Battles. The United States will have tomake peace with us. Never again shall we make peace with them."

  And they sang with fervour:--

  "By the mountains our Zion's surrounded, Her warriors are noble and brave; And their faith on Jehovah is founded, Whose power is mighty to save. Opposed by a proud, boasting nation, Their numbers compared may be few; But their Ruler is known through creation, And they'll always be faithful and true."