In return much assistance was rendered by the white refugees to their, shall I say savage friends?  If it was civilization the wanderers had left, then indeed might the red men of the forest have felt proud of their distinction.  But the Indian agent, a Christian gentleman, ordered the “Mormons” to move on and leave the reservation which a kind government had provided for its red children.  An order from President Polk, who had been appealed to by Colonel Kane, gave the people permission to remain for a short season.  The government of Iowa had courteously assured them protection while passing through that territory.  As soon as the people were well under way, a thorough organization was effected.  Remembering the toilsome desert march from Egypt to Canaan, the people assumed the name, “Camp of Israel.”  The camp consisted of two main divisions, and each was sub-divided into companies of hundreds, fifties, and tens, with captains to direct.  An officer with one hundred volunteers went ahead of the main body to select a route and prepare a road.  At this time, there were over one thousand wagons of the “Mormons” rolling westward, and the line of march soon reached from the Mississippi to Council Bluffs.  There were in the company not half enough draft animals for the arduous march, and but an insufficient number of able-bodied men to tend the camps.  The women had to assist in driving teams and stock, and in other labors of the journey.  Yet with their characteristic cheerfulness the people made the best, and that proved to be a great deal, out of their lot.  When the camp halted, a city seemed to spring as if by magic from the prairie soil.  Concerts and social gatherings were usual features of the evening rests.

But another great event disturbed the equanimity of the camp.  War had broken out between Mexico and the United States.  General Taylor’s victories in the early stages of the strife had been all but decisive, but the Republic was on march to the western ocean and the provinces of New Mexico and California were in her path.  These two provinces comprised in addition to the territory now designated by those names, Utah, Nevada, portions of Wyoming and Colorado, as also Arizona; while Oregon, then claimed by Great Britain, included Washington, Idaho, and portions of Montana and Wyoming.  It was the plan of the national administration to occupy these provinces at the earliest moment possible; and a call was made upon the “Mormon” refugees to contribute to the general force by furnishing a battalion of five hundred men to take part in the war with Mexico.  The surprise which the message of the government officer produced in the camp amounted almost to dismay.  Five hundred men fit to bear arms to be drafted from that camp!  What would become of the rest?  Already women and boys had been pressed into service to do the work of men; already the sick and the halt had been neglected; and many graves marked the path they had traversed, whose tenants had passed to their last sleep through lack of care.