Comte de Paris, History of the Civil War in America. Vol. 1.
Henry Coppee , LL.D., Ed.

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[67] part in the Confederate armies, if he had not met with a premature death at the outset of the war on the battle-field of Shiloh. This little army, sent by President Buchanan in 1857 to reinstate the Federal authority among the Mormons, which they had disregarded, numbered twenty-five hundred combatants; but being obliged to carry eighteen months provisions, it had more than four thousand wagons in its train. With such a train its march was delayed by the least obstacle. At the crossing of every deep river, all the wagons had to be unloaded and set afloat, so as to be drawn to the opposite shore by ropes; then the provisions had to be carried by hand over the bridges constructed for the use of the infantry, like rafts, of trunks of trees tied together. After a march of two months, the Americans reached the upper passes of the Rocky Mountains in the middle of November, when they were overtaken by an early winter. Hemmed in by a snowdrift, the animals perished of cold and hunger. Each day lessened their number by hundreds, and the shivering soldiers set fire to the wagons which were abandoned with their precious supplies. For fifteen days this little band, strewing with the debris of its train the frozen mantle of the desert, continued its terrible march with more perseverance than prudence. But it could only accomplish fourteen leagues, at the end of which it had to stop from exhaustion, and was compelled to establish its winter quarters in the gloomy region where it found itself blockaded. The greatest part of the provisions having been lost, all had to live upon mule flesh. Finally, this last resource having failed, Captain Marcy—who afterwards became a general in the Federal army—undertook the perilous task of going to solicit a fresh supply of provisions and conveyances among the settlements of New Mexico. He lost nearly all his companions on the route, and only accomplished the mission, on the success of which the salvation of the army depended, after unheard — of sufferings. Thanks to him, the fresh supplies arrived in time, and Johnston was able to reach Great Salt Lake City in the spring.

When hostilities broke out with any of the Indian tribes, it was necessary, in the midst of these difficulties, to go in search of a vigilant enemy, who, born in the wilderness, was not encumbered with supply-trains. Always on horseback, the Indians