Show GENERAL COOKES MARCH MACH detroit pree free prem june 6 1895 there died in detroit recently aman a man who was concerned in one of the most unique achievements recorded by the military annals of the united states that achievement belongs to the prodigies performed by the heroes of the far west and thereby doubtless hangs the explanation of why it has not taken its proper i place in history bertain certain it is that the passing of general pst george cooke though noted through the press associations where ever newspapers arl are published in this country was attended by no reference to his bis leadership of the mormon ba battalion tta in its arduous march from iowa to the pacific coast across the unknown deserts of the southwest the obitus aries reviewed the geue generals briliant war record re cordin in toe battle fought with ith mexico and the southern states and cited his claims tb honorable mention all save theone the one of which he was proudest e stand estand and which entitles entities him to separate and special distinction this omission id less curious when you come to to observe that the achievement in question divorced from all consideration coo of the commander plays 6 picturesque and remarkable part in in the history of the western states and is yet rat less known to even the student of history than are the most transactions of the plymouth pilgrims lack of information respecting pectin res the battalion Is nevertheless in tine line with that system of eastern education which fires the schoolboys imagination with the least exploit ek of of ethan allen alien dud and paul jones and passes ases over ov erith with si a paragraph the adventures of such captains as sam houston and the spanish explorers of the southwest which counts the steps down which putnam rode hit his horse names the villages aroused by revere tut out overlooks that amazing ride of whitman across an unmapped continent which saved oregon to the union even the encyclopedias are silent on the subject of the mormon march under cookes command scarce a historian has bas seized upon that singular occurrence of the mexican war it is all but a lost page in the great romance of the pacific pioneers yet one must thumb patiently his history of the world to find a parallel Is there anything in the of invading arm armies which outmatches matches out its it as an object lessen of pertinacity and endurance xenophon that war correspondent nt for posterity h has left us his imperishable account of the ten thousands retreat up the tigris valley to the shores of the a five months march of something less than 1000 miles in a strange land among savages but this was an enforced retreat of much less than the distance accomplished by the mormons cormons in their voluntary progress and who may say that the wilderness of kurdistan the highlands of 0 armenia and georgia were more forbidding than the wastes ot of new mexico and the barrier of the that the wild men of persia were more warlike than the apaches apache Napo napoleons lepas retreat from moscow by russian fordes forces from finland and danube were merely a tremendous disaster we turn half sickened from the spectacle of the soldiers who perished by the way between october 18 and december 6 and fo forget aget the glories ol of the emperors campaign as we view the beggarly remnant which tottered into vilna shermans Sher mans march to the sei sea need not be seriously considered consider ted in this connection whatever may be thought of it as a strategic movement as a march it if was all but unopposed and those mites miles in twenty tour four days were made in in a landof land of plenty through the heart of georgia I 1 cooke came long before sherman in this matter of marching but it may be fancied that this american colonel of the had xenophon atlease at least in mind when on that january morning the pacific burst in view from the green hills hilli of e sim san luis luib my key and with pardon able pride he wrote headquarters mormon battalion mission of san diego january 30 1847 orders no i I 1 the lieutenant colonel commanding con granulates the battalion on their safe arrival on the shores shore of the pacific ocean and the conclusion of their march of over 2000 miles history may be searched in vain for or an equal march of infantry half of it has been through a wilderness where nothing but savages and wild beasts are found bund or deserts where for want of water there is no living creature there with almost hopeless labor we have dug deep wells which the future traveler will enjoy without a guide who has h traversed them we have ven wed into trackless table lands ere water was not found for several mare marches hes with crowbar and pick and ax in hand we have worked our way over mountains which seemed to defy aught save the wild goat and hewed a passage through a chasm of living rock more narrow than our wagons to bring these first wagons to the pacific we have preserved the strength of our mutes mules by herding them over large tracts which you have laboriously guarded without loss the garrison of four presidios dios of senora concentrated within the walls of tucson gave us no pause we drove them out with their artillery but our intercourse with the citizens was unmarked by a single act of injustice thus marching halt naked and halt hall ted fed and living biving upon wild animals we have discovered and made a great value to our country arrived at the first settlement of california after a single days rest s you cheerfully turn off from the route to this point of promised repose to enter upon a campaign and meet as we supposed the approach of the enemy and this aliis too without even salt to season your sole subsistence of fresh meat it was early in 1846 that the mormons cormons Mor mons driven from Ild illinois nois as they had bad already been from onto and missouri were pressing toward the pacific A definite objective point had not been det determined erminea but california seemed a land of promise and thither some of them were soon to make their way from new york by boat meanwhile president ilk was lay laying ingy avs As tor for the oc cu p pation alion of california and thi this was the M cormons mormons Mor 0 r mon mons s 0 opportunity elder jesse jess U C little ai aided d e d by thomas L kane and amos 0 s kendall petitioned the P president nt f oe e P if you on will assist assis 0 us 1 fy Is crisis said little 1 I hereby pledge cledie my honor as the representative of this people afan eo that the whole body will stand ready at your call and act as one man iri in the land to which we are going and should our territory be invaded cewill we will hold ourselves ready to enter the field of battle and then like out our patriotic fathers make the battlefield battle field our graves or pin gain our liberty the the outbreak of the mexican war clinched these 1 negotiations I 1 it t was decided to raise a battalion of men for foi twelve months service who would march by way of df santa fe to california and late in june captain Captai tf james allen alien of the dragoons repaired to the camp at mount pisgah la ia and madi made known the governments intention gut but the mormons hesitated they had no desire desin to work their passage in in this w way ay leaving wives and children children behind them Oem it seemed to afoo greata reat r A sac sacrifice it meant a serious d drain r aln ol oil strength from the already impoverished army of families setting out on their toilsome journey of exile through an inhospitable country it was even reported and credited by many that the whole bioli fioli scheme was a plan to cripple or even annihilate them then the spirit of prophecy stirred brigham botin young the th tr battalion a t must be raised he said duty to country and church demand it and of those who went not a man would fall before the nations foe the only fighting would be with wild beasts so the five hundred men weri were recruited in a fortnight and mustered in ih at council bluffs conj on july crebell y 16 three days fairir I 1 thele was a ferdell fe dahedl the volunteers subscribed a large proportion of their pay tor for their families and the mormon poor and the march was begun fort leavenworth was reached august and here during a halt of two weeks col allen alien fell SICK sick and died the march to santa fe was resumed au august xyth under the temporary leadership leager leadership ship ot of A 1 smith of the regular army and now their sufferings beg began an sufferings from heat and bad water and from the tyranny so they claimed of the commanding officer and of surgeon sanderson who dosed them with nauseous drugs against their will by the time they entered santa fe on october irth they were all but goaded to mutiny here lieutenant comphel cook as fumed command on instruction from general kearney to open a wagon road to the pacific by the gila route the undertaking might well have dismayed men much better prepared for it and what was the condition of these mormons cormons Mor mons the battalion writes colonel cooke in his journal were never drilled and though obedient have little discipline they exhibit great heedlessness and ignorance and some obstinacy and again in another account of his everything conspired to discourage the undertaking ot of marching this ba tallion aioo 1100 miles for the much greater part through an unknown wilderness without road or trail and with a wagon train it was enlisted too much by fa families miries some were too old some feeble and sopia some to a YOOM ft was embarrassed by many it was undisciplined it was corli by traveling on foot land and th ching brorn from nauvoo their clothing A ws very scant there money to io pay MO them or clothing to issue their ni mules filles were utterly broken down the quart quartermaster ermaste er department was as without funds and its credit bad and mules were scarce those procured were very inferior and were deteriorating every hour lor for lack of forage or grazing so every preparation must be pushed hurried but cooke though unlike the athenian xenophon and the mormons cormons themselves he had no oracle to con consult stilt was was possessed of 0 the determination to gato california and go he did before the rio grande was left behind some of the weaker men were sent back to pueblo the others doggedly pushed ahead presently presently it was seen that the guides were unacquainted with the country and a long detour through sonora 0 birk on the south appeared inevitable 1 but here the colonel fortunately lost his bis temper he would be if he be would go round 0 u nd the world to reach california go aap a so S 40 they turned sharp to the west this is was november arst the middle atthe following month found them at the mexican garrison considerately I 1 sidera attly tely evacuating the town and pr per latifa ane battalion to pass through in peace ecce at ac Chel christmas they reached the la two weeks later its junction with tro 1 colorado wis was attained tta ined on january 4 they pitched camp at warners il itch ch and in another eight days were 1 atean diego do you want the details ot of that dreary march some ot of thom them you will find in 0 colonels the colon Is own hook the IN of new e mexico aco and california 9 in entries la like th these eese we e had m marched arched forty miles in thirty six A hours without water i the me bati battalion alion had then marched of the last thirty six they wpm wr almost barefooted carried their muskets and knapsacks the mules had worked forty seven miles without water 1 rl I am writing with enort to suppress feax this well failing what nave have I 1 to expect of the next which I 1 knew to br be dry now and not like this deriving its supply from a great river and to be only reached by going without water for a night and two days in addition to this hard day and ane next hope of almost three of our average marches still further on and behind starvation and failure besides being starved our mules have had no water since since yesterday ni morning the men too are without it it is necessary necessary to go on in the cold night sig speedily edily to end ead this terrible state of t things high the ten miles of much dreaded sand is is before us thus without water for near three days for the working animals and camping cad liping two nights in succession with ott ortt water the battalion made iii i forty e echt i t hours four marches of eighteen ei eight bt eleven and nineteen miles suffering in from frost and irom from summer heat the loss of mules appears to be six teen in the two days our great hap has bas been twenty two of the generals old mules which were watered yesterday to clew clean out aut the well before my arrival esthere there was a wolfs carcass in it but H little e more water rose after that A asat ai at I 1 many of my men are wholly with out shoes and use every expedient such as rawhide moccasins and sandals even wrapping their feet in pieces aiice 0 af pf o woolen owen and cotton cloth some of the men did not find reach camp before daylight this morning they were eating their last four ounces ot of flour of sugar and coffee there has been none for several weeks the men who this morning were prostrate worn out hungry heartless have recovered their spirits tonight and are singing and playing the fiddle for the rest you would better turn to the diaries and journals of the expedition if you can find them the official documents which make up the commanders report are filed away in washington the colonels published volume from which I 1 have just quoted was designated as a permanent and ana connected record ot of the march ro arch but circumstances cum curn stances seem to have made it it merely a formal ste of d douy pro progress grest the mait most kalua valuable reg le story story of C t the e battalion was published in a mormon book long ago 0 out of print and jealously treasured aty by a few of the saints who possess copies one historian of repute repute testifies t that hat for infantry with wagons for which they must find or make road with worn out animals and short rations I 1 the journey bourney was much more difficult t than ban that of kearneas Kear company or any that had previously crossed the continent in these latitudes yet you see there is butte leftus left us by the re records cords which may be termed picturesque tur esque material there was nothing spectacular uliar about tha tramp across the continent mothr nothing g pomp pompous ous to litt lift it before the pop popular ar eye some of the cormons mormons wrote verses they cal lathem poems about it but their meir busi business hess was not that tha of bards so while the memory of cooke instill is still greenard gre green enand and before time doubts of tucson as well as troy let us do what we may to rescue the plain record of this infantry march marchl from rom the dusty pages where it now rests forgotten forgo iten WILLIAM WILLIAr 4 trowbridge JOGE |