Page 46 - Cooke's Peak - Pasaron Por Aqui

The volunteers were to receive pay, rations, cloth- ing, and when discharged a year later, permission to keep their muskets and accouterments.23 Each man was to receive army pay of $7 per month and an additional$3.50permonthforclothingallowance. To help support their families while they were away, the men agreed to turn over their $42 clothing al- lowance and march in the clothes in which they stood. They likewise voted to send home much of
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their monthly pay.
Bluffs, IowaTerritory, on July 16, 1846, and marched
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to Fort Leavenworth, arriving there August l. This completed the first stage of an epic march (Figure 14) that would terminate in San Diego, California.
Despite the conclusions of many historians that the Mormon Battalion was just that, it was not com- posed entirely of Saints. Disregarding the military staff and associated guides and volunteer citizens, Bieber has stated that there was one non-Mormon membernamed[John]Allen." Themajorportion of a diary rescued from a gutter in San Antonio in
1913, however, has proved that there were at least two other non-Mormons enlisted in the Battalion’s Company E. Two young Englishmen, Robert Wal- ton Whitworth and William Biddome (or Bed- dome), left England for America in 1846 “to play the
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they were all Mormons and that they had en- listed for 12 months to go to California, there to be discharged with theirArms andAmmuni- tion, and that their pay was 10 dollars per monthandfindtheirownclothing. Hesaid they wore no uniform, which suited us so well that we told him that we should like to volun- teer, upon which he took us to the Orderly Sergeant of his company [E], who put down
The Battalion left Council
our names and ages, places of birth 30
.
..."
deuce with the Buffaloes [sic] and Bears.”
worth had used his last cent to pay for passage, and his partner was only a little better off when they landed in New Orleans. They naively left their lug- gage on the ship while they had a look around and ended up losing their weapons and other personal items.
Whitworth and Biddome traveled to La Grange, Missouri, by way of river steamer from New Orleans to St. Louis, and worked on a farm near La Grange for about six weeks. But as “money was scarce and dollars were not so plenty as work,” they resolved to continue up the Missouri River and hire out with the American Fur Company." At Fort Leavenworth they became engrossed in the activities of the Mor- mon Battalion, outfitting for the trek west, and struck up a conversation with one of the men.
We had never thought of volunteering before, but we were almost immediately seized with a desire to live in one of the little white tents, so we entered into conversation with one of the men, who was very talkative, he told us that
The date was August 4, 1846.
Meanwhile, from Bent’s Fort in southern
Colorado, Kearny sent Captain Philip St. George Cooke (Figure 15) and James Wiley Magoffin to Santa Fe with an escort of 12 Dragoons to arrange peaceful surrender terms with Mexican Governor Manuel Armijo. Although Cooke was apparently not cognizant of the negotiations, Magoffin ar- ranged a plan with Armijo whereby the Governor wouldmakeonlyapretenseatresistance.
While the Mormons waited for their supplies and equipment at Fort Leavenworth, Kearny, having proceeded south from Bent’s Fort with the main military force, had received notice of his promotion to Brigadier General and was nearing Santa Fe, the seat of the Mexican Government for the vast province of New Mexico. With the Army of the West’s approach, Governor Armijo gathered about 4,000 New Mexicans and Indians at Canoncito near Glorieta Pass and placed them at the command of Colonel Manuel Pino.
In places the steep canyon walls were separated by as little as 40 feet and offered a nearly ideal defensive position. Passagewasfurtherrestrictedbysome poorly placed abatis, and an artillery battery com- manding the passage had been emplaced about 300 yards away. Governor Armijo, however, chose not to risk the outcome (or fulfilled his bribed commit- ment) and pulled the defenders out without firing a shot and fled south with his treasure and livestock with the Mexican regulars as his personal bodyguard. Kearny and his forces proceeded to Santa Fe without opposition and peacefully oc- cupied the seat of Mexican influence for New Mexico on August 18, 1846.
The Mormon Battalion remained in garrison at Fort Leavenworth until August 13. While waiting, they were issued tents, arms, and other equipment. They also received their clothing allowance for the
The Mormon Battalion
Whit-
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