Page 52 - Cooke's Peak - Pasaron Por Aqui

William Byram Pace, acting as an aide to Lieutenant James Pace (Company E), noted in his autobiography that while the Mormon Battalion was marching down the Rio Grande, and still within the settled area, they were able to purchase onions and other garden products to add to their curtailed ra- tions, which kept the Saints in fair spirits. He also noted that there was a vast difference in men as to their ability of endurance under the hardships and reduced rations. This would become increasingly evident when the marches became more difficult
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and the rations diminished further.
Also, while they were still in settled country along
the Rio Grande, Cooke traded as many of the heavy military wagons as he could for lighter ones. This was not easy, because many of the citizens refused to trade or sell anything to the Americans, and even
0
Regard- less of this umbrage, pride was forfeited because the replenishment of the mobile commissary was neces- sary wherever possible. It required a 400-pound ox and 16 sheep to furnish meat rations every day, and some of the men, such as Ephraim Knowlton Hanks (Company B), attempted whenever possible to sup- plement their food allowance by hunting. Whit- worth and his companions tried fishing in the Rio Grande and on one occasion shared a beaver “from
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some French Trappers.”
By November 9 the Battalion reached the point
were Kearny and his command had left the river near present-day Truth or Consequences, New Mexico. Cooke had been instructed to try to travel the same trail with the wagons. Cooke’s guides advised him that it would be impossible to do this, however, and that his best chance lay in cutting cross-country to
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the so-called Janos wagon road farther south. While at this camp, Cooke took stock of the situation and was very depressed. The Battalion had been on half-rations since the first of the month and he doubted his ability to reach the coast with the men, supplies, and equipage he had.
To remedy the situation, Cooke decided that on the following day he would send a third detachment of 55 men (the “sick and least efficient”) back to Santa Fe and, if possible, on to Pueblo to winter with the
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previous two groups of Saints and their families. He detailed Lieutenant William Wesley Willis (Company A) to head the group and included private Thomas Woolsey (Company E) as pilot, who was also instructed to proceed from Santa Fe to
Council Bluffs carrying dispatches. Woolsey had also accompanied the first separated detachment to Bent’s Fort and Pueblo and had returned to the Battalion six days^reviously, only to be assigned the escort task again.
To provide for the men, Cooke authorized 26 days’
rations of flour, at 10 ounces, and pork, at half a
pound. This would allow the invalid men about 20
percent longer to return to Santa Fe than it had taken
the Battalion to reach this point, albeit on reduced
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if they did, they were frequently insulting.
The Mormon Battalion
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Included in the benefits, Cooke calcu- lated that it would reduce the amount of supplies carried west by 1,800 pounds while increasing the rations for the remaining men by 17 days of meat and 13offlour. Attheseweights,thefoodwouldag- gregate 1,608 pounds, so Cooke must have been including the containers. The frequency of pork allotment is not known; however, the 26 days’ rations of flour for 55 men would translate to less than 5 days (at half rations) for the remaining men! In addi- tion, and most important, according to Tyler quoting Willis, the men only received
rations.
five days’ rations and two dressed sheep, as food for the sick. Our loading for the one wagon consisted of the clothing, blankets, cooking utensils, tents and tent poles, muskets, equipage, andprovisions, and all invalids who wereunabletowalk. WithsomedifficultyI obtained a spade or two and a shovel, but was provided with no medicines or other neces- saries for the sick except the mutton before referred to, and onlyfive days’ rations, to travel
near three hundred miles.
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In a macabre way, the rations did go a little farther
than Willis anticipated, because during the 15 day
trip to Santa Fe, three of the Saints, Privates John W.
Green (Company C), Elijah Norman Freeman, and
Richard Carter (both of Company B) had
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perished.
Meanwhile at the main column camped by the Rio
Grande, Cooke planned to make the Battalion even more efficient by packing supplies on some of the mules and oxen and leaving 31 tents, 149 tent poles, 12 camp kettles, 26 mess pans, and 2 wagons to be picked up by Captain John Henry K. Burgwin. Plans completed, the group under Lieutenant Willis left
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midafternoon on
The following day the Battalion, now supposedly
November10, 1846.