Page:History of Utah.djvu/296

 savages and

Fe rations were reduced," and soon afterward further reduced to one half and finally to one quarter allow- ance, the meat issued to the trooj^s being the flesh of such animals as were unable to proceed further, though their hides and entrails were eagerly devoured, being gulped down with draughts of water, when water could be had.^^ While suffering these hardships the men were compelled to carry their own knapsacks, muskets, and extra ammunition, and sometimes to push the wagons through heavj'- sand, or help to drag them over mountain ranges.

Passing through a New Mexican pueblo on the 24th of October, some of the men were almost as naked as on the day of their birth, except for a breech- clout, or as their colonel termed it, a * centre-clothing,' tied around the loins. In this plight, near the middle of December, the battalion reached the San Pedro River, some three hundred and forty strong, and here occurred the only battle which the saints militant fought during their campaign — an encounter with a

wild beasts are found; or deserts where, for the want of water, there is no living creature. There, with almost hopeless labor, we have dug deep wells, which the future traveller will enjoy. Without a guide who had traversed them, we have ventured into trackless prairies, where water was not found for several marches. With crowbar and pickaxe in hand, we have woi'ked 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. ' Smith's Rise, Progress, and Travels, 10.

1' 'Until further orders, three fourths pound of flour, also three fourths rations sugar and coffee will bo issued. Beef, one and a half pounds will be issued for a day's ration.' Order JVo. 11, Headquarters Mormon Battalion, Santa F(5. A copy of it will be found in Tyler's Hist. Mor. Battalion, 175-6.

18 During the march from Santa Fe to San Diego a song was composed by Levi W. Hancock, a musician. belonging to company E. It was entitled the 'Desert Route,' and commences:

Wliilo hero beneath a sultry sky. Our famished mules and cattle die; Scarce aught but skin and bones remain, To feed poor soldiers on the plain. Chorus: How hard to starve and wear us out Upon this sandy desert route.

We sometimes now for lack of bread. Are less than quarter rations fed, And soon expect, for all of meat, Naught else than broke-down mules to eat.

Now half-starved oxen, over-drilled. Too weak to draw, for beef arc killed; And gnawing hunger prompting men, To eat small outrails and the skin.