Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 5.djvu/65

Rh Doniphan called for twenty volunteers to go out to reconnoitre and bring on the action." Of these volunteers Mr. Burnett was one. mounted on a mare that had been trained to race and carried him in front in spite of himself, the steed thinking itself in a race. "I was about twenty yards ahead, when, sure enough, we saw in the clear moonlight a body of armed men approaching. We galloped on till within some hundred yards, then drew up and hailed them, when, to our great satisfaction, we found it was a body of militia under Colonel Gilliam from Clinton County, coining to join us. Thus ended the alarm. * * * During all this hubbub the boy who had persisted in standing guard the previous night slept until some one happened to think of him and asked where he was. He was then awakened and fell into the ranks without hesitation or trepidation." So much as to the fighting spirit of the community from which Burnett and Gilliam got their following to Oregon later. This meeting by moonlight, and joining forces produced the surrender of the Mormon leaders, Joseph Smith, Jr., Rigdon Wight and others, and Mr. Burnett proceeds to give a further characteristic of this people: "As I understood at the time a proposition was seriously made and earnestly pressed in a council of officers to try the prisoners by court-martial, and if found guilty execute them. This proposition was firmly and successfully opposed by Doniphan. These men (the Mormons) had never belonged to any lawful military organization and could not, therefore. have molested military law. * * * I remember that I went to Doniphan and assured him that we of Clay County would stand by him. Had it not been for the efforts of Doniphan and others from Clay, I think it most probable that the prisoners would have been summarily tried, condemned and executed."

These quotation! are introduced here as illustration of the physical and moral courage of this district from which, a few years later, the largest proportion of the first homebuilders started to Oregon. The readiness to fight is well shown by the lo who would not give up his gun. and by Colonel Gilliam