tah. So, early in the
spring, the order came for all the Saints to pack up their goods, get
together their stock, and move southward, leaving their deserted homes in
the care of a few guards who were to set fire to everything should the army
attempt to locate in the settlements.

On seeing the Saints thus leaving their hard-earned homes, the kind-hearted
old governor entreated them not to do so, promising them full protection.
When his wife arrived from the camp of the army and saw the towns lonely
and deserted, she burst into tears and pleaded with her husband to bring
the people back. The governor, however, could do nothing. The 30,000 people
in Salt Lake City and northward took all their goods and moved south, most
of them into Utah Valley.

President Buchanan, now having learned the true condition of affairs, sent
two gentlemen to arrange for peace. They arrived in Salt Lake in June and
had a number of meetings with the leading brethren who came from the south
for that purpose. A letter was read from President Buchanan which, after
telling of the many crimes committed by the "Mormons" against the
government, offered to pardon all who would submit to the laws. In reply
President Young said that he and his brethren had simply stood up for their
rights, and they had done nothing to be pardoned for, except, perhaps the
burning of some government trains, and for that act they accepted the
President's pardon. President Young then said they were willing the troops
should come into the country. They might march through the city but they
were not to make a camp less than forty miles away. "No mobs shall live in
the homes we have built in these mountains," said the president. "That's
the program, gentlemen, whether you like it or not. If you want war, you
can have it; but, if you want peace, peace it is; and we shall be glad of
it." After the meetings the brethren went back to the Saints in the south.

June 26, 1858, "Johnston's Army," marched through Salt Lake City. All day
long the troops and trains passed through the city. The only sounds heard
was the noise made by the horses' hoofs and the roll of the wagons. The
city seemed as if dead. Hardly a person was seen on the streets. Quietly
and orderly the soldiers marched on. Colonel Cooke, once the commander of
the Mormon Battalion, bared his head as he rode through the streets in
honor of the brave "Mormon" boys who had marched under his command.

The army camped that nig