JAN 7 - 13

PIONEER CEMETERY AT NIGHT

This week has been crazy. We are in a week of transition, two of the Trail Center couples are
going home so training on Saturday Morning was a farewell to the Elder and Sister White (not
us) and to Elder and Sister Russell, the Trail Center Directors. These days are hard, but we
know that we have made a friendship that will last. We have grown to love and respect these

THE WHITES AND RUSSELLS

couples.

Our Group of Karen People is getting a little larger. We can see progression in their testimonies.
It was exciting on Friday night to have 6 members of the group going to do Baptisms for the
Dead. Some were baptized using Karen Family Names. It is exciting to see their testimony of
the Temple and the gospel grow.
Poem by Eliza R Snow.

The Mormon Battalion

When “Mormon” trains we’re

journeying thro’ To Winter

Quarters, from Nauvoo,

Five

TRAIL CENTER  JANUARY 2019

hundred men were called to go To

settle claims with Mexico

To fight for that same Government

From which, as fugitives we went.

What were their families to do,

Their children, wives, and mothers,

too,

When fathers, husbands, sons were

gone? Mothers drove teams, and

camps moved on.

And on the brave Battalion went,

With Colonel Allen who was sent

As officer of Government The noble

Colonel Allen knew His “Mormon

boys” were brave and true,

And he was proud of his command,

As he led forth his “Mormon Band.”

He sickened, died, and they were

left

Of a loved leader, soon bereft!

And his successors proved to be

The embodiment of cruelty,

Lieutenant Smith the tyrant, led

The Cohort on, in Allen’s stead,

To Santa Fe, where Colonel Cooke,

The charge of the Battalion, took.

‘Twas well the vision of the way,

Was closed before them on the day

They started out from Santa Fe.

‘Tis said no infantry till then, E’er

suffered equal to those men.

Their beeves were famished and

their store Was nigh exhausted

long before They neared the

great Pacific shore. Teams e’en

fell dead upon the road, While

soldiers helped to draw the

load.

‘Twas cruel, stern necessity

That prompted such severity;

For General Kearney in

command Of army in the

western land, Expressly ordered

Colonel Cooke, The man who

failure could not brook, To

open up a wagon‐road Where

wheels, till then, had never trod;

And Colonel Cooke was in

command Across that desert

waste and sand: He, with a

staunch and iron will,

The general’s orders to fulfill,

Must every nerve and sinew

strain The expedition’s points

to gain. Tho’ stern, and e’en at

times morose, Strict sense of

justice marked his course. He,

as his predecessors, knew The

Mormon men were firm and

true. They found road‐making

worse by far Than all the

horrors of the war: Tried by the

way when they got thro’

They’d very little more to do:

The opposing party, panic

struck,

Dare not compete with “Mormon”

pluck,

And off in all directions fled

No charge was fired, no blood was

shed.

Our God who rules in worlds of

light,

Controls by wisdom and by might.

If need, His purpose to fulfill,

He moves the nations at His will

The destinies of men o’errules,

And uses whom He will as tools.

The wise can see and understand,

While fools ignore His guiding

hand.

Ere the Battalion started out

Upon that most important route,

‘Twas thus predicted by the tongue

Of the Apostle, Brigham Young,

“If to your God and country true,

You’ll have no fighting there to

do.”

Was General Kearney satisfied?

Yes, more for he with martial pride

Said, “O’er the Alps Napoleon went,

these men cross’d a continent.”

And thus, with God Almighty’s aid

The conquest and the road were

made,

Have a good week, Love the Lord and serve