In giving instructions to the members of the battalion before their departure, President Young requested that they prove themselves to be the best soldiers in the service of the United States. He instructed the captains to be fathers to their companies, and to manage the officers and men by the power of the Priesthood. They should keep neat and clean; teach chastity, gentility, and civility. No swearing should be indulged in; no man was to be insulted, and they should avoid contentions with Missourians, or any other class of people. They were to take their Bibles and Books of Mormon with them, but were not to impose their belief on others. They were advised to avoid card playing and if they had any cards with them to burn them. If they would follow the instructions given they would not be called on to shed the blood of their fellow men, and after their labors were over, they probably would be discharged within eight hundred miles of the proposed settlement of the Saints in the Great Basin, where the next temple would be built in a stronghold free from mobs. Reasons for the Call for Troops January 20, 1846, while the high council of Nauvoo was considering the abandonment of that place and journeying to the Rocky Mountains, the subject of sending an advance company was discussed. There had been some talk of the government building block houses and forts along the road to Oregon, and the matter was then before Congress. It was decided at this meeting that "In the event of the President's recommendation to build block houses and stockade forts on the route to Oregon becoming a law, we have encouragement of having that work to do, and under our peculiar circumstances, we can do it with less expense to the government than any other people." Six days later Elder Jesse C. Little was appointed to preside in the Eastern States, and was furnished a letter of appointment in which the following occurs: "If our government shall offer any facilities for emigrating to the western coast, embrace those facilities, if possible. As a wise and faithful man, take every honorable advantage of the times you can. Be thou a savior and a deliverer of that people, and let virtue, integrity and truth be your motto--salvation and glory the prize for which you contend."