The next day General Parks passed the ruins of this house, belonging to Don Carlos Smith, who was then on a mission in Tennessee, and it seemed to arouse within him a just indignation. He at once went to the house of Lyman Wight and gave him orders to call out his companies of militiamen--Wight holding a colonel's commission in the fifty-ninth regiment of the Missouri militia, commanded by General Parks--and gave him full authority to put down mobs wherever he should find them assembled. He said he wished it distinctly understood that Colonel Wight had full authority from him to suppress all mob violence. The militia that Colonel Wight called out was divided into two companies; one company, consisting of about sixty men, was placed under the command of Captain David Patten, and the other of about the same number was commanded by Wight in person. Captain Patten was ordered to go to Gallatin and disperse the mobs that were reported to be in that vicinity, while Wight and his company started for Millport. When Patten's company came in sight of Gallatin, he found a body of the mob, about one hundred strong, who were amusing themselves by mocking and in various ways tantalizing a number of the saints whom they had captured. Seeing the approach of Patten's men, and knowing the determination of the leader, the mob broke and ran in the greatest confusion, leaving their prisoners behind them. On his march to Millport, Colonel Wight found the whole country deserted by the mob which had infested it, and their houses in flames or in smoldering ruins. The mob having learned that General Parks had ordered out Wight's companies of militia, was seized with sudden fear and swore vengeance, not only upon the "Mormons," but upon Generals Parks and Doniphan as well. To accomplish this purpose, they had loaded up their most valuable personal effects and setting fire to their log huts, they sent runners throughout the State with the lying report that the "Mormons" had "riz" and were burning the houses, destroying property, and murdering the old settlers. CHAPTER XXXVIII. CROOKED RIVER.