The statement of Captain Allen that there were hundreds of thousands of volunteers ready to enlist in the states was quite true. The declaration of war upon Mexico by the congress "authorized the President to accept the service of fifty thousand volunteers, and placed ten millions of dollars at his disposal. * * * The call for volunteers was answered by the prompt tender of the service of more than 300,000 men."[16:n] "Four regiments were called for from Illinois, nine answered the call, numbering 8,370; only four of them, numbering 3,720 men, could be taken."[16:o] =Brigham Young's Activities in Raising the Battalion.= Brigham Young followed Captain Allen in an address, at the aforesaid meeting. His own account of his remarks stand in his Ms. history as follows: "I addressed the assembly; wished them to make a distinction between this action of the general government and our former oppressions in Missouri and Illinois. I said, the question might be asked, is it prudent for us to enlist to defend our country? If we answer in the affirmative, all are ready to go. "Suppose we were admitted into the union as a state, and the government did not call on us, we would feel ourselves neglected. Let the Mormons be the first to set their feet on the soil of California. Captain Allen has assumed the responsibility of saying that we may locate on Grand Island, until we can prosecute our journey. This is the first offer we have ever had from the government to benefit us. "I proposed that the five hundred volunteers be mustered and I would do my best to see all their families brought forward, as far as my influence extended, and feed them when I had anything to eat myself."[16:p] At the close of the public meeting another council meeting was held, with Captain Allen present, when the question of the people having a right to remain on Indian lands during the absence of the soldiers, and indeed along their whole route of travel, was further considered. Captain Allen withdrew from the council "and the Twelve," says Brigham Young, "continued to converse on the favorable prospect before us."[17:q] It was arranged that Brigham Young should go to Mount Pisgah to raise volunteers for the Battalion; and that other leaders should prosecute the work of raising volunteers in the camps about Council Bluffs. There was apparently some reluctance among the people to respond to this unexpected call, and it required some considerable persuasion to dispel it. On the 11th of July, Col. Thomas L. Kane reached the Mormon camps at Council Bluffs, and gave assurance that the general government had taken the Mormon case into consideration, inferentially with benevolent intentions.[17:r] When within eleven miles of Mount Pisgah, Brigham Young and Heber C. Kimball met Jesse C. Little, president of the Eastern States Mission, who reported his labors at Washington. His written report was incorporated in Brigham Young's Ms. History for that year.