The Mormon Battalion, Its History and AchievementsRoberts, B. H. (Brigham Henry)
History
The Mormon Battalion, Its History and Achievements
Roberts, B. H. (Brigham Henry)
Mexican War, 1846-1848 -- Regimental histories -- United States; United States. Army. Mormon Battalion
=Colonel Cooke.=--Col. Cooke, after returning to the east with Stephen W.
Kearny, continued in the military service of the United States and was
active in the Kansas-Nebraska troubles of the early fifties. In 1857-8
he commanded the cavalry in the Johnston expedition to Utah; and it is
of record that when that command passed through the streets of Salt Lake
City, en route from the mouth of Emigration Canyon to the place of its
encampment west of the Jordan, the Colonel rode with uncovered head,
through the city; "out of respect to the brave men of the Mormon
Battalion he had commanded in their march to the Pacific."
For a time after the departure of Albert Sidney Johnston for the east,
or rather to the south,--for that officer espoused the cause of the
Southern Confederacy, against the Union, Col. Cooke for a time was in
command of "Johnston Army" at Camp Floyd, in Cedar Valley, west of Utah
Lake.
During the Civil War Col. Cooke though a Virginian served on the side of
the Union army, and rose through the grade of brigadier general (1861),
to the rank of brevet Major General (1865).
=Lieut. A. J. Smith.=--Lieutenant A. J. Smith in the same war rose from
the grade of commander of California volunteers to that of brigadier
general of volunteers (1862); and to major general of volunteers (1864).
In the battle of Nashville he commanded the sixteenth corps of General
Thomas' right, and received the brevet of major general in the regular
army for his services in that battle.
=Lieut. George Stoneman.=--Lieutenant George Stoneman in 1861 was in
command at Fort Brown, Texas, with the rank of captain. Later he was in
command of the Union cavalry in the Peninsula campaign. After the death
of General Philip Kearny, at Chantilly, Stoneman took the command of the
fallen general's division, and commanded the Third Corps at
Fredericksburg. At Chancellorsville he commanded the federal cavalry. In
a raid upon Andersonville, the object of which was to liberate the
federal soldiers imprisoned there, he was captured by the confederates.
After the war he was in command of one of the many military departments
created by the government; and from 1883 to 1887 was governor of
California.
XI.
ANECDOTES.
Col. Cooke in addition to natural austerity of temperament was a strict
disciplinarian, and generally held himself aloof from the men. A few
anecdotes that fortunately survived the march, and which were related by
Wilford Woodruff at the celebration of Pioneer's Day, in 1880, show the
Colonel in some of his better moods, and witness the fact that he could
be somewhat broadly tolerant of the independent attitude of some members
of his Mormon command. The Woodruff narratives follow:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account