"The first of June found us in a small grove on the middle fork of Grand River. This place, over which Elders Rich and Huntington were called to preside, was named Pisgah; and from this point most of the divisions filed off, one after another. Colonel Markham appropriated all of his teams and one wagon to assist the twelve and others to pursue the journey westward, while he returned to the States for a fresh supply. Before he left, we were in a house made of logs laid up 'cob fashion,' with from three to eight inches open space between them--roofed by stretching a tent cloth over the ridgepole and fastening it at the bottom, on the outside, which, with blankets and carpets put up on the north end, as a shield from the cold wind, made us as comfortable as possible. "Companies were constantly arriving and others departing; while those who intended stopping till the next spring were busily engaged in making gardens, and otherwise preparing for winter--sheltering themselves in rude log huts for temporary residence. "The camps were strung along several hundred miles in length from front to rear, when, about the last of June, one of the most remarkably unreasonable requisitions came officially to President Young, from the United States government, demanding five hundred efficient men to be drawn from our traveling camps, to enter the United States military service, and march immediately to California and assist in the war with Mexico. Upon the receipt of this demand, President Young and Heber C. Kimball, with due loyalty to an unprotective government, under which we had been exiled from our homes, started immediately from their respective divisions, on horseback, calling for volunteers, from one extremity of our line to the other; and in an almost incredibly short time the five hundred men, who constituted the celebrated 'Mormon Battalion,' were under marching orders, commanded by Col. Allen, of the United States Infantry. It was our 'country's call,' and the question, 'Can we spare five hundred of our most able-bodied men?' was not asked. But it was a heavy tax--a cruel draft--one which imposed accumulated burdens on those who remained, especially our women, who were under the necessity of driving their own teams from the several points from which their husbands and sons left, to the Salt Lake Valley; and some of them walked the whole of that tedious distance.