I studied to make Brigham Young's will my law. See now what I have come
to this day. I have been sacrificed in a cowardly, dastardly manner. I
do not fear death. I cannot go to a worse place than I am now in."

John D. Lee deserved his fate, but Brigham Young was none the less a
coward.

The Danites spared the lives of the trainmen, but they made sad havoc
of the supplies. These they knew to be intended for the use of the army
opposed to Brigham Young. They carried off all the stores they could
handle, drove with them or stampeded the cattle, and burned the wagons.
The trainmen were permitted to retain one wagon and team, with just
enough supplies to last them to army headquarters.

It was a disheartened, discomfited band that reached Fort Bridger. The
information that two other trains had been destroyed added to their
discouragement, for that meant that they, in common with the other
trainmen and the soldiers at the fort, must subsist on short rations for
the winter. There were nearly four hundred of these trainmen, and it was
so late in the season that they had no choice but to remain where they
were until spring opened.

It was an irksome winter. The men at the fort hauled their firewood two
miles; as the provisions dwindled, one by one the oxen were slaughtered,
and when this food supply was exhausted, starvation reared its gaunt
form. Happily the freighters got word of the situation, and a relief
team reached the fort before the spring was fairly opened.

As soon as practicable the return journey was undertaken. At Fort
Laramie two large trains were put in charge of Lew Simpson, as brigade