from Fort Leavenworth westward, with a small force of dragoons, later
narrowly escaping disaster as he approached San Diego. There was
necessity for a supporting party for Kearny and for poor vision of troops
to enforce an American peace in California. To fill this breach, resort
was had to the harassed and homeless Saints.

The route was taken along the Santa Fe trail, which then, in 1846, was in
use mainly by buffalo hunters and western trading and trapping parties.
It was long before the western migration of farm seekers, and the lure of
gold yet was distant. There were unsatisfactory conditions of
administration and travel, as narrated by historians of the command,
mainly enlisted men, naturally with the viewpoint of the private soldier.
But it happens that the details agree, in general, and indicate that the
trip throughout was one of hardship and of denial. There came the loss of
a respected commander and the temporary accession of an impolitic leader.
Especially there was complaint over the mistaken zeal of an army surgeon,
who insisted upon the administration of calomel and who denied the men
resort to their own simple remedies, reinforced by expression of what
must have been a very sustaining sort of faith.

A more popular, though strict, commander was found in Santa Fe, whence
the Battalion was pushed forward again within five days, following Kearny
to the Coast. The Rockies were passed through a trackless wilderness, yet
on better lines than had been found by Kearny's horsemen. Arizona, as now
known, was entered not far from the present city of Douglas. There were
fights with wild bulls in the San Pedro valley, there was a bloodless
victory in the taking of the ancient pueblo of Tucson, there was travail
in the passage of the desert to the Gila and a brief respite in the
plenty of the Pima villages before the weary way was taken down the Gila
to the Colorado and thence across the sands of the Colorado desert, in