Another class of stragglers, and one most dangerous to the peace of the camp, was composed of the thousand teamsters who were discharged from employment on the supply-trains.  Many of these men belonged to the scum of the great Western cities,—­a class more dangerous, because more intelligent and reckless, than the same class of population in New York.  Others had sought to reach California, not anticipating a state of hostilities which would bar their way.  Now, thrown out of employment, with slender means, a great number became desperate.  Hundreds attempted to return to the States on foot, some of whom died on the way,—­and nine-tenths of them would have perished, had they encountered the storms of the preceding winter among the mountains.  But the majority hung around the camp.  To some of these the Quartermaster was able to furnish work, but he was obviously incapable of affording this assistance to all.  Thefts and assaults became frequent, and promised to multiply as the season advanced.  To remedy this trouble, Colonel Johnston assumed the responsibility of organizing a volunteer battalion.  The term of service for which the men enlisted was nine months.  For their pay they were to depend on the action of Congress.  The four companies which the battalion comprised selected for their commander an officer from the regular army, Captain Bee, of the Tenth Infantry.

The organization of a District Court, by Judge Eckels, helped quite as essentially to enforce order.  Its convicts were received by Colonel Johnston and committed to imprisonment in the guard-tents of the army.  The grand jury, impanelled for the purposes of the court, were obliged to take cognizance of the rebellion, and, after thoroughly investigating the facts of the case, they returned bills of indictment against Brigham Young and sixty of his principal associates.

During “the campaign of Ham’s Fork,” as Colonel Alexander’s march up and down that stream was facetiously called by the Mormons, he had been in constant receipt of communications from Young, of a character similar to the letter in which the army was commanded to surrender its arms at Fort Bridger.  This correspondence was now abruptly terminated by Colonel Johnston.  Two messengers came to the camp from Salt Lake City at the beginning of December, escorted by a party of Mormon militia, and bringing four pack-mules loaded with salt, which a letter from Young offered as a present, with assurances that it was not poisoned.  This letter contained, besides, certain threats concerning the treatment of prisoners, and reminded Colonel Johnston that the Mormons also had prisoners in their power, on whom anything which might befall those in camp should be retaliated.  The Colonel returned no other answer to this epistle than to dismiss its bearers with their salt, informing them that he could accept no favors from traitors and rebels, and that any communication which they might in future hold with the army must be under a flag of truce, although as to the manner in which they might communicate with the Governor it was not within his province to prescribe.  A week or two later, a thousand pounds of salt were forced through to the camp from Fort Laramie, thirty out of the forty-six mules on which it was packed perishing on the way.