In writing to brother officers en route to join their commands,
Colonel Alexander said: 
        No information of the position or intentions of the commanding
        officer has reached me, and I am in utter ignorance of the
        object of the government in sending troops here, or the
        instructions given for their conduct after reaching here. 
        I have decided on the following points:  First, the necessity
        of a speedy move to winter quarters; second, the selection
        of a point for wintering; third, the best method of conducting
        the troops and supplies to the point selected.

A council of war was held, and the point selected was Fort Hall, on Beaver Head Mountain, one hundred and forty miles from Fort Bridger.  So little did the colonel know about the disposition of the command, that at the time and place when he expected to be joined by Colonel Smith, in charge of supply-trains, that officer was still at the South Pass, with an escort of two hundred men.

On the 11th of October the troops commenced their march.  Snow was falling heavily, and for several days they were compelled to cut a path for their wagons through the dense brush, their trains being still of such unwieldy length that the vanguard had reached its camping-ground at nightfall before the rear guard had moved from its camp of the preceding day.  Meanwhile bands of Mormons, under their nimble and ubiquitous leaders, hung on their flanks, just out of rifle-shot, harassing them at every step, seven hundred oxen being captured and driven to Salt Lake City on the 13th!

There was as yet no cavalry in the force.  A few infantry companies were mounted on mules and sent in pursuit of the guerillas, but the Saints merely laughed at them, terming them jackass cavalry.

The grass had been burned along the route, and the draught animals were so weak that they could travel only three miles a day.  When the point was reached where Smith’s detachment was expected to join the army, the commander, disappointed and sorely perplexed, called a council of war, at which many of the officers were in favour of cutting their way through the canyons at all hazard.

At this juncture a despatch was received from General Johnston, who was now at South Pass, ordering the troops to proceed to Fontenelle Creek, where pasture was abundant, and a few days later a second despatch directed them to march to a point three miles below the junction of Ham and Black Forks, the colonel stating that he would join them there.  On the 3d of November they reached the place of rendezvous, where Johnston arrived the following day, with a re-enforcement of cavalry and the supply-trains in charge of Smith.