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Show 261 Don't be concerned, brethren, we have to do right and God will sus- 18 tain us; trust in God and keep your powder dry. Thus was the stormy end of the so-called Utah War; neither side admitting defeat, both sides claiming victory. But the ordeal of the Saints was not over yet. Thousands were still in exhile in the south, and the men and boys of tbe White Mountain Expedition were still hanging on in the southwest deserts. On June 26, two days after Dame and Johnson made their report to Brigham Young, the troops of General Johnston marched through the otherwise vacant streets of Salt Lake City. It was a diappointment to the would-be conquerors. One soldier wrote, "...it was like entering a graveyard. Silence reigned supreme. If a plague had threatened it instead of us, it could not have depopulated it more." The troops passed through the city and crossed over the Jordan River bridge, eventually establishing a military reservation in Cedar Valley as planned. But the soldiers were fuming. An officer of Johnston's command wrote to his wife on July 2 that the Mormons "are imprudent and rebellious still. They say they will accept the pardon, but that the President is a fool; that they will not obey anyone but Brigham Young. They don't want the army and won't have it. Such is the result of the pardon, a miserable policy which the government ought to be Of) damned for." Brigham Young was well aware of the contempt the army held for him and the Mormon people; therefore, he refrained from giving the order for the people to return to their homes until he could be sure of the army's intentions. Although the troops had acquitted themselves with strict discipline on their march through the city, Young remained unconvinced. On June 27 he wrote to James Ferguson that it was not advisable to return to the city until it could be determined if the troops would really behave and whether reinforcements had actually been ordered back, "...then we can return with a feeling of assurance that the Pres- |