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Show Page 239 States...beginning at the rebellion of South Carolina," so when in April 1861 the Carolina artillery fired on Fort Sumter, he felt he had been documenting history in reverse: "War between the Southern and Northern States commenced on the 12th of this month: the first battle was fought in South Carolina; great armies are volunteering on both sides; and soon we may expect to hear of dreadful times." 5 For months, Orson combed the ports, guiding fresh converts from Europe up the railways to Zion and heading them off from the Mississippi route, now under federal blockade. Many refused to "clear out of Babylon," particularly among the complacent older Church members still living in Pennsylvania, whom Orson called "fossil Mormons." He had no idea when he would be allowed to return the valleys; dreaming nights of his youngest bride, he wrote poignantly of the children he had in Utah whose names he did not even know. And a slight edge can be heard in his voice: "I have no intimations from Pres't Young when to return; it may be this year; it may be next; it may be never." 7 Nevertheless, Orson finally got the word and picked his way home north of the flaming ruin of Missouri by September and his half-century birthday. Brigham Young, now a florid sixty years old, determined not to allow Orson to sit for long in Salt Lake. Only a few days after the exhausting overland trip, Orson headed south under orders of the general conference to start a "cotton mission" - since the staple cotton supply had been cut off by war, Brigham thought it might be profitable to give the Old South some competition while the going was easy. He instructed Erastus Snow to settle and try cotton culture in the sandy warm country of the Rio Virgen, and to take the fatigued Orson with him. A permanent resident of the "sunny south" as of December, Orson found the climate anything but pleasant, |