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Show 80 that day, "All hell is in commotion, government intends sending ten thousand troops by the south rowt and as many by the north rowt."5 The legislature was clearly alarmed by these exaggerated reports. Could the Mormons be outflanked? Brigham Young did not seem to think so. He told his listeners in the Tabernacle on January 3 that "I think we shall use this room yet for a few years to come yet I mean to be ready."" The threat from the south did not appear to be taken seriously by the churchman for some time. No official action was taken by the church for at least a month,! when more credible evidence was received. The threat of a southern invasion had not been entirely unheard of during the early war period. Occasional rumblings from the south had surfaced in Salt Lake City over the months, but few were given credence. One that was acted upon was the mid-August alarm that a contingent of the Utah Expedition was trying to force its way into the settlements of Iron County. The Fancher train had boasted to the Mormons in September on their way through the southern settlements, "They were going to return from California with soldiers, as soon as possible, and would desolate the land, and kill every d d Mormon man, woman and child that they could find in Utah."^ But the the Fancher party had been put out of the way at Mountain Meadows. The California mail of October 30 contained a letter with information that the government would attempt to navigate the Colorado with light draft boats in a military expedition against Utah; but this communication seems to have been disregarded as simply another unfounded rumor. By mid-autumn word of the Mountain Meadow massacre' had leaked out and reached California. The indignation of the Californians was fierce. The San Francisco Daily Evening Bulletin of October 27 clamored for vengeance: "The blood of American citizens cries for vengeance from the barren sands of the Great Basin, the article began. ".... From this state alone," continued the Bulletin, "thou- |
