Vol. 1 The Field Is White | Vol. 2 The Gathering | Vol. 3 The Nauvoo Years | Vol. 4 The Mormon Battalion | Vol. 5 The Journey Home
Robert expected Daniel to make the decision to press on to the Salt Lake Valley, but he didn't. Daniel threw his lot with the men who were returning to Sutter's Fort.

"What do you want me to tell Elizabeth and Harriet?" Robert asked around a campfire in the high Sierras.

"Tell them that I am following the counsel of Brigham Young," Daniel replied with a sad look. "I have no children. If anyone should follow Brigham's directive to work for a year in California, it's me."

Robert let the reality of the situation settle over him. Daniel's turning back would mean the two men would be separated for the first time in thirteen years. "Your wives will be sorely puzzled," Robert said.
A chill went through Daniel, and not because of the snowdrift his horse was trudging through.





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 Three Indians made their appearance on the third day of Daniel's scouting expedition up the spine of Iron Mountain. He and his two companions-Ezra Allen and Henderson Cox-were searching for the best place to build a road over the Sierra Mountains. The road would lead Daniel's company of returning Battalion boys to the Humboldt River, and from there to the Salt Lake Valley.

"What'll we do?" Henderson asked in a tone laced with deep suspicion.

A chill went through Daniel, and not because of the snowdrift his horse was trudging through. "I don't know if there are more Indians or not," he answered. Thick stands of conifer, fir, and sub alpines were all around. "Are they Washo?" Ezra asked. "Maybe," Daniel said. "But more likely Miwok, Maidu, or Nisenan." He learned about local Indians during the year he'd worked for Captain Sutter, building a gristmill on the river. In January, gold had been discovered nearby. Now every returning Mormon Battalion soldier was returning to the main body of Saints quite wealthy. Wagons, cattle, horses and mules had been purchased with the gold. Daniel had a pouch full of gold dust hidden in his packs. He had plans to return to farming and ranching when he reached the Salt Lake Valley, with Robert as his partner.

Darryl Harris has been a magazine publisher for more than thirty years. He and his wife, Chris, reside in Idaho Falls, Idaho, and have five children. From 1997 to 2000, they presided over the Korea Seoul Mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and then served as a bishop for one of the campus wards at BYU-Idaho in Rexburg.
"I really felt compassion for Elizabeth and her struggles to accept the doctrine of polygamy. She reacted the same way most women would have done."
-Suzanne Rowser
Heber City, Utah
"I've never read anything so complete regarding the attempted kidnapping of Joseph Smith in 1843 by the Missouri sheriff. Or about Joseph and Hyrum's untimely deaths and the trial of their murderers that took place in Carthage in 1845. The detail, as seen through the eyes of the main characters of this book, really drew me in. Now I appreciate so much more the Nauvoo epic of our people. I felt a real pain for the prejudice the Mormons suffered during that time. The book was intriguing, to say the least, and a real page-turner."
-Reed Moss
Ririe, Idaho