Another miner from Bannack traveling to Salt Lake City had spoken to some of the Cache Valley Shoshone. The Indians told him they had nothing against settlers but meant to continue to take revenge on white travelers for the injustices done them by Major Edward McGarry’s troops. McGarry, charged by his men with ‘being drunk most of the time,’ was Connor’s right-hand man and a bloodthirsty, Indian-hating officer. With 100 cavalrymen, he had been sent by Connor to the Bear River ferry north of Brigham City, where a large Indian encampment was supposedly holding stock stolen from emigrants. Somehow the Indians learned about the coming of the troops, cut the ferry rope and moved the camp north and into the Cache Valley. McGarry infuriated the Indians when he took four unwary warriors hostage, tied their hands to a ferry rope, and executed them, firing 51 shots. The Indians long remembered the dastardly act.

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Connor sent word to Gibbs that his expedition against the Indians in Cache Valley was ready and that ‘it was not my intention to take any prisoners.’ Respected Mormon leader George A. Smith observed ‘the highly mysterious army preparations going on at Camp Douglas and heard Connor’s intention to ‘exterminate’ the Indians.’

Secrecy about Connor’s troop movements was necessary to keep the Indians from moving before the troops arrived. Connor did not want to deprive his soldiers of what he called ‘a little Indian killing.’ The colonel considered winter the best time to attack an Indian village because ‘the warriors would be settled and encumbered with their wives and children.’

The first month of 1863 was fearfully cold and severe. Ice was everywhere, and the marching possibilities were so bad that when the Indians were told that Connor’s men were going to attack, they laughed and said, ‘No! Too cold for soldiers.’

Connor gave the order to his troops on January 19, 1863, to be ready to march at any moment. On January 22, Captain Samuel W. Hoyt of K Company, 3rd Infantry Regiment, was given the order to move out. The group consisted of 69 infantry volunteers, 15 wagons loaded with enough supplies to last 20 days, and two 12-pounder mountain howitzers with 50 rounds of ammunition for each cannon.

It was snowing heavily when the troops left Camp Douglas. Word was passed that their mission was to escort wagon trains hauling grain out of Cache Valley. The foot soldiers marched sloppily, allowed their uniforms to fall into disarray, and gave every indication of being an undisciplined band of dunderheads out on a lark. The Indians, through friends or perhaps even through smoke signals, presumably would get the message: The soldiers were a foolish outfit of squaws–all the warriors had to do was wait.

The first day out, the men traveled 13 miles and camped at Sessions Settlement, present-day Bountiful. Twenty-five miles were covered the second day, the column stopping at Brownsville on the Weber River. On the following day the detachment moved on to Willow Creek.

Meanwhile, with Connor in command, the cavalry left Camp Douglas on the evening of January 24 and covered 68 miles during the night to arrive at Brigham City in the morning. The sky was clear, but a cold wind was blowing, dropping the temperature so low that one observer reported, ‘the men were not able to talk because of the ice in their beards.’

Since the ground was covered with snow between 2 and 5 feet deep and it was intensely cold, about 75 of the group of 275 officers and men were put out of service as the result of frozen feet and other cold-weather problems. Those with the worst cases of frostbite were left in settlements along the way.

The infantry on January 25 marched 29 miles to Empey’s Ferry, also known as Hampton’s Ford, north of Brigham City, where they camped for the night. The following morning the infantry moved 25 miles, crossing into Cache Valley over the pass where the mountain at Wellsville dwindles to a small hill, and stopped at Mendon.

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