Camp of Israel, Salt Lake Valley, August 6, A.D. 1847

My dear Abigail:

It is with pleasure I sit down this morning and address you a few lines to let you know where I am, and what my engagements are, and also to let you know that I have not forgotten you and your family.

I also wish to give you some instruction in relation to your movements, and in relation to your family. I would keep them all together, as much as you can, so that you can control the whole matter yourself, until I can see you, which I hope will be soon.
With regard to your moving to this beautiful valley, I wish you to come with the first company next spring. I haven’t been able to assist you but very little since I enlisted. I was detached last October at Santa Fe and sent to Pueblo in command of 107 souls. Since that time Lieut. Willis and Capt. Higgins have reported to me with their detachments, making 170 souls. My expenses has been high and not being able to draw my pay in time to assist you come last spring, you must wait with patience and I will assist you all in my power for I am anxious to see and hear from you. I sent you $25.00 by Brother John D. Lee last October from Santa Fe. I haven’t heard from you since only that you were at Mt. Pisgah and know not whether you have got it or not, if you haven’t received it, it is in the hand of the Bishop at Winter quarters, near Council Bluffs, I hope you will be able to get it. I have sent you one wagon and harness and four mules by the hands of A.J. Shupe and also by the hands of Franklin Allen, one ox team and four yoke of oxen to assist you on your journey next spring, which I hope you will receive and receipt the brethren for the same. I have also sent you by the hand of Brother Allen $30.00 in cash which is all I could sent at this time. I want you to bring all the means for making bread in your power, also flour and meal, as I may want to help you eat it when you come. I hope these lines and the teams will find you at Council Bluffs. So you can come out next spring in the first company.

I received a letter from my daughter, Nancy, and one from Sarah, they calculated on coming this summer in Israel Birche’s company. I am looking for them every day. Brother Kimball says he thinks they will be along this summer. He says that Sister Brown’s health is poor, yet she may recover so as to come this season. I hope she will come. If she does not, I want her to come with you. I sent the teams to you, not knowing but what Esther was on her way. If Nancy and Sarah use all the teams and wagons they have to bring them I want Esther to have room in one of the wagons I sent you. I want her to be made comfortable and to come with you. I hope she will be spared until I see her again. I want you to see her and to comfort her drooping spirit, for she has surely been afflicted since I left her. I shall write to her on this subject, not knowing whether she is coming or not.

My dear Abigail, the time seems long, when I look back, since I last saw you. You may think I have forgotten you, but never, the ties and covenants that bind and united us together are stronger than death and the powers of Satan. I hope I shall ever feel that affection for you and your father that will enable me to do all I can for you and them, but by the help of my Heavenly Father and my brethren, I hope to carry out the principles of salvation and exaltation in all things. My being called into the Army of the United States is no reason why I should cease to serve the Lord. I hope I shall ever remember my covenants and live up to them.

I arrived here with my command on the 28th day of July, one week after the twelve. I was also on their heels and had communication with them from time to time after we got to Fort Johns. I have quartered my company in this beautiful valley, where there is salt water and Sweet water,cold and hot water, in abundance and it looks very much like the one the Lord speaks of in Scripture, where the Lord’s people was to [be] built in the tops of the mountains and I hope I shall see you together with the rest of our friends flowing to it."

I should have returned this fall with the Twelve if I had been counselled to assist you on your journey to this place. I am counseled to take eight men and report myself at San Francisco Bay, on the Pacific Ocean, and meet the Battalion that is near that post. It is eleven hundred miles from this place. I want to return to Salt Lake this fall or in early spring. Brother Brannon, from near the Bay, is here and is going to pilot me; then my business will be to get a discharge for my men and draw their pay and transact other business of importance for the good of the Church.

I shall omit saying anything about my sufferings since I enlisted in the army of the United States. Those things will do to talk about and think about, when we have nothing else to employ our minds. Read this to my brother Daniel, and my sisters, and that will save me from writing to them. Give Moroni a sweet kiss for me, and save the rest for me when we meet. I haven’t heard anything special from Brother Bunker or A. Stephens since they left Santa Fe, only they arrived safe at the and all was well in February last.

"As Captain Brown and escort is about to leave this place for headquarters in California, we improve the opportunity of saying to you, that hitherto the Lord God of Israel blessed us and brought us to a goodly land, where we design to build a house unto Him.

"Therefore, when you receive this and learn of this location, it will be wisdom for you all, if you have got your discharge, as we suppose, to come directly to this place, where you will learn particularly who is here and who is not.

"We are making every exertion to prepare for the families that we expect immediately here. Will spend but little time in writing to you now as Captain Brown can tell you a great deal more than can be written......."