BRIGHAM'S LEGION.
How the Veterans of Nauvoo Wanted to Rescue Brigham, but Didn't Dare.
The Salt Lake City Tribune says: "The 11th of March, 1875, adds one more to the list of lost opportunities. On that day the faith-ful might have shown their devotion to their prophet, might have shed their blood in his cause, and earned a martyr's crown apiece; but alas for humanity, when the decisive hour came, though there was much of martial prep-aration and warlike array, the courage to strike a telling blow was wanting. When darkness closed around the penitentiary on the night of the prophet's incarceration a squad of armed men, trusty braves, who had seen rough service in the Nauvoo Legion, took possession of the road leading from the paper-mill to Brigham's factory, and kept up a patrol throughout the night. Forty more members of the Legion, all armed to the teeth, surround-ed the outer wall of the penitentiary, and re-mained there all night, taking good care, how-ever, to keep at a respectful distance, and do nothing to draw the tire of the guards. At the paper-mill, a quarter of a mile west of the pen-itentiary, one hundred and fifty armed men were assembled, and at the factory, a quarter of a mile east, a like number were gathered. Conspicuous among the crowd were several of Brigham's sons, armed with knives, revolvers, and rifles, threatening deadly vengeance on the Babylonians. Besides the three hundred saints who came out from town to rescue their prophet all the men in Sugar-house ward were called out and equipped for the fray. Just after dark a covered wagon filled with guns and ammunition was driven past the peniten-tiary to the factory, where the inhabitants of the ward armed themselves. All teams and all passengers on horseback or on foot were halted on either side of the penitentiary and turned back. Meantime, so far as we can learn, all was peace inside the building, which was the objective point of so much hostile demon-stration. The prophet, in consideration of his age and infirmities, had been permitted to oc-cupy a room in the Warden's quarters, and Warden Paddock kept guard in person over his royal prisoner. As the evening wore on the Warden, going to the front door to recon-noiter, saw a body of men drawn up in line di-rectly before the building, and handling their rifles as though undecided whether to fire at the door or not.
"Double up the guards," was the order given out to the man on watch on the balcony.
"Aye, aye, sir," was the response, and in five minutes the entire force of which the Penitentiary could boast was under arms and the decks cleared for action, but though they remained in position awaiting an attack until morning, our reporter can not learn that a single shot was fired by the besiegers.
The Saints had the advantage in point of numbers about a hundred to one, but whether they feared that in the affray a stray shot might strike the Prophet, or whether they thought the sound of firing would bring a Babylonian reinforcement, they evidently made up their minds that discretion in their case would be the better part of valor, and after holding their ground for about sixteen hours, they retired in good order sometime during the forenoon of the 12th.
