Colonel Alexander of the Federal forces, deciding that the canons could be defended by the Saints, planned to approach Salt Lake City over a roundabout route to the north.

He started in heavy snow, cutting a road through the greasewood and sage-brush.

Often his men made but three miles a day, and his supply-train was so long that sometimes half of it would be camped for the night before the rear wagons had moved.

As there was no cavalry in the force the hosts of Israel harassed them sorely on this march, on one day consecrating eight hundred head of their oxen and driving them to Salt Lake.
Albert Sidney Johnston, commanding the expedition, had also suffered greatly with his forces.

The early snows deprived his stock of forage, and the unusual cold froze many oxen and mules.
Lieutenant-Colonel Cooke of the Second Dragoons, with whom travelled the newly appointed governor, was another to suffer.