The place of Colonel Allen was taken, provisionally, by First Lieut. A.
J. Smith of the First Dragoons, who proved unpopular, animus probably
starting through his military severity and the desire of the Battalion
that Captain Hunt should succeed to the command. The first division
arrived at Santa Fe October 9, and was received by Colonel Doniphan,
commander of the post, with a salute of 100 guns. Colonel Doniphan was
an old friend. He had been a lawyer and militia commander in Clay County,
Missouri, when Joseph Smith was tried by court martial at Far West in
1838 and had succeeded in changing a judgment of death passed by the mob.
On the contrary, Col. Sterling Price, the brigade commander, was
considered an active enemy of the Mormons.
At Santa Fe, Capt. P. St. George Cooke, an officer of dragoons, succeeded
to the command, as lieutenant-colonel, under appointment of General
Kearny, who already had started westward. Capt. James Brown was ordered
to take command of a party of about eighty men, together with about
two-score women and children, and with them winter at Pueblo, on the
headwaters of the Arkansas River. Fifty-five more men were sent to Pueblo
from the Rio Grande when found unable to travel.
Colonel Cooke made a rather discouraging report on the character of the
command. He said:
"It was enlisted too much by families; some were too old, some feeble,
and some too young; it was embarrassed by too many women; it was
undisciplined; it was much worn by travel on foot and marching from
Nauvoo, Illinois; clothing was very scant; there was no money to pay them
or clothing to issue; their mules were utterly broken down; the
quartermaster department was without funds and its credit bad; animals
scarce and inferior and deteriorating every hour for lack of forage. So
every preparation must be pushed--hurried."