Desert Route, The

DESCRIPTION: "While here beneath the sultry sky Our famished mules and cattle die," leaving the men of the Mormon Battalion with few supplies. They are on short rations. But if they do not continue on, they will be left behind (to die)
AUTHOR: Levi Hancock (source: Cheney-MormonSongs)
EARLIEST DATE: 1881 (Tyler)
KEYWORDS: soldier hardtimes travel | Mormon Battalion
FOUND IN: US(Ro)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Cheney-MormonSongs, pp. 41-42, "The Desert Route" (1 text)
Greenway-FolkloreOfTheGreatWest, p. 258, "The Desert Route" (1 text)
Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest, p. 285, "The Desert Route" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Daniel Tyler, "A Concise History of the Mormon Battalion in the Mexican War," no publisher listed but copyrighted 1881 (available on Google Books), pp. 182-183, "The Desert Route" (1 text)
B. H. Roberts, _The Mormon Battalion: Its History and Achievements_, Deseret News, 1919 (I use the 2001 Maasai, Inc. reprint), p. 43, "(no title)" (1 excerpt)
Roud #10818
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Mormon Battalion Song (I)" (subject) and notes and references there
NOTES [76 words]: For background on the Mormon Battalion, see "Mormon Battalion Song." This is a fairly accurate description of their troubles on their route to California -- although some of their problems were self-inflicted; the men refused to leave their wagons behind, and so had to bring the animals too, but there was nothing for the animals to eat.
There is no tune listed for this by Cheney or Tyler, but I suspect it was supposed to be sung to "Beulah Land." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: ChMS041

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