James Bevan and the Man on Horseback

The following extract is from a history written by James Bevan's granddaughter, Alice Bates Herron. That history has many obvious inaccuracies. It states that James Bevan left Santa Fe for Pueblo, Colorado, with Captain James Brown's sick detachment on October 18, 1846. In fact, according to the best historical information, James Bevan continued with the Battalion to Hot Springs on the Rio Grande River, some 240 miles south of Santa Fe, then left the Battalion on November 10, 1846, for Pueblo with Lieutenant William Willis's sick detachment. (See Norma Baldwin Ricketts. Mormon Battalion: U.S. Army of the West, 1846-47. Logan, Utah: Utah State University Press, 1996, 244.) Herron's history states that the incident described below occurred on a march between Pueblo, Colorado, and California, but this is incorrect, since the sick detachments went from Pueblo to Salt Lake City, not to California. James Bevan never reached California with the Battalion. Despite the inaccuracies of the history in which the incident is embedded, the story itself appears to be as James Bevan told it to his children and as they recounted it to their children, wherever on the long march of the Battalion or of Lieutenant Willis's sick detachment it may have occurred.

Although James Bevan was a strong young man, he also became ill, and was left by the side of the road as dead. He often told his children how he lay there alone and saw a man on horseback approach him. The man left his horse and came and administered to him, giving him something to drink and some medicine. He disappeared then from view, as quickly as he had come. James Bevan began to feel a lot better and so started on his way again. He found the camp of the Battalion and was greeted with surprise and wonder. They all believed that a messenger from God had saved his life. The messenger was believed to be one of the Three Nephites.