---
title: Improvement Era
description: Monthly periodical of the Mormon church, 1897 onward. This library holds the issues of November 1897 to December 1930.
authors:
  - Maud Baggarley
collections:
  - periodicals
tags:
  - magazine
  - improvement-era
periodical: Improvement Era
volume: 21
number: 4
published: 1918-02
publisher: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations
publisher_place: Salt Lake City
language: en
type: magazine
reference: "Maud Baggarley, “Departure of the “First Utah”,” *Improvement Era* 21, no. 4 (February 1918): 312."
source:
  url: https://archive.org/details/improvementera2104unse
  transcription: Transcribed from the Internet Archive scan of each issue (the item for each issue is named in the issue's own source); unnumbered advertising leaves are omitted, printed page numbers are kept as page markers.
  identifier: improvementera2104unse
start_page: 312
end_page: 312
rights:
  status: public-domain
  basis: US publication 1930 or earlier (published 1918-02)
  source: https://archive.org/details/improvementera2104unse
  publication_year: 1918
  note: The Internet Archive item metadata carries a blanket "© Copyright by Intellectual Reserve, Inc." notice. The library owner judged it inapplicable because this issue was published in 1918, before 1931; a scan-level notice does not restore copyright.
---

# Departure of the “First Utah”

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Departure of the "First Utah'

A black night — and a sombre throng,

Solemn and still, as there marched along,

With noiseless feet,

Thro' the vibrant mass that filled the street,

The Utah Guard, on its way to war.

Khaki blurred 'neath flickering light;

Lifted faces, grave and white;

An undefinable, virgin air

About the youthful soldiers there,

Upborne by women's sacrifice.

Unresting feet on the outward road ;

Bearing their share of the Nation's load ;

With mien remote that seemed to say:

" 'Touch me not,' I am on my way

To keep a tryst with Liberty."

Oh, God of Battles, hold them sure

And safe, and keep them pure;

Encompass them in their crucial hour

With thy unchanging might and power;

Grant that their way be straight and plain;

And bring them, Lord, to us again.

Maud Baggarley.