President Brigham Young's intuitive knowledge of the Mexican War troop demand

While traveling en route to the Missouri River in 1846, Brigham Young experienced a distinct intuitive impression or prescience that the United States government would demand 500 men from the camp of the Latter-day Saints to serve in the Mexican War. Young later recounted that he did not know whether it was intuition, prescience, or promptness of intellect, but he felt a certainty about the event. This prophecy was fulfilled shortly thereafter when Captain James Allen, acting under instructions from Colonel Stephen W. Kearny and Secretary of War William L. Marcy, arrived at the encampment at Council Bluffs. Captain Allen made his mission known, leading to a meeting on July 1, 1846, where President Young and his council accepted the government's terms, viewing the enlistment as an opportunity for the Saints to prove their loyalty and establish a presence in California. Young rallied the Saints to meet the request, promising to assist the families left behind, and the battalion was subsequently mustered into service. Reflecting on this foreknowledge years later, Young famously remarked, 'If the God of heaven did not reveal it to me, I should like to know who did.'