Speaking of a possible miracle (the group preservation, due to faithfulness, from “milk sickness”) on May 16, 1834, during Zion’s Camp, Roger Launius wrote:
Members of the camp had an unusual experience on that day. A number of them had drunk milk which had been given them by the local inhabitants. At dinnertime several of the men began to fear that they were coming down with “milk sickness.” At this time there was a bacterial infection in some of the cattle of western Ohio. The brethren appealed to Joseph Smith asking of the milk was really dangerous. They were concerned that the enemies of the camp might have given them bad milk in the hope of doing the expedition harm. Joseph “told them not to fear, that if they would follow his counsel and use all that they could get from friend or enemy it should do them good and none be sick in consequence of it. And although we passed through neighborhoods where many of the people and cattle were dying with the sickness, yet his words were fulfilled” (George Smith, “History,” 18-19). There is no way of knowing the exact nature of the cattle’s disease, for extant newspapers do not carry a description of its symptoms, although they do contain accounts of the presence of cholera in the region (Indiana Journal [Indianapolis, Indiana], May 27, 1834). (Roger D. Launius, Zion’s Camp: Expedition to Missouri, 1834 [Independence, Miss.: Herald Publishing House, 1984], 70)
