Redigerer Donnerfølget (avsnitt)

=== Andre redningsaksjon ===

{| class="wikitable infobox" style="text-align: center; font-size: 95%; margin: 0 0 0.5em 1em;;"
|+ Medlemmer av Donnerfølget som ble reddet i den andre redningsaksjonen
|-
! scope="col" | Navn
! scope="col" | Alder
|-
| Isaac Donner* || 5
|-
| Patty Reed || 9
|-
| Thomas Reed || 4
|-
| Patrick Breen† || 51
|-
| Margaret Breen† || 40
|-
| John Breen† || 14
|-
| Patrick Breen, Jr.† || 9
|-
| James Breen† || 5
|-
| Peter Breen† || 3
|-
| Isabella Breen† || 1
|-
| Elizabeth Graves* || 45
|-
| Nancy Graves† || 9
|-
| Jonathan Graves† || 7
|-
| Franklin Ward Graves, Jr.* || 5
|-
| Elizabeth Graves† || 1
|-
| Mary Donner† || 7
|-
| Solomon Hook || 15
|-
| colspan="2" | * døde på veien <br /> † returnerte med John Stark{{sfn|Johnson|1996|p=294-298}}
|}

Omtrent på den tiden da den første redningsaksjonen var under planlegging, opplevde nybyggeren [[George C. Yount]] skremmende drømmer om en gruppe sultende nybyggere i dyp snø. Sannsynligvis hadde han hørt om problemene til Donnerfølget. Yount, [[Mariano Gaudalupe Vallejo]] og andre samlet så inn fem hundre dollar for å utstyre en ny redningsaksjon.<ref>{{Kilde artikkel|tittel=The Chronicles of George C. Yount: California Pioneer of 1826|publikasjon=California Historical Society Quarterly|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/25177691.pdf|dato=April 1923|forfattere=Camp, Charles L. og Yount, George C.|bind=2|hefte=1|sider=63-64}}</ref>

1. mars ankom den andre redningsgruppen Truckee Lake. Denne gruppen bestod av erfarne [[Mountain Men|villmarksfolk]], den mest kjente var [[John Turner (pelsjeger)|John Turner]],{{sfn|Stewart|1988|p=209}}{{sfn|McGlashen|1918|p=161}} som var med Reed og McCutchen tilbake. Reed ble gjenforent med datteren Patty og sønnen Tommy. De inspiserte Breenhytta, og fant at beboerne hadde det relativt greit; mens Murphyhytta, ifølge forfatteren George Stewart, "overgikk grensene for det som kan beskrives og nesten grensene for det man kan forestille seg". Levinah Murphy var ansvarlig for sin åtte år gamle sønn Simon og de to unge barna til William Eddy og Foster. Det hadde gått dårlig med henne mentalt og hun hadde blitt nesten blind. Barna var sløve og hadde ikke blitt vasket på dagevis. Lewis Keseberg hadde flyttet inn i hytta og kunne knapt røre seg på grunn av et skadd bein.{{sfn|Stewart|1988|p=211-212}}

{{uoversatt-start}}

No one at Truckee Lake had died during the interim between the departure of the first and the arrival of the second relief party. Patrick Breen documented a disturbing visit in the last week of February from Mrs. Murphy, who said her family was considering eating Milt Elliott. Reed and McCutchen found Elliott's mutilated body.{{sfn|Stewart|1988|p=213-214}} The Alder Creek camp fared no better. The first two members of the relief party to reach it saw Trudeau carrying a human leg. When they made their presence known, he threw it into a hole in the snow that contained the mostly dismembered body of Jacob Donner. Inside the tent, Elizabeth Donner refused to eat, although her children were being nourished by their father's organs.{{sfn|Rarick|2008|p=191}} The rescuers discovered three other bodies had already been consumed. In the other tent, Tamsen Donner was well, but George was very ill because the infection had reached his shoulder.{{sfn|Stewart|1988|p=215-219}}

[[Fil:Donner Lake and snow sheds2.tif|alt=Svart-hvitt-foto av landskap: Utsikt over Truckee Lake fra Donnerpasset, tatt i 1868. Fjellandskap, overbygde togtunneler, skog og innsjø.|venstre|miniatyr|200x200pk|Utsikt over Truckee Lake fra Donnerpasset, tatt i 1868 da jernbanen [[Central Pacific Railroad]] ble ferdigstilt.]]
The second relief evacuated 17 migrants from Truckee Lake, only three of whom were adults. Both the Breen and Graves families prepared to go. Only five people remained at Truckee Lake: Keseberg, Mrs. Murphy and her son Simon, and the young Eddy and Foster children. Tamsen Donner elected to stay with her ailing husband after Reed informed her that a third relief party would arrive soon. Mrs. Donner kept her daughters Eliza, Georgia, and Frances with her.{{sfn|Rarick|2008|p=195}}

The walk back to Bear Valley was very slow. At one point, Reed sent two, men ahead to retrieve the first cache of food, expecting the third relief, a small party led by Selim E. Woodworth, to come at any moment. A violent blizzard arose after they scaled the pass. Five-year-old Isaac Donner froze to death, and Reed nearly died. Mary Donner's feet were badly burned because they were so frostbitten that she did not realize she was sleeping with them in the fire. When the storm passed, the Breen and Graves families were too apathetic and exhausted to get up and move, not having eaten for days. The relief party had no choice but to leave without them.{{sfn|Stewart|1988|p=220-230}}{{sfn|Rarick|2008|p=199-203}} The site where the Breens and Graves had been left became known as 'Starved Camp'.{{sfn|Rarick|2008|p=200}} Margaret Breen reportedly took the initiative to try to keep the members of the camp alive after the others departed down the mountain. Soon however, Elizabeth Graves and her son Franklin perished before the next rescue party could reach them, and the party resorted to eating flesh off the dead bodies in order to survive.{{sfn|Rarick|2008|p=200-213}}

Three members of the relief party stayed to help those remaining at the camps; Charles Stone at Truckee Lake, Charles Cady and Nicholas Clark at Alder Creek. While Clark was out hunting, Stone traveled to Alder Creek and made plans with Cady to return to California. According to Stewart, Tamsen Donner arranged for them to take her daughters Eliza, Georgia, and Frances with them, perhaps for $500 cash. Stone and Cady took the three girls to Truckee Lake, but left them at a cabin with Keseberg and Levinah Murphy when they started for Bear Valley. Cady recalled later, that after two days on the trail they noted and passed Starved Camp, but they did not stop to help in any way. They overtook Reed and the others within days.{{sfn|Stewart|1988|p=231-236}}{{sfn|Rarick|2008|p=207-208}} Several days later at the Alder Creek camp, Clark and Trudeau agreed to leave for California together. When they reached Truckee Lake and discovered the Donner girls still there they returned to Alder Creek to inform Tamsen Donner.{{sfn|Rarick|2008|p=216-217}}

William Foster and William Eddy, survivors of the snowshoe party, started from Bear Valley to intercept Reed, taking with them a man named John Stark. After a day, they met Reed helping his children struggle on toward Bear Valley, all frostbitten and bleeding but alive. Desperate to rescue their own children, Foster and Eddy persuaded four men, with pleading and money, to go to Truckee Lake with them. During their journey they found the eleven survivors at Starved Camp, huddled around a fire that had sunk into a pit. The relief party split, with Foster, Eddy, and two others headed toward Truckee Lake. Two of the rescuers, hoping to save some of the survivors, each took a child and headed back to Bear Valley. John Stark refused to leave the others. He picked up two children and all the provisions and assisted the remaining Breens and Graves to safety, sometimes advancing the children down the trail piece-meal, putting them down and then going back to carry the other debilitated children.{{sfn|Stewart|1988|p=237-246}}{{sfn|King|1992|p=92-93}}{{sfn|Rarick|2008|p=214-215}}