Forlorn hope

[Magaret]

A band of soldiers or other combatants chosen to take the leading part in a military operation, such as an assault on a defended position, where the risk of casualties is high.
The term is from Dutch, roughly translated as lost troop.
While the [Donner Party] was trapped in the mountains, a team of the fifteen strongest immigrants (five women, nine men, and a boy of twelve) set out on December 16, 1846, to find help, using makeshift snowshoes made by an old farmer, Franklin Graves. Later known as the [Forlorn Hope], the group consisted of:
*Luis and Salvador (19, 28), Miwok guides, murdered for food.
*Antonio (23), a [teamster], died
*Patrick Dolan (35), died
*[William Foster] (31), survived
*Sarah Murphy-Foster (20), survived; she and William lost their toddler, Jeremiah (2.5)
*Harriet Murphy-Pike (18), survived; lost her baby, Catherine
*[Lemuel] Murphy (12), died despite his sisters; his mother, [Levina] (37), and brother, John (17), also lost
*William Eddy (28), survived; lost his wife, Eleanor (25), and both children, James and Margaret (3, 1)
*Franklin Graves (57), died; his wife, Elizabeth (46), and three youngest children, Jonathan, little Franklin, and little Elizabeth (7, 5, 1), were lost.
*Mary Graves (20), survived
*Sarah Graves-Fosdick (22), survived
*Jay [Fosdick] (23), died
*Amanda McCutchen (23), survived; lost her baby, Harriet
*Charles Stanton (30), died