He became a private in Co. D. in "the Battalion", in the U.S. Army during the Mexican War. They marched 2,000 miles to San Diego, and the same in return, after discharge.
When the recruits arrived at Fort Leavenworth they were given $42 for clothing and a heavy wide white leather waist belt. The men sent the clothing money back to their families and to the Church. After that the privates received $7 per month for their service.
From October 1846 through January of 1847 he served as a battalion teamster. During that time only 5 government wagons or 3 private wagons made it all the way to California.
He left his family, consisting of his wife and two small sons, Lee and Jim, with his wife, to be helped by his wife's father, Levi Bracken and family. William left his family with a team, wagon, two cows and provisions for the journey across the plains, but Charlotte Maxwell Webb's Sketch of her father says that a man, in whom William had confidence, took advantage of his absence and the serious illness of his father-in-law, to dispose of his cows and run away with his team. (Warner, p . l ).
William was discharged in Cuidad Los Angeles.
?The year of 1877 was a continuation of the drought of the winter of 1876. He sold his Spring Valley Ranch and moved with his family across Southern Utah, first to Panguich, and then to Orderville. It took three years to move the cattle and all the family. -- Life History of William Bailey Maxwell
Because of a drought in Spring Valley, Nevada, a burdensome double tax situation from Utah and Nevada, and to get better schooling and opportunities for his children, William Bailey Maxwell, Grandpa's grandfather, began to move his three families and his livestock, from Nevada. He first moved to Panguitch, Utah, where Jim had been, in the winter of 1876, but it took two years to complete the move from Nevada. He did not stay at Panbuitch, but moved on to Orderville in 1877, joined the United Order, and was made foreman of the Order's cattle operation, with headquarters in House Rock Valley, Arizona. --History of James Bailey Maxwell, Senior
(If the legends are ture: http://www.palmspringsbum.org/genealogy/getperson.php?personID=I89274&tree=Legends)