| Mormon Battalion | |
|---|---|
 Soldiers of the Mormon Battalion honored atFort Moore Pioneer Memorial in Los Angeles | |
| Active | July 1846 – July 1847 |
| Disbanded | 1847 |
| Country |  United States |
| Allegiance | United StatesArmy of the West |
| Garrison/HQ | Fort Leavenworth, Kansas[1] |
| Engagements | Mexican–American War
|
| Commanders | |
| Notable commanders |
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| Part ofa series on |
| Mormon Militias |
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 Lieutenant General Joseph Smith Addresses the Nauvoo Legion |
TheMormon Battalion was the only religious unit inUnited States military history in federal service, recruited solely from one religious body and having a religious title as the unit designation.[4] The volunteers served from July 1846 to July 1847 during theMexican–American War of 1846–1848.[5] The battalion was a volunteer unit of between 534[6][7] and 559[8][Note 1]Latter-day Saint men, led by Mormoncompany officers commanded by regularUnited States Army officers. During its service, the battalion made a grueling march of nearly 1,950 miles fromCouncil Bluffs, Iowa, toSan Diego, California.
The Battalion’s march and service supported the eventualcession of much of the American Southwest from Mexico to the United States, especially theGadsden Purchase of 1854 of portions of modern southernArizona andNew Mexico, extending the American-Mexican border further south to access the most suitable surveyed east-west land route for the futuretrans-continental railroad (later constructed 1866-1869). The Battalion's march also opened a southern wheeled wagon accessible route to California. Veterans of the Battalion played significant roles in America's westward expansion in California, Utah, Nevada, Arizona, and other parts of theWest.
At the time they enlisted, members ofthe Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints were seeking U.S. government aid for their migration west to theRocky Mountains andSalt Lake Valley, despite having their previous petitions for redress of grievances denied. Under continued religious persecution, they had fledNauvoo, Illinois, starting on February 4, 1846, across the Mississippi River. They camped among thePotawatomi Indians near present-dayCouncil Bluffs, Iowa.
Brigham Young, (1801-1877, served 1847-1877), thePresident of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, (second L.D.S. Church President) sent ElderJesse C. Little (1815-1893), toWashington, D.C., to seek assistance from the federal government for the Mormon Pioneers fleeing from the Illinois mobs. Little arrived in Washington, D.C., on May 21, 1846, only eight days after Congress had declared war on Mexico.[6] Pennsylvania Army officer and attorneyThomas L. Kane (1822-1883), offered the Mormons his advice and assistance. Politically well connected through his jurist father, Kane provided letters of recommendation and joined Little in Washington, D.C. The two called on members of the President's Cabinet - theU.S. Secretary of State, theSecretary of War, and 11th PresidentJames K. Polk. (1795-1849, served 1845-1849), After several interviews in early June 1846, President Polk agreed to Mr. Little's offer[clarification needed] if "a few hundred" men enlisted. On June 2, 1846, PresidentJames K. Polk wrote in his diary: "Col. [Stephen W.] Kearny was ... authorized to receive into service as volunteers a few hundred of the Mormons who are now on their way to California, with a view to conciliate them, attach them to our country, and prevent them from taking part against us."[9]
On July 1, 1846, CaptainJames Allen, dispatched by Colonel (later Brigadier General)Stephen W. Kearny, (1794-1848), of the U.S. Army arrived at the Mormons' Mosquito Creek camp. He carried President Polk's request for a battalion of 500 volunteers to fight in the coming Mexican War.[10] Most members of the Church were suspicious of the request, as the Federal government had ignored the persecutions that they suffered. They were concerned about facing discrimination by the government, as they had from both the state and federal government in the past.[11]
Kane obtained Federal government permission for the refugee Mormons to occupy Pottawattamie andOmaha Indian lands along theMissouri River. After carrying dispatches relating to the land agreements and battalion criteria to famous Mid-Western military post ofFort Leavenworth in the then largerIndian Territory (1834-1907, later that part in the futureKansas Territory, 1854 then subsequent state ofKansas, 1861). Capt. Kane sought out Jesse Little in the Mormon encampments on the Missouri River. On July 17, 1846, he held a meeting with church leaders and Army Captain Allen.
Young had planned onmoving the Mormons west that summer, but circumstances were against his plan. He saw several possible advantages to the Saints in the proposed federal service. Their enlistment would be a public relations victory for the church, demonstrating additional evidence of its loyalty to the United States.[11] As the drafted men were given a uniform allowance at Fort Leavenworth, (future Kansas), of US$42 each, paid in advance, for their one-year enlistment and as they were allowed to wear their civilian clothing for the march, the bulk of those funds were immediately donated to a general Church fund. These funds were used to purchase wagons, teams, and other necessities for the American exodus (Actual wages paid over the next year to the Mormon Battalion totaled nearly $30,000).[12] Having been forced to leave farms and homes inNauvoo, Illinois, the Latter-day Saints were going to spend the winter on the banks of the upper Missouri River. Raising a group of able-bodied men would be difficult. Many men had already scattered to outlying areas where they sought jobs with wages to help support the group. Young wrote a letter to the Saints living in Garden Grove in which he justified the call-up and asked for help:
The President wants to do us good and secure our confidence. The outfit of this five hundred men costs us nothing, and their pay will be sufficient to take their families over the mountains. There is war between Mexico and the United States, to whom California must fall a prey, and if we are the first settlers the old citizens cannot have a Hancock or Missouri pretext to mob the Saints. The thing is from above for our own good.[13]
The public approval of Young and other members of the Twelve were critical to gain men's enlistment. While some men quickly volunteered, Young had to persuade reluctant enlistees.[7] It took three weeks to raise the five companies of men.
Allen's instructions were to recruit "four or five companies" of men who were to receive the "pay, rations, and other allowances given to other infantry volunteers."[14] Each company was authorized four women as laundresses, "receiving rations and other allowances given to the laundresses of our army."[14] Approximately thirty-three women, twenty of whom served as laundresses, and fifty-one children accompanied the men.[6] Five women would eventually complete the cross-continental trek.[15] The Mormon Battalion was mustered into volunteer service on July 16, 1846, as part of theArmy of the West under Brigadier General Stephen Kearny, a seasoned military veteran. His units included two regiments of Missouri volunteers, a regiment of New York volunteers who had traveled by ships aroundSouth America andCape Horn to thePacific Ocean and arrived in California to meet Gen. Kearney with there, artillery and infantry battalions, Kearny's own1st US Dragoons (cavalry), and the battalion of Mormons. For years afterward, some Mormons viewed the Mormon Battalion as an unjust imposition and as an act of persecution by the United States.[16]
The battalion arrived atFort Leavenworth on August 1.[17] For the next two weeks, they drew their clothing allowance of $42 per man, received their equipment (Model 1816smoothboreflintlockmuskets and a fewHarper's Ferry Model 1803 Rifles), and were more formally organized into a combat battalion. The volunteers took the approved clothing allowance in cash per regulations. To assure the main body of the group benefited from the men's wages, Young sent Parley Pratt to see that the men handed over the pay they had committed to contribute. Young used this and the wages they earned later to buy supplies for the main group at wholesale prices inSt. Louis, Missouri. He wrote to the enlistees that the money was a "peculiar manifestation of the kind providence of our Heavenly Father at this time."[14] There was little time for training and instilling discipline. Newly promoted Lieutenant Colonel James Allen became ill but ordered the battalion forward along theSanta Fe Trail to overtake Kearny's Army of the West. On August 23, Allen died and was the first officer buried there in the old officer's burial grounds. Later his remains were moved to what becameFort Leavenworth National Military Cemetery.
CaptainJefferson Hunt, commanding A Company, was the acting commander until word reachedCouncil Grove, Kansas, that Allen had died. While there, LieutenantAndrew Jackson Smith,West Point Class of 1838, arrived and was given temporary command of the Battalion with the Mormons' consent. For the next several weeks, the Mormon soldiers came to hate "AJ" Smith and the assistant surgeon, Dr. George B. Sanderson, for their treatment of the men, and the long marches suffered across the dry plains of Kansas and New Mexico. The Mormon men were not accustomed to the austere military standards of the day nor to the medical treatments imposed by Dr. Sanderson, including the use of feeding mercury compounds to the sick, which were standard for the time. Because the church leaders had counseled the battalion members to avoid military medical treatment, they challenged the doctor's authority and unrest arose among the men. Smith and Sanderson continued to hold the Mormon Battalion to ordinary standards of discipline, and tensions continued.
Arriving inSanta Fe in October, General Kearny had dispatched Captain (brevet promotion to Lieutenant Colonel)Philip St. George Cooke, West Point class of 1827, to assume command of the Battalion. His assignment was to march them to California and to build a wagon road along the way (today known asCooke's Wagon Road). In Santa Fe, 91 sick men and all but five of the women and one child were sent toPueblo, in present-dayColorado.[20] Three separate detachments left the Battalion and went to Pueblo to winter. For the next three months and 1,100 miles, Cooke led the Battalion across some of the most arduous terrain in North America. Most of the Mormon soldiers soon learned to respect and follow him. The group acquired another guide in New Mexico – adventurer and mountain manJean Baptiste Charbonneau, who as an infant had traveled with his motherSacagawea across the continent with theLewis and Clark Expedition.
Lieutenant Smith and Dr. Sanderson continued with the battalion, along with Lt.George Stoneman, newly graduated from West Point that Spring. During the Civil War, Cooke, Smith and Stoneman were promoted to high-level commands for theUnion Army, and Stoneman would later be electedGovernor of California.
The only "battle" they fought was near theSan Pedro River in present-dayArizona against a sizable number of wild cattle. The Battalion reached this area in December 1846, and their presence aroused curiosity among these animals. After the bulls of these herds caused destruction to some of the mules and wagons and resulted in two men being wounded, the men loaded their guns and attacked the charging bulls, killing 10–15 of the wild cattle, causing the event to be termed the "Battle of the Bulls".[14]
ApproachingTucson, in present-dayArizona, the Battalion nearly had abattle with a small detachment of provisional Mexican soldiers on December 16, 1846. The Mexicans retreated as the US battalion approached. Cooke never seems to have considered the encounter as capturing the town. He never made that claim. The local O'odham and other Piman tribes along the march route were helpful and charitable to the American soldiers. Mormon soldiers learned irrigation methods from these native inhabitants and employed the techniques later as pioneers in Utah and other areas.[citation needed]
Nearing the end of their journey, the battalion passed throughTemecula, California, during the aftermath of theTemecula Massacre, a conflict between Mexican government forces and theLuiseño tribe. The Mormons stood guard to prevent further bloodshed while the Luiseño people gathered their numerous dead into a common grave.[21][22]
The Mormon Battalion arrived in San Diego on January 29, 1847, after a march of some 2,080 miles from Iowa. For the next five months until their discharge on July 16, 1847, in Los Angeles, the Battalion trained and performed occupation duties in several locations insouthern California. The most significant service the Battalion provided in California was as a reliable unit under Cooke to reinforce General Kearny's one company of army dragoons. The construction ofFort Moore in Los Angeles was one measure Cooke employed to protect military control under Kearny. Some 22 Mormon men died from disease or other natural causes during their service. About 80 of the men re-enlisted for another six months of service.
Fifteen men were selected to accompany General Kearny and escortJohn C. Fremont back east to hiscourt-martial. During their journey over theSierra Nevada, these men encountered one of the campsites of theDonner Party, and were ordered to bury the human remains and clean up the area.[23]
After being mustered out, Jesse D. Hunter, captain of Company B, was appointedIndian Agent for southern California by the military governor,Colonel Richard Mason. Hunter was California's third indian agent, the first two beingJohann Sutter andMariano Vallejo, both appointed by Mason's predecessor,Stephen Kearny. Hunter's mission was to protectranchos andmissions fromdepredations, and to generally control the Indian labor force, to the point of requiring Indians to carry passports.[24]
Nearly 100 discharged veterans worked in theSacramento, area forJames W. Marshall atSutter's Mill. Henry Bigler recorded in his diary the actual date when gold was discovered, January 24, 1848. This gold find started theCalifornia Gold Rush the next year.[25] $17,000 in gold was contributed to the economy of the Latter-day Saints' new home by members of the Mormon Battalion returning from California.[12]
One group of discharged battalion members established theCarson Trail wagon road (also called the Mormon Emigrant Trail) on their return east. This road started nearPlacerville, California, and went across the crest of the Sierra Nevada atCarson Pass before dropping down and eventually meeting the already-establishedCalifornia Trail. The newly established route was afterwards used by many emigrants traveling to California's gold fields.[26] Three members of this group were killed at a location which became known asTragedy Spring.
Historic sites associated with the battalion include:
A resurgence of interest in the Battalion is linked to the 175th anniversary of the Battalion's service.Original documents held at the National Archives have been located, including original muster and pay rolls. These are being prepared for public access online along with transcriptions. A more accurate count and list of participants is being prepared.A series of events are being planned along the routes during 2021–2022.
The Mormons did not like to leave my mill unfinished, but they got thegold fever like everybody else. After they had made their piles they left for theGreat Salt Lake. So long as these people have been employed by me they hav [sic] behaved very well, and were industrious and faithful laborers, and when settling their accounts there was not one of them who was not contented and satisfied.
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