The story of the Mormon Battalion remains an enduring legend. Recruited by the U.S. government from among those heading to Utah to gather with Brigham Young, this group of some 500 men plus women and children undertook a trek across the American Southwest during the Mexican-American War. The battalion is usually consigned to a footnote in the story, but it is a story which looms large in the settlement of California. In that context, the legend of the battalion and how it has found a truly revered place in the history of the Mormon faithful is significant. Part 1 here look at how the journey began.
A painting of the Mormon Battalion arriving at the Gila River in Arizona in December 1846.
The origins of the battalion lay in the wider context of the Mexican-American War. Also known as the Mexican War, it was an armed conflict between the United States and Mexico from 1846 to 1848. The concept of Manifest Destiny held that the United States had the providential right to expand to the Pacific Ocean. The United States annexed the Republic of Texas in 1845, which had won independence from Mexico in the Texas Revolution of 1835. Diplomatic efforts to establish an agreement on the Texas-Mexico border, and to purchase the territories of California and New Mexico had failed. President James K. Polk had sent an envoy to Mexico with an offer of up to $20,000,000 ($739,863,157.89 in 2022) in return for California and New Mexico. No Mexican leader would be willing to cede half his country and still have the ability to stay in power, therefore Polk’s envoy was not received. To bring pressure, Polk sent General Zachary Taylor to the disputed area along the Rio Grande. When the Mexicans fired on the troops in April of that year, Polk had found the rationale he needed to justify an attempt to seize the land by force. In a written message to Congress in 1846, Polk explained that “war exists between the two countries because the Mexican government has at last shed the blood of our fellow-citizens on our own soil.”
War
The prospect of war imbued Americans with a strong sense of patriotism, as it was among the few things in which both Northerners and Southerners could agree upon at the time. In the decades preceding the Civil War, the issue of slavery remained divisive. According to Jay Sexton, Polk believed that westward expansion would serve to accomplish his goal of settling the question of slavery, as Manifest Destiny presented expansion in racial and territorial terms. Polk's agenda during his presidency, unlike that of his two immediate predecessors, would be largely driven by foreign policy considerations. In the nineteenth century, quarrels and conflict with the European powers, most notably the British Empire, were still a matter of concern. However, American leaders believed that their destiny was to become an imperial power, while also aiming for a more inspired purpose than their European cousins.
As the national government made its preparations for war, despite the varied hardship of having to navigate political differences, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints was experiencing difficulties of its own. Known by the pejorative term of “Mormon” due to their belief in the Book of Mormon, since its founding in 1830, members of the Church frequently had conflicts, misunderstandings and difficult relations due to their religious beliefs. Hostile sentiment had caused them to be forced out of New York, Missouri and Illinois. In 1844, the Church’s founder, Joseph Smith, was killed at Carthage. The death of their leader raised questions about the Church’s survival as the Saints faced increased persecution. In 1846, tensions reached their peak, and the Saints were once again forced to move. Brigham Young succeeded to the position of president, and he sought to move the Saints from Nauvoo to the Mountain West.
To the West
Under the leadership of Young, the Saints believed in their own manifest destiny to settle in the West. Norma Ricketts points out that there were some 20,000 saints who embarked to cross the prairie, carrying only what they could in wagons and carts, along with their livestock. During the Winter of 1846, Latter-day Saint leaders in Winter Quarters laid plans for the continued migration of the large number of Saints. Upon their arrival in Iowa, Elder Jesse C. Little was tasked with asking the government for help in securing safe passage to the West. Brigham Young and the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles saw this as an opportunity to recruit men from among the Saints to participate in Polk’s War. It was at this time that Young first met Thomas L. Kane from Philadelphia with deep personal connections to the Polk administration.
The Polk Administration initially questioned the loyalty of the church, as it was thought that if the Saints moved West, they may potentially join forces with a foreign power and make themselves a threat. The relations between the Church and the government had been fraught with tension, as the government expressed a hostile indifference to their struggles. Kane, who had become friendly to the Saints, advocated for them, assuring the Polk Administration that they “retained American hearts, and would not side with Mexico.” There were many among the Saints who were reluctant to enlist, still suspicious of the government's intentions. At the behest of Polk, James Allen was sent to Mt. Pisgah, to a camp of homeless Latter-day Saints who had been driven from their homes by anti-Mormon mobs, to recruit a battalion of 500 men to fight. After he met with Brigham Young, Young endorsed the plan, saying that while the goal was not patriotism in itself, participating would hopefully allay the suspicions of the people as the Church endeavored to move West.
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Now read part 2 about the journey west here.
