When Philip St. George Cooke of the First Dragoons took command of the Mormon Battalion at Santa Fe in October, 1846, he was deeply disappointed at the “extraordinary assignment” he had been given. The thirty-seven-year-old professional soldier had hoped to win glory and advancement at the seat of conflict in the war with Mexico. Instead he had been handed the most remarkable body of volunteers ever to report at Fort Leavenworth for duty in the U.S. Army.

It hardly took eighteen years of service on the American frontier for the six-foot-four officer to see that some of the men assigned...

Mobbings, murders, expulsions, and religious bigotry often were the lot of members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from its beginning in New York state in 1830. Church members were forced to flee from New York to Ohio and Missouri in the mid-1830s. The Ohio Saints arrived in Missouri just in time to witness the final expulsion during the winter of 1838–39. From 1839 to 1844, Illinois seemed to be a haven for the peaceful way of life these outcasts sought, but the cycle repeated itself. After the murder of their leader, Joseph Smith, and his...

Fri., June 26, Mt. Pisgah, Iowa. Five men, in army uniforms and with a baggage wagon, rode into camp. They talked with William Huntington, who was in charge, and Apostle Wilford Woodruff.¹ There was instant alarm when the Saints saw the uniforms. Women rounded up their children and hid them while men reached for their rifles. They thought the soldiers might be spies trying to find out how many Mormons were here and what their plans were. It was only two years since Joseph Smith, the Mormon prophet, was murdered and the sight of the soldiers and the uniforms brought...

Sat., Aug. 1, Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. It took five hours to ferry across the river and reach Fort Leavenworth.¹ There were four hundred Missouri Volunteers and seventy regular soldiers at the garrison when the Mormons arrived. Other troops had gone to Santa Fe with Stephen W. Kearny. When the battalion stopped in the public square, several were shaking with chills and fever. Three heavy rainstorms en route had caused these malaria-like symptoms. Tents were issued, one for every mess of six men, but the tents were very hot when the sun was on them. The heat made more men ill....

Mon., Oct. 12, Santa Fe, New Mexico. Lieutenant Oman and his four companies reached Santa Fe around noon. Company B, under Lieutenant Luddington, arrived at 6 p.m., six hours later. They camped in wheatfields behind the cathedral. The American flag was flying high in the air at Fort Marcy, located on a nearby hill overlooking the town. Colonel Alexander W. Doniphan, who had ordered a salute of one hundred guns from the house tops to honor the arrival of the advance battalion group on October 9, was commander of the post.¹ Doniphan and his regiment of First Missouri Mounted Volunteers...

Mon., Dec. 21, Sacaton Mountains on Gila River, Arizona, 15 miles. On the road at sunrise. The mountains were covered by tall saguaro cactus with arms. After crossing the cannon tracks of General Kearny, they reached the Gila River and camped on grass under trees. A great many Pima Indians came to trade corn, wheat, flour, pumpkins, and beans, a welcome feast for the soldiers. The Pima showed interest and curiosity at the sight of the army wagons, the first wagons they had seen. Amos Cox’s leg had improved from the bull goring, but he still was not able to...

Although the Mormon Battalion reached San Diego January 29, 1847, without firing a single shot at the enemy, it would be another year before the war ended officially with the capture of Mexico City. But in California the conquest was complete; there would be no fighting. The battalion served in peacetime garrisons in San Diego and Los Angeles.

All was not peaceful, however. For several months Stockton, Frémont, and Kearny bickered over who was the supreme American authority in California. Stockton refused to acknowledge Kearny’s authority and withdrew navy and marine detachments from the general’s command. General Kearny and Lieutenant...

After Company B departed for San Diego, the other four companies stayed in San Luis Rey for three days before leaving for Los Angeles March 19. Lieutenant Oman and thirty-two men who were ill remained at the mission.

The experiences of the four companies in Los Angeles were different from those of Company B in San Diego. Pueblo de Los Angeles was much larger than San Diego and there was not the interaction between citizens and the soldiers on helpful, constructive projects in Los Angeles. The soldiers had spare time daily and many recorded how they walked about town. By...

When the Mormon Battalion arrived in California in January 1847, a highly charged political drama was unfolding. Brigadier General Stephen W. Kearny and Commodore Robert F. Stockton had seized Los Angeles January 10 on orders from Washington, D.C. The Californians, led by Andre Pico, fled northward from Los Angeles and surrendered to Lieutenant Colonel John C. Frémont, commander of another United States force in northern California. Frémont had been appointed temporary governor of California by Commodore Stockton. Under Pico’s signature, he and Frémont entered into what has been called the “Cahuenga Capitulation,” a treaty dated January 13, 1847, which essentially...

The five companies of the Mormon Battalion, U.S. Army of the West, were discharged officially at Fort Moore in Los Angeles on July 16, 1847, one year after their enlistment. There were 317 men who lined up for the brief ceremony. After discharge, it took several days for them to receive their final pay and to complete arrangements for their journey. Henry Standage went to Lieutenant A. J. Smith to get his pay for working in the bakery, but Smith refused, saying he was unable to pay without an order from Colonel Stevenson. When Standage went to Colonel Stevenson, he...

The Hunt fifty divided in Monterey with some remaining and others going on to San Francisco with him. Hunt did not stay long in San Francisco but lost several more of his traveling companions. He continued to Sutter’s Fort with about twenty-five of his original Los Angeles company. He joined with the Hancock company to cross the Sierra Nevada. William and Melissa Coray stayed in Monterey because of her advanced pregnancy: “At this place [Monterey] I considered all things and concluded to stop for a season, expecting my wife to be confined any day. I rented a room and went...

After meeting Captain James Brown in the mountains, the men returning to Sutter’s Fort gave most of their supplies and animals to those continuing to Salt Lake Valley. Samuel Miles wrote, “This caused about half our company to return.”¹

So the company divided right where we met each other. Some went on to Winter Quarters, some to the valley and some turned back. I being one of that number. Daniel Browett, [Richard] Slater, [John] Cox, Levi Roberts and myself turned back to Sacramento and went to work for Mr. Sutter who treated us very kindly. The rest of our mess,...

From the “half” who turned back to California in September 1847 to work for a season (Sutter’s workmen), small groups of battalion ex-soldiers left California during the spring and summer of 1848. These men arrived in Salt Lake Valley from September through November 1848.

As they left California on the last portion of their history-making journey, members of the Holmes-Thompson company did not know they would pioneer two more wagon roads before arriving in Salt Lake Valley. They took the first wagons over Carson Pass and built the road that became a major entrance into California for thousands of gold...

In January 1845 there was a flourishing colony of Mormons in Mississippi. Brigham Young sent word to them that men were needed to build the Nauvoo Temple. Seven men—John Brown, William Crosby, John Bankhead, William (Billy) Lay (non-member), Daniel M. Thomas, James Harmon, and James Harrison—left from Monroe County, Mississippi, on March 14. They worked on the temple for three months and left Nauvoo June 3 to return to Mississippi. By August John Brown and William Crosby were on their way back to Nauvoo with their wives, where they continued to work on the temple until it was...

Although members of the battalion had been pressured to enlist for an additional period by the governor of California, army officers, and Mormon officers, they did not reveal their intentions at first to military authorities. Colonel Stevenson wrote to Governor Mason: “Until the day after they were mustered out of the service, there was not the slightest disposition evinced to re-enter, but on the 17th in the afternoon, Capt. Davis and Lieut. Canfield commenced enrolling and on the 20th all were enrolled.”¹ Seventy-nine discharged veterans agreed to serve an additional six months. Three young men, who served as officers’ aides...

The Mormon Battalion was involved in numerous significant events in western history between 1846 and 1849. They blazed the wagon route that became the southern route to California; they demonstrated the importance of the San Pedro and Santa Cruz rivers as transportation corridors, which led to the Gadsden Purchase; they took part in the conquest of California to claim it as part of the United States. The battalion aided the 1847 move to Utah by the Mormons. Fifteen veterans escorted General Stephen Kearny to Fort Leavenworth when he took John C. Frémont to be court-martialed. They participated in the discovery...