| |
New Mormon Battalion Book
Families with the
Mormon Battalion March of 1846-48 by Gaylen & Shirley Maynes
This book provides biographies and histories of the
33 wives, their husbands and children and other family members who
went with the Mormon Battalion in 1846-48. All of the women,
except 5, and their children and the family members, left the main
body of the Battalion at various points along the way and wintered in
Pueblo, Colorado, where the Mississippi Saints had settled a few
months before. The book also has more than 60 pictures.
|
|
 |
Collectible Pin:
Due to high demand, the Mormon
Battalion Association has commissioned 500 additional
collectable pins to be made based
on the Ed Fraughton Sculpture. The new highly detailed
pins are gold plated. The original pins sold out
quickly, so order now.
Click Here
|
|
12/24/2009:
-
The Calendar is now back
online.
-
Search Engine is back online.
-
Spring 2009
newsletter.
-
Roster updated.
-
2009 Essay Contest results posted.
-
Links updated
-
1840 Basic Shirt Pattern
-
Foster's Hole pictures
-
Song - The Bullfight on the
San Pedro
-
Added information on Mitchell Map in
Store
-
James Riley Allred, Company A,
Bio
-
New pictures in Member
Gallery
-
Thomas Steven Williams, Company D
-
Nathan Hawk, Company B
-
Stephen Watts Kearny, Brig. Gen., Commander, Army of the West
-
John Brown (Leader of the Mississippi Saints)
-
Thomas Kane
-
Philip St. George Cook (additional image)
-
Thomas Woolsey, Company E (Bio)
-
Samuel Myers, Company B
-
Clinton Doneral Bronson, Company A (Bio)
-
Thomas Richardson, Company E (Updated)
-
James Calvin Sly, Company B + Bio + Journal
-
Lisbon Lamb, Company D
-
Andrew Jackson Smith, 1LT, Acting Commander
-
Ephraim John Pearson, Company B (Bio)
-
George David Black, Company C
-
Jesse Sowell Brown, Company C (Additional Picture)
-
Alexander Brown, Company C (2 Additional Pictures)
-
James Brown, Company D (Additional Picture)
-
William Wallace Casper, Company A (Bio)
-
Daniel Coon Davis, Company E + Picture of Sword
-
Samuel Campbell, Company E (Additional Picture)
-
Jacob Kemp Butterfield, Company A (Additional Picture)
-
David Frederick, Company A (Letters)
-
George Stoneman, Quatermaster
-
Jesse Walker Johnston, Company C (Journal)
-
Robert H. Brown, Company D + Bio
-
Sarah Jane Brown (Lowry), Company D + Bio
-
Eunice Reasor Brown, Company D + Bio
-
Mary Ann Brown (Buchanan), Company D + Bio
-
Daniel Henrie, Company D (Alternate Picture + Bio)
-
John Brimhall, Company C (Bio)
-
Elijah Thomas, Company C (Alternate Picture)
-
Thomas Morris, Company B
-
Henry Willard Brizzee, Company D (Additional Picture)
-
George Washington Catlin, Company C
See the Site News page
for more Mormon Battalion News.
|
|
|
|
Brief History of the U.S. Mormon Battalion
The need to assist the U. S. Army in
the Mexican war was urgent [1846]. President James K. Polk instructed the Secretary of
War, William L. March to authorize Col. (later General) Stephen W. Kearney, Commander of
the Army of the West, to enlist a battalion of 500 Mormons for this purpose. Captain
James
Allen was ordered to proceed to the Mormon Camps in Iowa to recruit five companies of 75
to 100 men each.
The Mormons had many reasons to be reluctant to enlist: They had
received no protection from persecution and mob action in Missouri and Illinois; their
families were destitute and spread over a wide area; they had hundreds of miles of hostile
Indian territory to cross; they worried how their families would suffer in the bitter
plains winter; and of course, the Mormons had particularly close family ties and were
concerned about protection for their families located on the western frontier.
However, President Brigham Young and the governing Council of the
L.D.S. Church urged the men to enlist, telling them it was their patriotic duty to join.
Five companies totaling over 500 men were mustered in at Council Bluffs, Iowa on July 16,
1846. There were 32 women, of which 20 were laundresses hired at private's pay, that left
with the Battalion. They made one of the longest marches in military history consisting of 2,000
miles from Council Bluffs, Iowa to San Diego, California.
President Brigham Young told them: "Brethren, you will be
blessed, if you will live for those blessings which you have been taught to live for.
The
Mormon Battalion will be held in honorable remembrance to the latest generation; and I
will prophesy that the children of those who have been in the army, in defense of their
country, will grow up and bless their fathers for what they did at that time. And men and
nations will rise up and bless the men who went in that Battalion. These are my feelings
in brief respecting the company of men known as the Mormon Battalion. When you consider
the blessings that are laid upon you, will you not live for them? As the Lord lives, if
you will but live up to your privileges, you will never be forgotten, without end, but you
will be had in honorable remembrance, for ever and ever."
In addition to the 500 men, some of the officers chose to take their
families and their possessions and their own wagons at no expense to the government, which
the Army permitted. There were 15 or 16 families, including 50 or 55 children and
dependents, who left Council Bluffs with the Battalion.
In 1954 the present organization called the Mormon
Battalion Association (formerly U. S. Mormon Battalion,
Inc.) was formed to help fulfill Brigham Young's prophecy to those Mormon Battalion men.
Also an Auxiliary to the Mormon Battalion Association was formed for the women.
--Carl V. Larson and Shirley Maynes. Women of the Mormon Battalion. A B
C Printing 1997
This web site was started on July 10, 1997 as an eagle scout
project by Brian Cole of West Jordan, UT.
All questions regarding the Mormon Battalion and this Web Site
should be directed to the Contact Information Page
Click Here to
Recommend this Site to a Friend
Subscribe to our News Mailing List
. As a member of the mailing list, you will receive notification
of updates and additions to our web site. You will
also receive information on newsworthy Mormon Battalion
articles, events, and other items of interest.
|
The song you are listening to is "The Girl I Left
Behind Me". Quoting from "A Concise History of the Mormon Battalion in the
Mexican War" by Daniel Tyler "On the 29th (July 1846), we passed St. Joseph,
then a town of some importance, in good order, keeping time to the tune of 'The Girl I
Left Behind Me,' and camped one mile outside of the town."
See The Lyrics |
|
