Mormon Battalion and Winter Quarters
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Mormon Battalion
Battalion- 200-500 soldiers
Camped in Iowa and asked to join
US fighting war with Mexico
500 men joined, 34 women as
laundresses, and children
• Mormons being persecuted, so why would
they help?
• Leader Brigham
Young said they
needed to do it
as their patriotic
duty
• Without his
counsel there
may not have
been a Mormon
Battalion
Historian, Sherman L. Fleek
• The common reasons that other men joined the army—
individual or collective patriotism, adventure, boredom,
or avoiding the law—did not apply to the Mormon men
who enlisted because of the directives and desires of
their ecclesiastical leader, Brigham Young. There is no
doubt that without Brigham Young’s acceptance of
the offer to form the battalion, there would have been
no Mormon Battalion. The men enlisted as a religious
duty rather than as a call to arms, and their service was
linked to the promise that if they enlisted to support and
help fund the Mormon trek across the plains, the church
in turn would support their families. Some of the salaries
and allowances that these soldiers earned were donated
to representatives for church use. No other American
military unit has been formed to forward the cause of
a religious group. Religion was central to the men, and
it shaped the battalion in many ways. (History May Be
Searched in Vain: A Military History of the Mormon
Battalion)
Counsel from Brigham Young to
Mormon Battalion
• I instructed the captains to be fathers to their companies,
and manage their affairs by the power and influence of
their priesthood, then they would have power to preserve
their lives and the lives of their companies and escape
difficulties. I told them I would not be afraid to pledge
my right hand that every man will return alive, if they
will perform their duties faithfully, without murmuring, and
go in the name of the Lord…keep neat and clean, teach
chastity, gentility, and civility; swearing must not be
admitted, insult no man; have no contentious
conversation with any [type] of people…Should the
battalion engage with the enemy and be successful, treat
prisoners with the greatest civility, and never take life, if it
can be avoided. (in Daniel S. Tyler, Concise History of the
Mormon Battalion, Salt Lake City, 1881, pg. 128-129).
• Marched from Council Bluffs, Iowa to San Diego,
California
• 2,000 miles—one of the longest infantry
marches!
• Only religious unit in military history
• How would it be to march through the desert in
the July heat?
Mormon Battalion
• Ate hard tac
• Sang daily “The Girl I Left Behind Me”
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=61xLSoAd8
6c)
• Most used the flintlock 1816 model gun
(weighted 9 lbs. 5 ft long and 16-18 in
bayonets!)
• Only “battle” with the buffalo stampede
• 3 men injured, several dozen buffalo killed (used
as food)
Effects of the Mormon Battalion
• First wagons to
cross this route
• Blazed the trail for
the gold seekers
going to California
• Helped westward
expansion
• Some went back
to Utah, some
went back to
Iowa, and some
stayed in
California
Winter Quarters Cemetery
The Winter Quarters experience was difficult.
Many of the men had been taken to join the
Mormon Battalion and the living conditions were
very poor. The remaining men had a staggering
responsibility to ensure that everyone had enough
food and supplies to sustain the struggling group
of Saints. Over 600 people died here and many of
them are buried in the pioneer cemetery.2 In all,
more than 3,400 people lived here and the Saints
were able to establish a community until they left
for Salt Lake.
Winter Quarters was essentially abandoned
in 1848. Those who did not go west immediately,
traveled back across the river to Kanesville which
became the launching place for emigrants going to
the Salt Lake Valley.
Pioneer Story
AMY SUMNER PORTER:
“The trek across Iowa was difficult as the wagons sloshed through rain and sleet,
mired in mud and muck. The trip was particularly hard on me, for I was pregnant
once again. This pregnancy seemed more uncomfortable than all the other, and I
yearned to be living in a home instead of a wagon. Finally it was decided by the
brethren that we could not make all the way west that season. The Saints were tired,
and too weak, and the provisions were low. So we stopped for the winter on the
border of Iowa and Nebraska. We named the place Winter Quarters.
On December 11, I discovered the cause of my special discomfort, when two little
darling baby boys were born twins which we named Joseph and Benjamin. They
came early, and were thus unprepared for the harsh, cold of a snowy winter in a thin
cloth tent which gave free access to piercing winds. They quietly left this earth and
my loving arms the next day, December 12.
It seems the cold bitter weather will never stop. I am weary and worn. My helath
has deteriorated to where I can not move an inch. My dear husband takes me in his
arms and hold me until my bed is made nearly every day. But now he, too, is sick
with the scurvy. Oh, how shall we ever go on?! My little children gather around me,
but I feel a loss to help them, for I can not move myself in bed neither speak out loud.
They surely must know of my love for them, and my hopes for their future. If I cannot
make it too the land of Zion, I am confident that the Lord will answer this prayer of my
heart… that my children will remain faithful, and that through them will come
generations of righteousness.