The Mormon Battalion: Its History and Achievements

“The Lieutenant-Colonel commanding congratulates the Battalion on their safe arrival on the shores of the Pacific ocean, and the conclusion of their march of over two thousand miles. History will be searched in vain for an equal march of infantry.”

 

So wrote Lieutenant-Colonel P. St. George Cooke in “Order No. I,” from “Head Quarters Mormon Battalion, Mission of San Diego”, under date of January 30th, 1847. If Col. Cooke is accurate in his statement—and one has a right to assume that he is, since he was a graduate of the United States Military academy of West Point, and hence versed in the history of such military incidents —then the march of this Battalion is a very wonderful performance. For if history might be searched in vain for an equal march of infantry when Col. Cooke wrote his “Order No. I,” then certainly, no march of infantry since that time has equaled it.

 

The only other historical marches that are comparable with the Mormon Battalions’ march are Xenophon’s and Doniphan’s, the former in ancient, the latter in modern times.