The US Army’s Mormon Battalion
As driven home in the remarkable story of Desmond Doss—recently immortalized in Mel Gibson’s film “Hackshaw Ridge”—internal religious conflict is nothing new in warfare. While Doss’s internal conflict brings him up against the institutional inflexibility of the US Army, however, almost a century earlier it was the Army that adapted to meet the needs of its soldiery, creating the only doctrinally selective regiment in US military history: the Mormon Unit.
Their acceptance into the US Army was far from an act of charity. In May 1846, a few days after US Senate had declared war on Mexico, Mormon Elder Jesse C. Little arrived in Washington to offer the government the support of his persecuted men if they would help them migrate west to the Rocky Mountains and Salt Lake Valley. President James K. Polk ultimately acquiesced, but his decision to incorporate them was conciliatory rather than voluntarily, making sure they didn’t join the war on Mexico’s side.
Bingham Young, the president of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, saw recruitment into the unit as a wonderful PR opportunity for the Latter-day Saints to prove their patriotism. Within three weeks, five companies had been raised consisting of over 500 men. But it wasn’t just male soldiers (aged between 14 – 67) who made up the motley band. Thirty-three women and 51 children also embarked on the 1,900-mile march west from Iowa to San Diego on July 16, 1846.
The Mormon Battalion only ever fought one battle. And it wasn’t, as you might expect, against Mexican forces, but against a rampaging herd of bulls. On their approach to the San Pedro River in modern-day Arizona, the Battalion was forced to engage the cattle as they ran amok amongst their wagons, destroying supplies and wounding two soldiers. The Mormons won. Obviously. The final death toll was 10 – 15 bulls. But the unit also indirectly helped prevent further bloodshed between Californios and Luiseño tribespeople by intervening after the Temecula Massacre and standing guard while the Luiseño collected their dead.
Of the 534 – 559 men who enlisted in the battalion, 22 died of disease during the campaign. All but 80 of the others were discharged in Los Angeles on July 16, 1847. In terms of their military legacy, the Mormon Battalion has left little trace. After all, their only military engagement was against wildlife. Instead, their main legacy is as pioneers for positive relationships between the US government and Mormon immigrants and as colonizers of California in the aftermath of the Mexican-American War.