Lessons from the Doctrine and Covenants 2025
Lesson No. One

Lessons For Our Lives From the Mormon Battalion

Introduction – Susan and I along with 25 of our children and grandchildren visited the Mormon Battalion Historic Site in San Diego, California on New Year’s Day 2025. We were very impressed with the presentation. More importantly there are lessons from the Mormon Battalion that each of us should apply in our personal lives. These lessons could be part of our new year resolutions, and are consistent with our study of Doctrine and Covenants in Come Follow Me for 2025. (The quotes in this Lesson are from the Church History section of the Church web site)

A short history of the Mormon Battalion: In February 1846 latter day saints were driven from their homes in Navuoo in the dead of winter. They gathered on the plains of Iowa and Nebraska and suffered terrible hardships. Brigham Young asked US President James K. Polk for redress for the crimes committed against the Saints. He also sought support for the Saints to move west. President Polk offered to enlist 500 men as soldiers to fight in the war against Mexico.

Most men hesitated to leave their families at such a difficult time: Brigham Young wrote and encouraged them to enlist saying: “President (James Polk) wants to do us good and secure our confidence. The outfit of this five hundred men costs us nothing, and their pay will be sufficient to take their families over the mountains. There is war between Mexico and the United States, to whom California must fall a prey, and if we are the first settlers the old citizens cannot have a Hancock or Missouri pretext to mob the Saints. The thing is from above for our own good.”

543 men enlisted because a prophet of God asked them to. It was as simples as that:

- Zadoc Judd wrote, "This was quite a hard pill to swallow-to leave wives and children on the wild prairie, destitute and almost helpless . . . , but the word came from the right source and seemed to bring the spirit of conviction of its truth with it and there was quite a number of company volunteered, myself and brother among them."

- James S. Brown observed that he did "not suppose there is an individual in the Battalion, who, had he been left to his own thoughts and feelings, independent of counsel, would have enlisted." He added, "I would have felt very reluctant under the circumstances had it not been for the counsel of my brethren whom God authorized to dictate the affairs of His kingdom."

- Daniel B. Rawson wrote, “I felt indignant toward the Government that had suffered me to be raided and driven from my home. … I would not enlist. [Then] we met President Brigham Young … calling for recruits. He said the salvation of Israel depended upon the raising of the army. When I heard this my mind changed. I felt that it was my duty to go.”

Question: Am I willing to follow our living Prophet, even though it may seem very hard?

Before the Battalion left they received a blessing from President Young who promised “they would have no fighting to do.” The Battalion fought no battles and there were no war casualties. This is remarkable considering the Battalion completed the longest march in US Army history. Furthermore, the migration to Utah kept the men of the Battalion, and the Church in general, out of the Civil War which began a few years later. The Civil War was the deadliest in US history.

Question: In the scriptures and at every general conference we are promised many glorious blessings. Am I striving every day to qualify for these most remarkable blessings?

The Mormon Battalion did not have to fight but they were not spared from challenges and adversity: “They did, however, face hardships, including fatigue, hunger, and sickness. Their most severe challenges were lack of water and harsh terrain. Battalion member Henry G. Boyle said, ‘We were all weary and fatigued, hungry, nearly naked, and barefoot, but our burning thirst drowned every other suffering’…. After one waterless stretch on the march, Colonel Philip St. George Cooke observed, "Any other company under like circumstances would have mutinied.’"

Question: When I experience challenges and adversity do I stay faithful, or am I inclined to mutiny against the Lord and His servants?

The men of the Battalion did not murmur, but maintained their faith in spite of suffering. William Coray said, "Notwithstanding the extreme suffering of the men, there was not much grumbling after all." Their attitude was grounded in their trust in God and their gratitude for His mercies. Upon being ordered to go to San Diego at the end of the march, Robert S. Bliss expressed faith that represented the feelings of many of his fellow soldiers. He testified, "God be praised for his protection over us according to the Word of his Servant the Prophet."

33 women, 20 of whom were hired as laundresses receiving pay and rations, accompanied the Battalion: These exceptional women endured all of the hardships the men did, and probably more. And they neither murmured nor complained. They must have been great examples for the men.

Question: Am I more like the Battalion and Nephi and Sam, or more like Laman and Lemuel?

President Young promised their expedition would “result in great good.” This promise was fulfilled many ways including the following:

- The pioneer families had no money to buy necessities for their journey to Utah. The battalion was given a clothing allowance of $42 (about $1,600 in today’s dollars) to buy uniforms. But, wearing a uniform was not mandatory so most of the money was donated to a general Church fund. These funds were used to purchase necessities for the journey to Utah.

- In addition to the clothing allowance, the actual wages paid over the next year to the Mormon Battalion totaled nearly $30,000. Brigham Young later wrote that this money was a "peculiar manifestation of the kind providence of our Heavenly Father at this time.”

- The local Indian tribes were helpful. Soldiers learned irrigation methods from these natives. They later employed these techniques throughout the West benefiting many, even today.

- They carved out a wagon road with picks, shovels, and even their bare hands across the barren deserts – a road which thousands would later follow enroute to California. Many helped establish additional wagon routes connecting California, Nevada, and Utah.

- When the Battalion reached San Diego the Mexican-American War was over but the men still owed six months of military service. Some received an assignment to stay in San Diego, where they worked on public service projects, including the construction of a courthouse. Most went to Los Angeles to help build a fort and to guard Cajon Pass, a route through the mountains.

Question: Do I do everything I can to bless my family, my Church, and my country?

President Young promised that their “names would be handed down in honorable remembrance to all generations.” This promise has been fulfilled by a visitor center in San Diego, and by monuments in many other places. Many people know something about the Battalion.

“Significantly, the person who has come to best represent them was not a soldier at all, but a woman—Melissa Coray, the 18-year-old bride of Sergeant William Coray. Melissa was one of four women who marched all the way to San Diego with the battalion….In 1901, when asked by a reporter about walking with the battalion, she simply said: “I didn’t mind it. I walked because I wanted to. My husband had to walk and I went along by his side.” In 1994 the United States government dedicated a mountain in the Sierra Nevada Mountains east of Sacramento in her honor—Melissa Coray Peak, a fitting and permanent memorial to the men and women of the Mormon Battalion.

Testimony: The primary lesson learned from the Mormon Battalion is the blessings that come if we follow the Prophet. This is also a primary message of the Doctrine and Covenants that we will be studying in 2025 (see DC 20:4-9), and it is an important teaching of the temple. I testify that if we follow the living Prophet our names will be written in the Lamb’s book of life, and like the Mormon Battalion our righteous posterity will hold us in honorable remembrance for many generations.

Released on January 4th. 2025.