The Mormon Battalion, Its History and Achievements

In 1846, five hundred Mormon men answered their nation's call to arms, leaving behind wives, children, and everything familiar to march two thousand miles across the American West. They were the only religiously-organized unit in U.S. military history, and their journey would prove more grueling than any battle. Roberts chronicles their unprecedented march from Iowa to California, through blistering deserts and mountain passes, with inadequate supplies and conditions that would break lesser men. What makes their sacrifice extraordinary is that they knew exactly what they were leaving behind: five hundred families without providers, five hundred wagons without teamsters. They marched anyway. The Battalion arrived in San Diego in January 1847, having completed the longest armed march in American military history, and went on to help secure California for the United States while their families continued westward. Roberts, writing as the definitive LDS historian of his generation, preserves not just the facts of this remarkable journey but the profound spiritual calculus of men who chose duty over safety, faith over comfort.