Mormon Battalion is the forgotten fighting force that never fired a shot

May 26—BUDAGHERS — The 20-foot sandstone monument topped by a steel wagon wheel looked awfully lonely on a recent Saturday morning.

Commuters who've driven past it enough on Interstate 25 — standing on a dead-end frontage road just south of the deserted ¡Traditions! outlet mall — might say it's always lonely. It's rare to find roadside visitors poring over the inscription on the face of the monument, first erected in 1940 to honor the Mormon Battalion and its contribution to the U.S. during the Mexican-American War of the 1840s.

The Mormon Battalion?

That's right. On this Memorial Day weekend, one of the most forgotten military stories in the history of the state is of a religious unit that never fired a shot in anger — yet played an unmistakable role in America's westward expansion through New Mexico.

The unit was a contingent of about 500 members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints who forged the first reliable wagon route from New Mexico to California. In doing so, they also forwarded the vast ambitions of then-U.S. President James K. Polk.

Some historians say the combination of the Battalion's presence, Polk's insistence and ensuing settlers' resilience eventually spurred the U.S. to acquire some 30,000 square miles north of Mexico in the Gadsden Purchase of the 1850s — a ground-grabbing deal that gave the nation more land in New Mexico and Arizona than it had already gained in the Mexican-American War.

The Mormon Battalion's story has largely been forgotten because it didn't participate in gun-fueled battles with the Mexican army or any raiders along the trail during the war, said longtime New Mexico historian Paul Hutton.

"The fact that there are no battles kind of undercuts the drama of it all," he said. "It's not a Hollywood story."

Perhaps, but Hutton also noted, "It is a very significant story. It shows very clearly the mindset of conquest that was going on. They were going to take California — that's the whole point of the war. It was 1846. The war had two more years to go, and already they were trying to take roads. It was Manifest Destiny all the way."

President Polk, he said, was looking ahead in having the U.S. Army scout and pave a wagon route in the southwestern part of the state as a way to break into what then was Mexican territory. The goal, he added, was to pave a new passage for exploration and conquest between the Rio Grande and the Pacific Ocean.

The Mormons were mustered into service in July 1846, in Council Bluffs, Iowa. The unusual move to have them in the U.S. Army came at an opportune, perhaps even desperate, moment in LDS Church history.

According to a 2019 article on the battalion by Mormon historian Brandon J. Metcalf, members were on the verge of leaving their headquarters city of Nauvoo, Ill., to escape persecution and mob violence.

"Under the direction of Brigham Young, President of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, they would leave their homes and most of their belongings behind. They would eventually establish a new community in the Salt Lake Valley," Metcalf wrote, adding Young reached out to Polk via an emissary for financial support to make the move, which would take the Mormons into what was then Mexican-held territory.

Otherwise, Young hinted, the Mormons might look for support to start a new community from the Mexicans, who had been at war with the United States since April 1846.

Polk decided to recruit the Mormons for the planned wagon route mission to support "the conquest of the West," Metcalf said in an interview.

The Mormons were paid cash for their contribution and given an additional allotment for clothes and supplies. They enlisted for one year of service, and nearly 500 set out to New Mexico in July 1846, though closer to 400 actually took on the trek from Santa Fe to San Diego. The rest fell ill before the departure from New Mexico and were sent elsewhere for medical aid. About 20 or so died from illness and disease along the way to California.

Though some sources say the Mormons agreed to take part in the expedition only under the promise of not having to take part in warfare, Hutton and other New Mexico historians doubt that is true. After all, they contend, the battalion must surely have known it could come under enemy fire or run into Native Americans or other forces that might have posed a threat.

Rather, said Brandon Morgan, an associate dean in the school of liberal arts at Central New Mexico Community College, "Brigham Young told them if they were faithful to God they would be protected in battle."

"There was no question there was fear," Metcalf said in an interview. "It's easy to look back now, knowing the outcome of events and say, 'They never fought,' but they didn't know that at the time ... none of them knew they were not going to be engaged in battle."

There was one run-in with Mexican dragoons somewhere near Tucson in which both sides threatened the other without actual violence. Both sides took a few prisoners from the other side and then returned them. Otherwise, the only shots fired were probably to kill live game for food.

New Mexico's rugged elements — the desert, rocky terrain, troublesome bulls which stampeded the Mormon camp near Tucson, and a lack of food and water — posed a more threatening challenge to the battalion. Journeying first south along the Rio Grande to where the current New Mexico/Mexico border is, the explorers then ventured west, creating a wagon way.

Lt. Col. P. St. George Cooke, the U.S. Army officer in charge of the expedition, later filed a military report honoring the dedication of the Mormons, who often marched forward without water and little hope of finding any in an unforgiving desert.

He wrote of the brigade carving out "a passage, with axes, through a chasm of solid rock, which lacked a foot of being as wide as the wagons." Some of the wagons were taken through in pieces while the work to open the chasm further continued, he wrote.

He estimated the brigade, which started out from New Mexico in mid-October 1946 and arrived in California in late January of 1847, marched 102 days with the average marching day running around 13 miles. There were 14 days when no marching was done, he wrote.

The Mormons, Cooke wrote in the report, should be credited with "the cheerful and faithful manner in which they have accomplished the great labors of this march and submitted to its exposures and privation."

A recognition with controversy

The Mormons benefited their own cause, Morgan said, in that they were able to scout out other possible settlements for church members. Many did stay in California, serving as a vanguard for future LDS communities, he said. The rest served out their terms until July 1847 and returned to join their comrades settling in Salt Lake City.

Metcalf said the journey gave Mormons "confidence" to know they could conquer new challenges and build new Mormon communities in the West.

The route became known as Cooke's Wagon Road. Metcalf said that path "would become a major freighter and immigration route" over the years.

Interestingly, the monument honoring their trek is along I-25, though it's unclear why. Though it was sponsored by the Committee for the Erection of the Mormon Battalion Monument, there is little documentation about why the site was chosen.

Metcalf said it was likely sponsored by local New Mexico branches of the Latter-day Saints church. He said there may be as many 80 monuments and markers to the Mormon Battalion scattered throughout the West.

A June 17, 1940, Albuquerque Journal story says several thousand people attended the opening dedication of the New Mexico monument, with "high state officials" and dignitaries in attendance as well. The story did not outline why the monument was located where it was, about midway between Santa Fe and Albuquerque.

Its inscription reads "history may search in vain for an equal band of infantry who ventured through a wilderness where nothing but ______ and wild beasts were found."

Yup, there's a word missing from the plaque.

The word is "savages," according to a 1941 photo of the monument state Historian Rob Martinez found.

The word, of course, is loaded — it influenced protesters to topple the Soldiers' Monument in the Santa Fe Plaza during an Indigenous People's Day event in 2020.

"Much like the soldiers' monument in Santa Fe, obviously this was a plaque of its time and had a certain bent and perspective," Martinez said of the Mormon Battalion monument. Over time, he said, someone likely found offense with the word and chiseled it away.

Morgan said it's possible the word was removed between 1982, when the monument was dismantled to make room for additional construction on I-25, and 1996, when it was rebuilt with some new materials using $30,000 in funds approved by the Legislature. At that time, the monument was relocated a bit further north.

Martinez said he recalled visiting the monument as a child during a road journey with his family. He said while it tells "a curious little untold story of our history," it's probably one of the least known or visited historical sites in the state. It's like a ghost monument."