Mormon Battalion celebrates 164th year!

The Mormon Battalion celebrated its 164^th anniversary on January 29^th with its annual Commemoration in Old Town, San Diego. Booths, marches, cooking demos, and many hands-on activities helped participants get a feel for what the soldiers did in San Diego, such as making bricks, ropes, candles, pioneer dolls and toys, and cooking biscuits on a stick. The newly updated Mormon Battalion Visitor’s Center in the heart of Old Town serves to show the public with interactive audio and visual technology what the soldiers did to bring comfort, peace, and prosperity to the community.

One of the longest and harshest marches in U.S. history by a battalion of men, more than 2000 miles, brought many changes to a small village on the western coast. The first courthouse; the first wells providing clean, fresh water; the first brickyard; these were only a few of the “firsts” that came as a result of the Mormon Battalion being stationed at Fort Stockton (now known as Presidio Park), San Diego.

The 500 men that comprised the battalion, plus a few women and children, were recruited at Winter Quarters, Iowa, in July 1846 to assist in the war against Mexico, and they served until January 1847. The soldiers enlisted at the request of Brigham Young and U.S. President James Polk, in exchange for a monthly stipend, a musket, and minimal supplies, plus $42 for a uniform allowance. The money was sent back to their families, and the soldiers wore their own clothing, which were simply rags by the time they marched into the small pueblo known as San Diego. The war with Mexico was over, but members of Company B of the Battalion worked in the community for an additional six months, building brick and adobe homes, whitewashing houses and fences, establishing fresh water wells, and bringing assurance to the villagers that they were safe.