Battalion story incongruous, inspiring
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The whole drama of the Mormon Battalion is at the same time incongruous and inspiring, declared Elder Lance B. Wickman of the Seventy June 16.
The General Authority was the featured speaker at the annual Mormon Battalion Heritage Day held at the Mormon Battalion Monument on the grounds of the Utah State Capitol. This year's heritage day comes at a time of triumph for the U.S. Mormon Battalion Inc., the modern-day service organization that seeks to preserve the memory and legacy of the battalion. On this occasion, construction of a new headquarters building was announced — the first such structure in the group's history.
The building, together with a memorial trail and park, will be built at This Is The Place Heritage Park in Salt Lake City. Director Robert Pettegrew Paul said it will be built in the park's Old Deseret Village across from the Pioneer Cemetery wherein are interred the remains of pioneers that were unexpectedly unearthed during a construction project in downtown Salt Lake City.
Built to replicate a building that existed in Utah from 1847 to 1896, it will follow the same general pattern of other military posts of the period, Brother Paul said. Steven T. Baird, whose architectural restorations include the buildings at historic Nauvoo, Ill., and the master plan at This Is The Place Heritage Park, is designing the building. Edward J. Fraughton, who created the famous sculpture of the Mormon Battalion Solider that stands on Presidio Hill above Old Town in San Diego, Calif., is designing the trail that will surround the building on a two-acre site.
The building will house archives and artifacts pertaining to the battalion's history and is intended to be a location for scholarly research and study as well as a visitors attraction with live demonstrations of 1840s drills, color guard and military activities and portrayals of the living conditions experienced by battalion members during their march from Fort Leavenworth, Kan., to San Diego, Calif.
And the trail will correspond to the departure and arrival points at Fort Leavenworth and San Diego, with points along the trail representing experiences in Pueblo, Colo.; Santa Fe, N.M.; Fort Bridger, Wyo.; and Salt Lake City, among other locations.
Funds are being raised for the facility from among descendants of battalion members, with the completed structure to be conveyed to the park for perpetual maintenance, said Brother Paul, who himself is a descendant of a prominent battalion soldier, Robert Pettegrew.
Elder Wickman began his address by describing San Diego in winter, saying it can "seem like paradise."
"The column of half-naked, half-starved, unkempt, shaggy-faced men — many barefoot or shod only in rags or rough cowhide — that straggled into the little mission of San Diego on that late January day of 1847 must have seemed strangely out of place in such charitable surroundings," he said of the battalion.
"Truly it was incongruous.
"But, then, the whole saga of the Mormon Battalion is incongruous. It's origin among wretched refugees struggling for survival on the windswept Iowa prairies; its roster formed from the unlikely, — even bizarre — combination of hard-bitten Regular Army officers and the adherents of a despised and misunderstood religious sect; the willingness of these refugees to serve a country that had turned its back on them in their hour of need, particularly where such service would leave their wives and children bereft in an untamed wilderness; their long walk in the sun — that became a march into history — across prairie mountain and trackless desert; their abject willingness to suffer unspeakable privations; their vibrant faith in their God, their prophet and, eventually, in their tough and austere commander — the entire drama is incongruous indeed! Incongruous and inspiring!"
Elder Wickman told of having some responsibility for the open house and dedication of the San Diego California Temple. "As we were approaching the beginning of the open house in early 1993, I found myself thinking constantly about the men of the Mormon Battalion," he said. "I am not sure why. I had no ancestor who marched in their ranks. . . . Whatever the reason, I felt we could not raise the curtain on the temple without doing something to remember their sacrifice."
He said he arranged to have a color guard of men in uniform from one of the Mormon Battalion commemorative associations and a solitary bugler playing "To the Colors" as the Stars and Stripes were raised for the first time over the temple's sacred premises.
"The witching notes of the bugle floated across the tranquility of the temple grounds," he recalled. "And in that moment I felt them there — the men of the battalion — formed one last time in silent ranks as the flag of the land they had served so valiantly rose above the temple that represented Zion they had sought so earnestly. Tears filled my eyes."
Also speaking to the gathering was Brother Fraughton, the sculptor who is designing the memorial trail for the new facility in Salt Lake City.
"The success of the Mormon Battalion made it possible for six new states to enter the union," he said. "The Mormon Battalion constructed a southern roadway connecting the United States and eastern America with the Pacific Ocean. The Mormon Battalion expanded the original Spanish and San Diego missions and the small settlement of Los Angeles into major U.S. cities. . . . Members of the battalion greatly assisted in the expansion of San Francisco prior to the discovery of gold. They published the first newspaper in California. They influenced the design of the California state flag. They literally uncovered the first gold discovered at Sutter's Mill in California in 1848. The clothing allowance issued to the Mormon Battalion at Fort Leavenworth, Kan., supplied the essential financing for the westward migration and settlement of the Mormons in the valley of the Great Salt Lake."
