Mormon Battalion march
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SAN JUAN CAPISTRANO, Calif. — Mormon history repeated itself on March 20, 2004.
Mormon Battalion re-enactors marched up to the Mission San Juan Capistrano on that date — precisely 157 years after the original battalion walked up to the historic mission.
On March 20, 1847, the Mormon Battalion stopped at the Mission San Juan Capistrano en route to El Pueblo de Los Angeles to secure California for the United States. They met the leading families of the area and camped at the rancho of Don Juan Avila.
On March 20, 2004, the battalion re-enactors paraded into San Juan Capistrano as part of the Swallows Day Parade. And like the original battalion, they were warmly welcomed.
"It was a great day for our community," said Guy Dickson, the multi-stake historical affairs director for the Church in Orange County, Calif. "We literally walked in the footsteps of our pioneer forefathers."
About 100 members and others joined in the re-enactment, coming from as far north as Sacramento and as far south as San Diego. They were part of the annual Swallows Day Parade, which is the largest non-motorized parade in the United States.
The Mormon Battalion, a group of about 500 men, marched more than 2,000 miles from Council Bluffs, Iowa, to San Diego, California, to assist the United States in the war against Mexico. Church leader Brigham Young persuaded the men to join the military and to consecrate their wages to the Church as it migrated west. But when the battalion arrived on January 29, 1847, the war was already over. So instead of fighting, they helped build early California.
They started in San Diego, constructing the first U.S. courthouse and many other buildings in the city. They then marched to Los Angeles, built Ft. Moore and raised the first U.S. flag there.
After being discharged from the service on July 16, 1847, some battalion members went north to work at John Sutter's sawmill, where the discovery of gold precipitated the Gold Rush.
Battalion members also carved a wagon road over the Sierra Nevadas, opening the way to California for the Westward Movement. Some joined the Latter-day Saints who arrived in the Salt Lake Basin on July 24, 1847, and then returned with their families to colonize Rancho San Bernardino in 1851.
In the process, Mormons became an integral part of California history. Apostles Amasa Lyman and Charles Rich, who led the colony to San Bernardino, also scouted out the ranchos of Orange County for places to settle. Other Mormons followed.
But the first Mormons in Orange County were the soldiers who marched from San Diego to Los Angeles in the spring of 1847 on the old El Camino Real.
According to journals, they hiked up the coast from modern-day San Clemente to Dana Point. When they reached San Juan Creek, they headed inland to the mission at San Juan Capistrano.
W.B. Pace of the early battalion wrote: "Marched at 7 and traveled 9 miles up the sea shore where the waves would often wash up under our feet. We then turned off the Coast and past St. John's Mission and traveled two miles and encampt at a large Rancho, where they bought some beef cattle and some horses."
The battalion camped there at the rancho of Don Juan Avila on March 20, 1847, before continuing their march toward Los Angeles. But those soldiers, who went on to make many contributions to California, also left their mark on Orange County. A memorial marks the spot at Sycamore Park in Mission Viejo.
