Knowledge motivated battalion members
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Suffering extreme hardship, Mormon Battalion members and other pioneer forebears had the fortitude to accomplish what they did because of what they knew, a member of the Quorum of the Twelve said June 12 in the Salt Lake Tabernacle.
Elder M. Russell Ballard was a featured speaker at the Mormon Battalion Heritage Program, "They the Builders of the Nation," sponsored by the heritage group U.S. Mormon Battalion. The 226-voice Southern Utah Heritage Choir presented an assortment of hymns and patriotic music. The program was recorded to be shown in the theater of the U.S. Mormon Battalion headquarters building to be constructed at This Is the Place Heritage Park in Salt Lake City, said program chairman Robert Pettegrew Paul in an interview. It will also be shown in cities located where the battalion passed during its trek from Iowa to California, in hopes that similar programs will be organized in those cities, Brother Paul said.
"When Brigham Young was asked this very challenging question as to whether or not he could supply 500 who would go with the (U.S. ) Army and move west," Elder Ballard said, "here's what he told the people: If the young men would not enlist, the middle-aged and the old men would. But the call of our country should be met if it took the twelve apostles and the high priests."
Regarding pioneer forebears, Elder Ballard said, "Never forget that they had burning in their hearts and minds the reality that Joseph Smith had knelt in the presence of the Father and the Son, that They had spoken to him and that They had called him to be the prophet of this, the Dispensation of the Fulness of Times."
The pioneers were driven, Elder Ballard said, by the realization they were being led by a prophet directing the affairs of the kingdom of God now upon the earth.
He spoke of his family's recent visit to Nauvoo, Ill., where they viewed a new statue of Joseph and Hyrum Smith on horseback on the slope west of the temple.
"Joseph knew in 1842, and maybe even earlier than that, that the saints would be driven to the Rocky Mountains," he said. "Brigham Young had the privilege of a vision wherein he saw Joseph standing on a conical hill, pointing to the (Salt Lake) valley and saying to Brigham, 'Build here.' That hill is Ensign Peak."
Elder Ballard expressed the conviction that President Young, when he first viewed the valley, was looking for the hill he had seen in vision, and, when he spotted it, uttered the famous words "This is the right place; drive on."
"So we have a heritage of being led by prophets, seers and revelators," Elder Ballard affirmed. "It is no accident we are here. It is no accident we have a great responsibility and duty as members of this Church. And pioneering is not over in the Church. . . . Much of it still lies in the future."
Melissa Garff Ballard, Elder Ballard's daughter-in-law, portrayed her third-great-grandmother, Melissa Burton Coray, in a first-person narration. Melissa Coray accompanied her husband, William, on the battalion's 1,300-mile trek from Kanesville, Iowa, to California in 1846-47. They suffered intense hardship, including the loss of a newborn infant. They eventually rejoined the saints in the Salt Lake Valley, but William died in 1849, just a month after the birth of their second child.
Douglas Guy Dickson of the California State LDS Living History Committee spoke of "four cornerstones of the true mission of the Mormon Battalion."
One cornerstone was its members' role of road builders, he said, noting that they built a wagon road into California later used by mail carriers, stage coach, gold-seeking immigrants and the Southern Pacific Railroad.
The second cornerstone was that in San Diego, Company B of the Battalion "built bridges of love and understanding between people who should have been, by all rights, enemies."
"The people loved them. As the battalion was ordered out, they begged the military, please leave them here. When they were told no (they said), 'Please send more Mormonitos here to us.' Many were weeping as children as the battalion marched north to Los Angeles."
The third cornerstone was the battalion's role as peace keepers at a difficult time in the country's history, he said.
He identified the fourth cornerstone as the most important: "In a temporal sense, they were the salvation of this Church. Not my words; Brigham Young's." The pay and clothing allowance they were given financed the westward trek of the Church, and later, the money they earned in California established its financial security in the new settlement.
Anne P. Erekson, Mormon Battalion Women's Auxiliary president, gave tribute to the wives of battalion members. "As we remember our pioneer sisters and their courage and sacrifice, is it not possible that we will do a better job of keeping our own covenants with courage and exactness?" she asked. "Remember that our sisters passed that test. Imagine us now passing the test. Is it possible that we were cheering on these sisters from heaven? Probably. Can we imagine that they are indeed cheering us on from heaven as well? Absolutely."
