There should be understanding at the outset that the Mormon Battalion was
a part of the volunteer soldiery of the Mexican War. At the time there
was a regular army of very small proportions, and that was being held for
the descent upon the City of Mexico, via Vera Cruz, under General Scott.
General Taylor had volunteers for the greater part of his northern army
in Mexico. Doniphan in his expedition into Chihuahua mainly had Missouri
volunteers.
In California was looming a very serious situation. Only sailors were
available to help American settlers in seizing and holding the coast
against a very active and exceptionally well-provided and intelligent
Mexican, or Spanish-speaking, opposition. Fremont and his "surveying
party" hardly had improved the situation in bringing dissension into the
American armed forces. General Kearny had been dispatched with all speed
from Fort Leavenworth westward, with a small force of dragoons, later
narrowly escaping disaster as he approached San Diego. There was
necessity for a supporting party for Kearny and for poor vision of troops
to enforce an American peace in California. To fill this breach, resort
was had to the harassed and homeless Saints.
The route was taken along the Santa Fe trail, which then, in 1846, was in
use mainly by buffalo hunters and western trading and trapping parties.
It was long before the western migration of farm seekers, and the lure of
gold yet was distant. There were unsatisfactory conditions of
administration and travel, as narrated by historians of the command,
mainly enlisted men, naturally with the viewpoint of the private soldier.
But it happens that the details agree, in general, and indicate that the
trip throughout was one of hardship and of denial. There came the loss of
a respected commander and the temporary accession of an impolitic leader.
Especially there was complaint over the mistaken zeal of an army surgeon,
who insisted upon the administration of calomel and who denied the men
resort to their own simple remedies, reinforced by expression of what
must have been a very sustaining sort of faith.
A more popular, though strict, commander was found in Santa Fe, whence
the Battalion was pushed forward again within five days, following Kearny
to the Coast. The Rockies were passed through a trackless wilderness, yet
on better lines than had been found by Kearny's horsemen. Arizona, as now
known, was entered not far from the present city of Douglas. There were
fights with wild bulls in the San Pedro valley, there was a bloodless
victory in the taking of the ancient pueblo of Tucson, there was travail
in the passage of the desert to the Gila and a brief respite in the
plenty of the Pima villages before the weary way was taken down the Gila
to the Colorado and thence across the sands of the Colorado desert, in
California, to the shores of the western ocean.
All this was done on foot. The start from Leavenworth was in the heat of
summer, August 12, 1846. Two months later Santa Fe was entered, Tucson
was passed in December and on January 27, 1847, "was caught the first and
a magnificent view of the great ocean; and by rare chance it was so calm
that it shone like a great mirror."
In detail, the following description of the march, as far as Los Angeles,
mainly is from the McClintock History of Arizona.