THE ART OF WAR AMONG THE NEPHITES--THEIR WEAPONS, ARMOR AND
FORTIFICATIONS--MORONI'S LINE OF DEFENSE.
No sooner had the separation taken place between the families of Nephi
and Laman, and the foundation been laid for the two nations that for a
thousand years contended for supremacy on this continent, than Nephi,
to protect his people from the threatened attacks of the Lamanites,
found it necessary to prepare for war. He took the sword of Laban, and
using it as a pattern, fashioned many others, which he distributed
among his subjects as a means of defense. These swords, with cimeters,
spears, javelins, darts, bows and arrows, slings and stones, appear to
have been the principal weapons of war used by the Nephites throughout
their entire national existence, though reference is more than once
made to unnamed and undescribed weapons. We have no reason to imagine
from any of the descriptions of their battles that gunpowder or any
like composition was known to them. It is more probable that the
unnamed weapons were something of the same kind as the ancient ballista
and catapult, (machines made by the ancients for throwing stones,
arrows, etc.,) and used for the same purposes. From the abundance of
metallic ore in the regions most densely populated by the Nephites,
and the oft-mentioned skill possessed by their artisans in the working
of iron, steel, brass and copper, we have no reason for supposing that
less satisfactory substitutes were brought into use in the manufacture
of their weapons. There was no necessity for using bone, flint, etc.,
when metal was so abundant and its preparation so well understood.
The accounts we have of the early wars between the two races are but
mere notices of the fact of their occurrence and results. It is not
until the days of the Judges that anything like details are given. At
that time the Nephites had adopted the use of defensive plate armor for
their heads, bodies and thighs; they also carried shields and wore arm
plates. These arts for the protection of the soldiers were carried to
their greatest excellence under Moroni, during the first half of the
last century before Christ. This officer, one of the greatest generals
the Nephite race ever gave birth to, appears to have made a great
revolution in their military affairs. He re-organized their armies,
compelled more stringent discipline, introduced new tactics, developed
a greatly superior system of fortification, built towers and citadels,
and altogether placed the defensive powers of the commonwealth on a new
and stronger footing. The Lamanites, who appear to have developed no
capacity for originating, but were apt in copying, also, in course of
time, adopted defensive armor, and when they captured a weak Nephite
city they frequently made it a stronghold by surrounding it with
ditches and walls after the system introduced and put into execution by
Moroni.
The foundation of Moroni's system of fortification was earthworks
encircling the place to be defended. The earth was dug from the
outside, by which means a ditch was formed. Sometimes walls of stone
were erected. On the top of the earthworks strong defenses of wood,
sometimes breastworks, in some cases to the full height of a man, were
raised; and above these a stockade of strong pickets was built, to
arrest the flight of the stones and arrows of the attacking forces.
Those arrows, etc., that passed above the pickets fell, without doing
injury, behind the troops who were defending the wall. Besides these
walls, towers were raised at various convenient points, from which
observations of the movements of the enemy were taken, and wherein
corps of archers and slingers stationed during the actual continuance
of the battle. From their elevated and commanding position these bodies
of soldiers could do great injury to the attacking force.
To make this subject yet plainer we insert a few extracts, from the
Book of Mormon, that have a bearing thereon.
In the year B. C. 73 a severe war was being waged, in which Moroni had
command of the Nephite armies and Amalickiah of those of the Lamanites.
It is written that at this time Moroni erected small forts, or places
of resort; throwing up banks of earth round about, to enclose his
armies, and also building walls of stone to encircle them about, round
about their cities and the borders of their lands; yea, all round about
the land; and in their weakest fortifications he did place the greater
number of men; and thus he did fortify and strengthen the land which
was possessed by the Nephites.
The year following Moroni caused his soldiers to dig up heaps of
earth round about all the cities, throughout all the land which was
possessed by the Nephites; and upon the top of these ridges of earth
he caused that there should be timbers; yea, works of timbers built
up to the height of a man, round about the cities. And he caused that
upon these works of timbers there should be a frame of pickets built
upon the timbers round about; and they were strong and high; and he
caused towers to be erected that overlooked those works of pickets,
and he caused places of security to be built upon those towers, that
the stones and the arrows of the Lamanites could not hurt them. And
they were prepared, that they could cast stones from the top thereof,
according to their pleasure and their strength, and slay him who should
attempt to approach near the walls of the city. Thus Moroni did prepare
strongholds against the coming of their enemies, round about every city
in all the land.
Again, in the same war, the Lamanite prisoners were set to work digging
a ditch round about the land, or the city Bountiful; and Moroni caused
that they should build a breastwork of timbers upon the inner bank
of the ditch; and they cast up dirt out of the ditch against the
breastwork of timbers; and thus they did cause the Lamanites to labor
until they had encircled the city of Bountiful round about with a
strong wall of timbers and earth, to an exceeding height. And this city
became an exceeding stronghold ever after.
The forces of both races appear to have been composed very largely, if
not entirely, of infantry. We have failed to notice any passage that
gave a definite assurance that either cavalry or war chariots were used
in their campaigns.
Like nearly all rude or semi-civilized races, the Lamanites depended on
the strength of numbers and brute force for victory in the open field.
They massed their troops in solid bodies, and with wild cries rushed
to the assault in the hope of bearing down all resistance by their
superior numbers, as in almost every war they greatly outnumbered the
Nephites. Indeed it is doubtful if even the last-named people used much
scientific strategy previous to the days of Moroni; before this time
it was a hand-to-hand conflict, wherein the Nephites, though fewer in
numbers, had many advantages over their half-naked foes, by reason
of superior weapons and defensive armor, and, above all, through the
blessing and guidance of the Lord.
In the year B. C. 72 the armies of Moroni drove the Lamanites out of
that portion of the east wilderness bordering on the land of Zarahemla
into their own lands. The northern line or boundary of the latter ran
in a straight course from the sea east to the west. The Lamanites
having been driven out of those portions of the wilderness north of the
dividing line, colonies of Nephites were sent to occupy the country
and build cities on their southern border, even to the Atlantic coast.
To protect the new settlers, Moroni placed troops all along this line
and caused them to erect fortifications for the better defense of the
frontier. This fortified line ran from the west sea (the Pacific Ocean)
by the head of the river Sidon (the Magdalena) eastward along the
northern edge of the wilderness.
Some of the readers of the Book of Mormon have imagined this line of
defense to have been one continuous rampart or wall--after the style
of the great wall of China--reaching from ocean to ocean, and on this
surmise have argued that the completion of such an immense work in a
few years was an impossibility to a people of the limited numerical
strength of the Nephites. To get over this difficulty of their own
creation they have resorted to various theories with regard to its
locality, inconsistent with the geographical details, on purpose to
shorten its distance to what they deemed a reasonable length, possible
for the Nephites to have built in a few years. The writer holds the
opinion that the Book of Mormon conveys no such idea, it simply states
that Moroni erected fortifications along this line; or, as he views
it, Moroni took advantage of the natural features of the country, its
wide rivers, far-stretching swamps and ranges of high mountains, and
built fortifications at every point where the Lamanites would find
ingress, such as at the fords of the rivers and the passes between the
mountains. He there stationed bodies of troops sufficiently strong to
hold their posts, and, if necessary, defend the surrounding country.
This system of defense would be more powerful and effective than an
artificial wall; high mountains and deep rivers largely taking the
place of earthworks, masonry and heavy timbers.
A number of years later (B. C. 34), the Lamanites having temporarily
driven the Nephites from the southern continent, Moronihah, the son
of Moroni, fortified the Isthmus of Panama from sea to sea, and in
this way prevented the Lamanites from pushing yet further north. This
defensive line was again fortified by Mormon (A. C. 360) in the last
great series of wars between the two races.
It does not appear, so far as can be gathered from the record, that any
very great improvements, either in the system of fortification, the
style of defensive armor, or the manufacture of their weapons, were
made by the Nephite commanders who lived after the days of Moroni.
There is another kind of defensive clothing, beside plate armor,
mentioned as being worn by the ancient American warriors. It consisted
of very thick clothing, possibly made of cotton or woolen cloth,
thickly padded. Moroni uniformed some of his troops in this manner
when he first took command of the Nephite armies (B. C. 74), and the
next year the Lamanites followed his example and not only prepared
themselves with shields and breastplates, but also with garments of
skins; yea, very thick garments to cover their nakedness.
The various enemies that the Nephite armies had to meet, from time
to time, on the field of battle--Lamanites, Amulonites, Amalekites,
Zoramites, Gadianton robbers, etc.-- were very differently equipped for
their bloody work. Those who had dissented from the Nephites naturally
held to the same tactics, used the arms and protected their bodies
with the same armor as the people to whom they had turned traitors.
With the original Lamanites it was different. At first, when they came
against the Nephites they were clothed with a short skin girdle about
the loins, and with their heads shaven; and their skill was in the bow
and the cimeter and axe. The dissenters, while armed and equipped like
the Nephites, set a mark upon themselves by which they might be known
and distinguished on the battle field. In doing this they unconsciously
fulfilled the word of the Lord to their fathers. Thus, the followers
of Amlici, the would-be king, marked themselves with red in their
foreheads after the manner of the Lamanites, though they did not shave
their heads as did the direct descendants of Laman (B. C. 87).
The description of the Gadianton robbers, as they appeared when
prepared for war (A. C. 18), is a very terrible one: They were girded
about after the manner of robbers; and they had a lamb-skin about
their loins, and they were dyed in blood, and their heads were shorn,
and they had head-plates upon them: and great and terrible was the
appearance of the armies of Giddianhi, because of their armor and
because of their being dyed in blood.