Heritage Day 2009: Being Obedient at an Inconvenient Time

Transcription

1 Mormon Battalion THE VALIANT L TC Max W. Jamison, Publications Officer S U M M ER 2009 I SSU E Volume 14, No. 2 Heritage Day 2009: Being Obedient at an Inconvenient Time by LTC MAX JAM ISON, Publications Officer ELDER DOUGLAS L. CALLISTER, of the Second Quorum of Seventy of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, was the keynote speaker for the ninth annual Mormon Battalion Heritage Day Program on 13 June from 10:00 to 11:30 AM in the historic Tabernacle on Temple Square in Salt Lake City, Utah. The theme was: To only retrospectively honor the heritage of the original Mormon Battalion is but a hollow sham if we learn nothing from their humble sacrifice. To truly fulfill Brigham Young s prophesy, we must make their simple hymn of service reverberate and amplify within our deepest souls until it becomes our own great anthem whose crescendo reaches out to mold yet unborn generations. We too are pioneers, and must prospectively add our own humble legacy to theirs rendering selfless and unrequired service, compassion, and charity to "men and nations to the latest generation, worlds without end, forever and ever. Prominently displayed on the edge of the stage were several previously unknown paintings created on location over the past six years by a dear friend of the Mormon Battalion, DOROTHY BOYLE, including The March, also printed on the cover of the program. A special prelude song, Bring Them Home, was performed by LEW HARPER, TESS BAILEY, LINDA SKEEN, and DICK BALDWIN, cast members of Battalion the Musical, written and "T he M arch," by D orothy B oyle (2003) directed by Battalion member TRACE SKEEN, which was later performed before standing room only audiences in Huntsville, Utah (named after Mormon Battalion CAPT JEFFERSON HUNT ) on 26 and 27 June. An honor guard comprising members of the Mormon Battalion and Boy Scouts posted the flags. DENNIS NORDFELT, Utah Salt Lake Valley West Area Director for the LDS Church Education System and member of the West Valley City, Utah Arts Council, was master of ceremonies. MAJ ROGER GRUA presented the winners of the 2009 Seminary Essay Contest: 1st Place, CATHERINE RIGBY of Tuscon, Arizona; 2nd Place, NOELLE LONGHURST of Layton, Utah; and 3rd Place, KAYLA MORRILL of North Bend, Washington. The newly formed all male Mormon Battalion Choir, directed by CAPT FLOYD RIGBY and accompanied by DR. DON COOK at the organ and MONICA HYM AS at the piano, gave a stirring inaugural performance, including opening hymn, Praise

2 Page 2 to the Lord, the Almighty, an interlude musical tribute to the Mormon Battalion, including Grace, It Is Well with My Soul, Stouthearted Men, and The Impossible Dream (from Man of La Mancha), and a closing hymn medley of I See Our Zion and Be Thou My Vision. Kevin and Denny Henson at Presidio San Diego KEVIN HENSON gave a report on his June 2008-January 2009 retracing of the Mormon Battalion trek. Then ELDER CALLISTER gave a clarion call to the Mormon Battalion Association and its friends: When you speak of those who paid a great price to establish this dispensation, God does not always give reasons. Today, we cannot measure all of the reasons the Battalion members said yes when called to serve. Nor can we measure all the dividends which followed. But the call of the Battalion is a powerful reminder that God has reasons and He knows best. A recent historian has written these words in connection with the trek of the Mormon Battalion: Few of those who today speed in cushioned ease over the mountains, the painted desert, and other arid stretches, know little if anything of the rigors and suffering of this pioneering by soldiers that long ago. The Battalion s commander recorded: Everything conspired to discourage the extraordinary undertaking of marching this Battalion through an unknown wilderness with a wagon train. I have sometimes thought that their journey was like that of Christopher Columbus: They traveled to the edge of a world they could not see. They put their hands in the hand of God, and just trusted that He would lead them. Nothing ever seems to happen at a convenient time in God s work: It was not convenient for the Saints to be driven from Missouri to Illinois. Abandoning their homes and two million dollars worth of property was not convenient. For Brigham and the Twelve to return 11 times to assure none of the Saints had been left there. It was not convenient for the Saints to leave Nauvoo in the winter and cross the frozen Mississippi, even when a number of the women were heavy with child. It was not convenient for many Saints to cross the plains by handcart. It was not convenient for many new converts to leave the green hills of Britain and relocate in the more arid clime of the Rocky Mountains. It was not convenient for the Battalion s men to leave their families when most needed for the trek across the plains. For that matter, it was not convenient for Joseph and Hyrum to seal their testimony with their blood at their young ages, or for the Savior to atone at the age of 33. But God has never been concerned with our convenience. He commands, and a Battalion obeys, and then blessings flow. In The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, we are not as concerned with rewards or punishments as we are with consequences. We believe that we must truly reap as we sow. The law of consequences generally dictates that, when we make a wrong choice, we reap the reward first, and then we pay the price later. And when we make a correct choice, we usually pay the price first, and we reap the reward later. The Battalion paid the price first. They and we have been reaping the rewards of their temporal and spiritual accomplishments for many years. Continued Associations ELDER CALLISTER saluted the original Mormon Battalion as a band of brothers and handful of sisters who... were welded to each other through their hardships. It is likely that the heaven that they now enjoy, that which they have earned, is one in which they continue that intimate fraternity. Their families wish to be together forever because of what they endured in association during the days of their probation. ELDER CALLISTER referred to COL PHILIP ST. GEORGE COOKE S Order Number 1 on 30 January 1847 which stated that they had come to the end of the long, long trail [from Iowa to California]. We have dug wells which the future traveler will enjoy. He then made the following insightful assessment:...their contribution was more than deep physical wells. Their contribution was also a lesson on the wells of obedience, when they said yes to God in their hours of extremity. They could say as BRIGHAM [YOUNG] did when the PROPHET JOSEPH [SMITH] was martyred, Here is Brigham. Have his knees ever faltered? Here are the well diggers of the Battalion. Have their knees ever faltered? It Feels So Good Just to Obey ELDER CALLISTER recalled a conversation when he served as a Bishop in Southern California: A Latter-day Saint once came to me and asked what it means to be obedient. I asked the member to first give an answer. The member said, If my bishop comes to me and asks me to accept a calling, I go home and pray about it. If I think he was inspired, I accept. If I think

3 Page 3 he was not inspired, I decline. I call this enlightened obedience. What do you think of that? I said, I think the principle of enlightened obedience, as you have explained it, is one of the saving principles of the Telestial Kingdom. You would be better served praying that your bishop would be inspired, and less time about whether he had been, for sometimes it feels just so good to obey. Great lessons to be learned from the early Saints, including the Battalion members, are centered in the joys of obedience. Sometimes, it feels so good just to obey, even if reasons are not given. Saying Yes to the Lord ELDER CALLISTER recalled an experience of ELDER WALTER KENT, who, after WWII, was called to serve 5½ years as the first LDS missionary behind the Iron Curtain in Communist East Germany: Years later, Brother Kent was called to serve as President of the North German Mission. A special assignment took him to East Berlin, where he met with Church members who had otherwise been separated from Headquarters. A sister approached him and said, Brother Kent, 28 years ago, you served as our first missionary in East Germany. At that time, you called me to serve as the District Relief Society President. I m still the District Relief Society President. I ve been waiting for you [or] another holder of the priesthood to come and release me. Again, sometimes it feels so good to say yes to the Lord, even when it is inconvenient. ELDER CALLISTER concluded with the following admonition: Battalion members were not asked to... hold the same Church calling for 28 years, but they were asked to be obedient at an inconvenient time, when not all of the reasons or blessings were yet evident. And that is their great lesson for us. Trek Post Script by KEVIN HENSON, Trek Coordinator, 2008 Battalion Trek Autograph vs. Signature Rock, Oklahoma Most inscriptions on Autograph Rock on the Cimarron Cutoff were made after Journals indicate that the Battalion camped at Cold Springs, 3 miles West of Signature Rock, on 14 September We believe we located the etched name of LEWIS DENT ( ), civilian assistant to Army of the West Paymaster MAJ JEREMIAH HUDDLESTON CLOUD, JR. ( ) at Signature Rock. A second etched name may be that of his elder brother, CAPT JOHN CROMWELL DENT ( ), whom we know arrived in California by The close physical and temporal proximity of the two etched names at Signature Rock (both inscribed 12 inches apart before 1850) suggests that the brothers visited the rock together sometime before, during, or after passage of the Mormon Battalion in Last Survivors of the Battalion by MAJ RICHARD H. BULLOCK, Adjutant/Executive Secretary The longest living members of the Mormon Battalion came from a single family. HARLEY MOWRY (also spelled MOWERY), his wife MARTHA JANE SARGENT SHARP, and his adopted daughter SARAH ELLEN SHARP were the members of this family. HARLEY MOWRY, age 23 in 1845, had been born 9 August 1822 at Burrillville, Providence, Rhode Island. He was the son of CHARLES BARTON MOWRY and RUTH WALKUP MOWRY, who sailed on the ship Brooklyn with his younger brothers, ORIGIN and RHANALDO. His older brother SYLVESTER MOWRY had enlisted at West Point Military Academy. HARLEY had joined The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in January 1839, and soon after left his family and traveled West to newly established Nauvoo to be with JOSEPH SMITH and the Saints. Being a mason and stone cutter, his work on the Temple was greatly admired. After being driven from Nauvoo, HARLEY was with the Saints in Council Bluffs when CAPT ALLEN arrived and requested BRIGHAM YOUNG to help enlist 500 men. HARLEY signed up willingly and became a Private in Company C on 11 July He was later assigned by LT ANDREW JACKSON (A. J.) SMITH to accompany a detachment of women, children, and the sick to Pueblo, Colorado. NORMAN SHARP, age 36, was born 10 September He married MARTHA JANE SARGENT, age 17 at Nauvoo, Illinois in September MARTHA was the daughter of ABLE MORGAN SARGENT and SARAH SALLY EDWARDS, and had been born 24 September They were driven from Nauvoo with the rest of the Saints and were in the wilds of Iowa when the call to form the Mormon Battalion was made by BRIGHAM YOUNG. NORMAN, at first reluctant to enlist, finally joined as a Private in Company D. Surprisingly, his father-in-law, MARTHA s father, ABLE MORGAN SARGENT, also signed up at the same time. MARTHA s sister CAROLINE SARGENT, age 10, not wanting to be left behind, also joined when MARTHA decided to go with her husband NORMAN SHARP. Their mother had passed away in March When LT A. J. SMITH ordered nine women and thirty-three children to Pueblo, the party was led by CAPT NELSON HIGGINS. NORMAN volunteered to accompany them, as his wife, her sister, and their father were among those being sent to Pueblo as part of the detachment. While on the march to Pueblo, PVT NORMAN SHARP accidentally shot himself in the arm while lifting his rifle from the wagon. CAPTAIN HIGGINS decided to leave him with some Arapaho Indians to try and recover from the terrible wound. MARTHA JANE begged to be left with her husband and CAPTAIN HIGGINS agreed, also assigning THOMAS WOOLSEY to stay with them. The Indians could not heal NORMAN and he died 24 September 1846 and was buried in an unmarked grave. THOMAS WOOLSEY, MARTHA and her sister CAROLINE drove the wagon night and day to reach Pueblo, as they had been warned of hostile Indians in the area. MARTHA gave birth to her daughter SARAH, by NORMAN SHARP, while on this journey to Pueblo. The first sick detachment arrived at

4 Page 4 Pueblo on 5 October WOOLSEY, the two women, and the baby arrived in early November. COL PHILIP ST. GEORGE COOKE assumed command when the main Battalion reached Santa Fe and felt appalled that there were so many sick men and so many women with the Battalion. He knew they would not be able to make the terrible march across the deserts to California. Selecting CAPT JAMES BROWN as commander, COL COOKE sent ninety-one men, nineteen women, two children, and DR. WILLIAM MCINTIRE to winter at Pueblo. They departed 18 October 1846, and after traveling over 385 miles, arrived in Pueblo on 18 November It still left COL COOKE with many men who were sick. So an additional 55 men were detached under the command of LT W. W. WILLIS and ordered to also winter at Pueblo. Part of this group arrived on 22 December 1846 after a harrowing journey through the deep snow of New Mexico and the Sangre de Cristos mountains. The rest of WILLIS men, after being rescued by CORP GILBERT HUNT and PVT THOMAS BINGHAM, staggered in on 15 January This third sick detachment joined with the others in building crude cabins and a brush fence for a stockade at Pueblo. SARAH ELLEN SHARP has been named an honorary member of the Mormon Battalion, as have several other children born that winter. In the spring, CAPT JAMES BROWN returned to Santa Fe to get orders for the detachments, but found no one there from the Mormon Battalion. Presumably he was seeking guidance about what to do next: Go to California and join the Army of the West? Muster the men out? Join the Saints? His questions were not answered until he received a letter from BRIGHAM YOUNG dated 2 June 1847 instructing him to bring the detachment north to Wyoming and follow the Pioneer Camp on the trail to the West. CAPT JAMES BROWN started the journey North immediately and was met part way by a party led by APOSTLE AMASA LYMAN, sent by BRIGHAM YOUNG. LYMAN greeted the men warmly and led them to Fort Laramie, where they had missed BRIGHAM YOUNG by just two weeks. On 4 July 1847, HARLEY MOWRY, age 25, and MARTHA JANE SARGENT SHARP, age 20, were married by ELDER DIMMICK B. HUNTINGTON at Independence Rock. They had been such lovebirds that they were told to get married or cool down the romance. The group, also including the Mississippi Saints, pressed ahead and nearly caught up with Brigham Young before they had reached the Great Salt Lake Valley. SAMUEL BRANNAN, leader of the Brooklyn voyage met the Battalion on the trail and assisted in guiding them into the Valley, where they arrived on 28 July No doubt, HARLEY was relieved to hear about the welfare of the rest of his family that had sailed aboard the Brooklyn. Some of the Battalion brethren had gone ahead of BRIGHAM YOUNG and began irrigating the land and planting crops as they had learned in Pueblo. HARLEY and MARTHA with the little baby SARAH ELLEN made their home in a log cabin assigned by BRIGHAM YOUNG and they suffered this first winter from lack of food and warmth. They had 100 pounds of flour and a bushel of corn to last the winter. The half-bushel of wheat they had was planted that fall. When it came up in the spring it was eaten by grasshoppers but they were able to harvest 15 bushels later that year. They were forced to eat roots, Sego bulbs, and sagebrush. It was a harsh life in the beginning. In 1850, the family was called by BRIGHAM YOUNG to accompany a wagon train being led by C. C. RICH and AMASA LYMAN to California. The little family, now with three children, joined HARLEY s parents near San Jose and they lived there for two years. While there, the oldest brother, SYLVESTER MOWRY, recently discharged from the military, joined the family. It must have been a joyous reunion to BARTON MOWRY to have all his sons near him again. But SYLVESTER soon left, traveling to Arizona where he opened a lead and silver mine. Later, he did a survey for the government along part of the route the Battalion had traveled and reported to Washington on the rich potentials for mining in the area. It was his survey and recommendation that eventually led to the Gadsden Purchase from Mexico in In 1852, HARLEY and his family left San Jose and traveled to San Bernardino to join LYMAN and RICH in building up the new colony. When BRIGHAM YOUNG recalled the Saints in 1857, HARLEY went to San Jose and convinced his mother, RUTH WALKUP MOWRY, and his youngest brother, RHANALDO, to come to Utah with them. HARLEY and MARTHA now had four children. Reaching Utah, they settled in Kaysville. When called to go South in 1858 during the Utah War, they went as far south as Beaver for the Winter. Returning in the Spring, they lived in Centerville, Utah until the fall of 1864, when they were called to join C. C. RICH in helping settle the Bear Lake Valley. HARLEY and his family, now containing seven children, packed their things on wagons and made the journey to Paris, Idaho on the shores of Bear Lake. He became a member of the Bear Lake High Council, a position he held until he moved the family to Vernal, Utah in HARLEY and MARTHA had ten children, but only seven grew to adulthood. He was appointed to the Stake High Council in Vernal and held that position until his health failed him. He died 20 October 1920 at the age Harley & Martha Mowry of 98 years. Only one other

5 Page 5 Battalion man lived longer, WILLIAM BEDDOME, who died 4 December 1920, just two months after HARLEY. WILLIAM BEDDOME had remained in California after his discharge from the Battalion and is buried in Los Angeles. After the death of her husband HARLEY, MARTHA moved in with her daughter, SARAH ELLEN SHARP THOMAS, in Roosevelt, but only lived until 20 December 1920, just two months after her husband has passed away. She is buried by his side in the Vernal cemetery, and is noted as the last survivor of the Battalion that had originally started on the march in SARAH ELLEN SHARP, as a small child, remembers roaming around the Salt Lake foothills with her mother MARTHA, looking for roots and Sego bulbs to help feed the family. She loved growing up around her adopted family in San Jose and listening to her step-grandfather BARTON MOWRY tell about the voyage of the Brooklyn in 1846 and his adventures during the gold rush. When the family returned to Utah and subsequently to Paris, Idaho, SARAH ELLEN was right there helping with driving the cattle and preparing meals. She was soon courted in Paris by BENJAMIN (MARION) CLARK THOMAS and the couple was married on New Years Day in BENJAMIN, son of ELIJAH ALEXANDER THOMAS and MELISSA DAVIS, born in Van Buren, Iowa, was 22 years old and his beautiful bride SARAH was 19. They lived in Paris, Idaho for the next twenty years and SARAH gave birth to eleven children. Sadly, the family was struck by an outbreak of diphtheria in March of 1876, and six of their children died. They moved their remaining family to Vernal, Utah, where their last child was born, but he only lived three months. They continued living in Vernal, where her husband BENJAMIN died 24 January 1914 at the age of 70. When she could no longer care for herself, she moved in with her daughter at Roosevelt, Utah. She was honored as the last survivor of the Mormon Battalion and was present at the unveiling of the Mormon Battalion monument on the State Capital grounds in 1927, and a special guest of the Covered Wagon Days of 1931at the age of 85. She had lived with her daughter for twenty years when she died 1 March 1937 at the age of 90. She was survived by four children, 26 grandchildren 40 great-grandchildren, and 5 great-great grandchildren. Her remains lie at rest in the Vernal Cemetery next to her husband. Neither her grave nor that of her mother MARTHA JANE (also buried in the Vernal Cemetery) has been memorialized. This would be a worthy project for the family to accomplish in Commander s Message Contributions and Endowments by COL NORMAN T. EREKSON, Commander The people who do not revere the deeds of their ancestors, Will never do anything to be remembered by their descendants. Thomas Babington Macualay Section A. Purposes. The purposes of the Mormon Battalion Association shall be to: 1. Perpetuate and forever keep alive the memory and heritage of the Mormon Battalion and all associated men, women, children, servants, dependents, suttlers, teamsters, and camp followers in their amazing infantry march of about 2,000 miles from Council Bluffs, Iowa Territory, to San Diego, California then part of Mexico and subsequent military service, and all other community services and activities by former Battalion members. By Laws THIS IS WHAT the Mormon Battalion Association is all about! Our success has been somewhat limited, not by lack of effort or activities, or devotion, but by lack of continuing contributions and endowments. One of our current life members has proposed some ideas to help over come this, but it requires us to pause and listen to the promptings from these original men and women who sacrificed their all and to make sacrifices in our affairs of like magnitude. LAVELL THORNTON of Littleton, Colorado has submitted a very thoughtful creative plan to help raise Battalion funds using the theme Duty Calls to keep these men and women in honorable remembrance until the Duty Triumphs monument is finished and placed. He would challenge Mormon Battalion members descendants everywhere to offer similar innovative plans or make direct contributions as they listen to promptings from their predecessors in the Battalion. Remember, they responded as duty called; then they persisted till duty triumphed. Another plan would encourage endowments from estates of people passing on that could add continuing funds to the Battalion. Remember, these funds are tax deductible under our 501(c)(3) tax classification. I have made a $1, contribution. Will you? Women s Auxiliary Message Change by PRES ANNIE P. EREKSON, President THE OLD ADAGE that nothing is sure in life but death and taxes is surely true with the Mormon Battalion Association and Women s Auxiliary. I thought it would be fun to review the history of the Mormon Battalion Women s Auxiliary and how it has changed over the years. For several years, the organization was known as the Sons of Utah Pioneers Mormon Battalion. Then in1954, LDS PRESIDENT DAVID O. MCKAY expressed his desire for the Mormon Battalion to become a separate entity from the SUP. On October 23, 1954, the Battalion was formed and FRED N. CURTIS became the first Commander of the U.S. Mormon Battalion, Inc. He organized his board and each man was given a military rank. COL CURTIS served until 1960, when FRED M. REESE was elected Commander. COL REESE created the national Women s Auxiliary, appointing MARY S. GOODWIN as

6 Page 6 the first national Women s Auxiliary President, giving her the military title of Lieutenant Colonel. She picked her board of about six women, and they were also given military ranks. They even had their own Chaplain! MARY and her board were a great asset to the Battalion. MARY served as national Women s Auxiliary President for 21 years. The second national Women s Auxiliary President was LTC BERTHA B. RICHARDS. She and her board were very creative in strengthening the Women s Auxiliary. They did away with their military ranks and assumed the civilian titles of President, Vice President, Secretary, etc., wrote the Women s Auxiliary By-Laws, and designed plaques for the graves of the original women of the Battalion. These plaques were placed on the graves of families wanting to honor their ancestor. These plaque memorializations made for wonderful family reunions. During Mormon Battalion Days, they held military balls and the public was invited. Everyone came in beautiful period costumes. BERTHA served for 9 years. In 1990, BEVERELY W. MCCLELLAN was elected the third national Women s Auxiliary President. Her husband, STANFORD MCCLELLAN, was elected national Battalion Commander. PRESIDENT MCCLELLAN and her board were responsible for obtaining the Women s lapel pins. When STAN died from a heart attack, BEVERELY resigned and moved to Idaho. Her Vice President, SHIRLEY N. MAYNES, became Acting President and completed BEVERELY s term of over a year. When new elections were held in 1992, SHIRLEY was elected the fourth national Women s Auxiliary President. During SHIRLEY s term, her board and the Women s Auxiliary companies held many boutiques to raise money to help with the refurbishing of the Mormon Battalion Monument at the Utah State Capitol grounds. SHIRLEY was interested in honoring and remembering the women who were involved in the Mormon Battalion. She wrote the book entitled Five Hundred Wagons Stood Still, telling of the women and children who remained on the plains as their loved ones marched away. She also co-authored the book Women of the Battalion with COL CARL V. LARSON. Recently, she and her husband, LTC GAYLEN D. MAYNES, co-authored the book Families with the Mormon Battalion March of Shirley is a great historian. She served as national Women s Auxiliary President for 11 years. During the 2002 elections, I was elected the fifth national Women s Auxiliary President. My husband, COL NORMAN T. EREKSON, currently serves as the national Commander. My board and I have diligently attended each Battalion and women s grave memorialization. The descendants of these Battalion members have been very creative in the programs they have presented. We have attended many activities in and out of the state of Utah at our own expense. In 2007, we were instrumental in making members of the Women s Auxiliary full voting members and participants in the parent Mormon Battalion Association. Now women can serve on the national Executive Committee and Advisory Staff. This change reflects honorably upon the great women who marched with the men and accomplished great feats in serving the Battalion. The next national elections will be in September After eight years as President, I will be stepping down and a new national Women s Auxiliary Staff will be elected. Now is a great time for women to have an enlightening experience by volunteering. THE PAY IS GREAT! Calendar of Events by MAJ RICHARD BULLOCK, Adjutant (See website also.) November 3 [Tu] Dixie Company Monthly Meeting. 7:00 p.m., Cottonmill Dance Hall, 300 W. Telegraph, Washington, UT. CAPT QUENTIN HANSOM, Commander. Hansom@qpaz.net. 19 [Th] Company B Monthly Meeting. 6:30 p.m., DUP Rock Chapel, 1151 West 7800 South, West Jordan, UT. CAPT LAVAR BURTON, Commander, lburto91034@peoplepc.com. 21 [Sa] Battalion Executive and Advisory Committee Meeting. 9:30 a.m.; 420 S. 800 East, Salt Lake City, UT. December 1 [Tu] Dixie Company Monthly Meeting. 7:00 p.m., Cottonmill Dance Hall, 300 W. Telegraph, Washington, UT. CAPT QUENTIN HANSOM, Commander. Hansom@qpaz.net. 17 [Th] Company B Monthly Meeting. 6:30 p.m., DUP Rock Chapel, 1151 West 7800 South, West Jordan, UT. CAPT LAVAR BURTON, Commander, lburto91034@peoplepc.com. Editor s Note: In the Spring of 2008, we announced our intention to control our increasing printing and postage costs by distributing The Valiant electronically as an *.pdf attachment to as many of our members as possible. Since then, despite our best efforts, many of you have not received your electronic copies due to a number of factors, including inaccurate, changed, and discontinued accounts, and anti-virus/anti-spam software interception. Most disturbing is the recent trend among many service providers to both limit the size of outgoing attachments from non-commercial users, and to limit the size of incoming attachments to private users. This has forced us to temporarily revert to hard copy distribution. We are working on plans to permit members to quickly view and download The Valiant and other multimedia directly from our website. Please advise us of any missing issues.

7 Page 7 Preface, Part Manifest Destiny vs. Promised Land Editor's Note: Previous issues of The Valiant have included Parts 1-9 of the serialization of the Preface to LTC JAMISON S book sponsored by the Battalion, Manifest Destiny vs. Promised Land: Francis Moore, Jr. s Annotated 1846 Mitchell Map; Deciphering an Chronicle of the Mexican-American War, the Mormon Battalion, the Gold Rush, the Alamo, and Texas. The mystery saga continues : Rediscovery of Lewis Dent, a Civilian with the Mormon Battalion That only left the nagging question of identifying the pay officer in San Diego. I quickly ordered microfilm from the Missouri Historical Society, St. Louis of the referenced original article in the St. Louis Reveille newspaper. I soon found that Moore had conveniently omitted Lewis Dent's name from his Houston reprint. And Carol Verble, librarian at the Missouri Historical Society, quickly provided valuable references verifying that Lewis Dent had not only made the trip west with the Mormon Battalion, but had gone on to become a California lawyer and supreme court judge, long-time correspondent for the St. Louis Reveille, local postmaster and ferry operator, brotherin-law and staff member of General and President Ulysses S. Grant, ambassadorial nominee, and Mississippi gubernatorial candidate. On 7 August 1999, I wrote the following in a letter to Norma Baldwin Ricketts: My [excerpt] paper is finally (?) done and on the way over to Maurine Ward's house three blocks away in a few minutes... My work of three years is finished, but not complete. I have real sympathy with your comments at the end of your Preface to The U.S. Mormon Battalion: "The time has come to write finis to this manuscript. It is hard, very hard to put it down. Tomorrow's mail may bring another piece of the puzzle." Late breaking news: I discovered the primary source of my newspaper article reprinted in the 19 June 1847 Houston, Texas Democratic Telegraph & Texas Register. As expected, it was in the 12 and 14 June 1847 issues of the daily and weekly editions of the St. Louis Reveille. (The only problem was locating a microfilm of the paper. I finally found one at the Missouri Historical Society in St. Louis.) It was written by Lewis Dent, brother of George Wrenshall Dent. Lewis was another of those mysterious and unheralded civilians attached to the Mormon Battalion. He was paymaster Major Jeremiah H. Cloud's non-mormon civilian clerk. While not technically the "officer" claimed by the St. Louis Reveille, he WAS "in the pay department, now with the battalion..." So chalk up a new civilian member of the Mormon Battalion! The above-mentioned excerpt from this book was published in the Spring 1999 issue (Vol. 11, No. 1) of Maurine Carr Ward s Nauvoo Journal, the semi-annual scholarly forerunner of Mormon Historical Studies. In 2002, that article was briefly cited in a footnote of a scholarly online publication by Senior Librarian Melvin L. Bashore of the LDS Church History Library, and linked to an online electronic version of the map held by Brigham Young University. However, neither made any reference to the 190 unique and h i s t o r i c p o s t - p u b l i c a t i o n annotations made by Francis Moore, Jr. on the map! In January 2004, Norma Ricketts renewed interest in Lewis Dent when she published an article in the LDS-oriented San Diego Seagull newspaper heralding my identification of him as the first new member of the Mormon Battalion identified in 150 years: Recently the name of Lewis Dent, a civilian serving on the command staff of the Mormon Battalion, surfaced a name that was not known before and had never appeared previously on any army roster. After the great deal of research and numerous articles and books on the battalion over the past 150 years, it is unbelievable to find an unknown name, together with the documentation. The name was found accidentally while Max Jamison of Omaha, Nebraska, was searching for a[n original] copy of Mitchell's 1846 New Map of Texas, Oregon, [& California], and Regions Adjoining [ordered by Brigham Young]. Ms. Ricketts article apparently created some little stir in Mormon historical circles, for on 15 January 2004, I was contacted by the Utah chapter of the prestigious historian Westerners Club and asked to present my research about the Mitchell map at their 21 September 2004 meeting at the Alta Club in Salt Lake City. To be Continued in the Next Issue!

8 Page 8 Mormon Battalion Association THE VALIANT P.O. Box 1983 Sandy, UT In This Issue: Heritage Day 2009: Being Obedient at an Inconvenient Time Trek Post Script Last Survivors of the Battalion Commander s Message: Contributions and Endowments Women s Auxiliary Message: Change Calendar of Events Manifest Destiny vs. Promised Land, Preface, Part 10 Unless otherwise stated, Copyright 2010 Mormon Battalion Association. All Rights Reserved.