Mormon Battalion

The Mormon Battalion, officially called the 1st Iowa Volunteers, was an infantry unit almost exclusively made up of Mormon men and a few women making it the only unit in US Military history organized strictly along religious background. They undertook the longest infantry march in U.S. military history and explored vast regions of New Mexico, Arizona, and California.

The invitation to serve was actually the result of talks between Mormon leaders living on the East Coast of the United States, and U.S. Government officials. Jesse C. Little, presiding elder of the Mormon Church in the eastern United States, met with President Polk and offered Mormon assistance in exploring and fortifying the American West in return for monetary help. Polk proposed enlisting Mormon men to fight in the controversial U.S.-Mexican War. Under Polk's orders Captain James Allen met with the Mormon leaders in Iowa and Nebraska and asked for five hundred men. In exchange, the impoverished Mormons, who had just been driven from their homes in Nauvoo, Illinois, received much needed funds to finance their trek west.

Footnotes:
 * (SD) - Sick Detachment of soldiers that left the battalion in Santa Fe and returned north to join the main body of the Saints at Pueblo Colorado.
 * (SM) - Detachment of battalion soldiers who after discharge from military service went to Northern California and were in the area of Sutters Mill at the time of the discovery of gold in early 1848.