Levi Ward Hancock — Only General Authority in the Mormon Battalion (1846–1847)

Levi Ward Hancock (1803–1882), one of the seven Presidents of the Seventy and thus a General Authority of the Church, enlisted in the Mormon Battalion in the summer of 1846 and served with it through 1847. Hancock had fallen behind the main body of the Saints while caring for his elderly mother-in-law and two young relatives; he and his family arrived at Council Bluffs late, and when the call came he immediately joined the Battalion (recorded as Company B in some accounts), leaving his family in the care of his teenage son. He was the only General Authority to enlist in the Mormon Battalion.

While serving he became the Battalion's unofficial chaplain and spiritual leader, also serving as a fifer and composing songs about their march. In August 1846 he recorded in his journal: "The Lord is good and merciful. He has shown himself so to me. Let me ever praise him and do all the good I can for his kingdom." His journal and other papers documenting these events are held in Church History collections.