Brigham Young’s Promises to the Mormon Battalion: Every Single One Was Fulfilled (1846–1847)

In the summer of 1846, Brigham Young and members of the Quorum of the Twelve gave specific promises and blessings to the men of the Mormon Battalion as they departed Council Bluffs for the march to California. These were not vague spiritual encouragements. They were specific, concrete prophecies about the nature and outcome of the march.

The promises included:

1. The men would escape difficulties along the way.

2. They would never be required to engage in actual warfare against human enemies.

3. Their expedition would 'result in great good' and their 'names would be handed down in honorable remembrance to all generations.'

Brigham Young also blessed the men that 'nothing could have saved our lives but the unseen hand of Almighty God' — words that one Battalion member later used to describe exactly what he felt had occurred on the march.

Each of these promises was fulfilled.

The Battalion marched nearly 2,000 miles through some of the harshest terrain in North America. They crossed New Mexico and Arizona deserts in midsummer heat. They scaled mountains with wagons. They survived on drastically reduced rations. They suffered from scurvy, exhaustion, and exposure. Three men died of illness or exhaustion on the march — but not one soldier was killed in battle with a human enemy. Their only significant 'combat' was with a herd of wild bulls in Arizona, from which three men were injured and three mules killed.

The march did indeed result in 'great good.' The wages they sent home funded the westward migration of the pioneer companies. Their road-building opened trade routes for the entire American Southwest. Their presence at Sutter's Mill contributed to the California Gold Rush discovery. The trails they and their fellow veterans blazed became the arteries of western expansion for a generation.

Church historian Brandon Metcalf, speaking on the 175th anniversary of the Battalion's march, confirmed: 'Ultimately, each of the promises given to the battalion by Brigham Young and members of the Twelve before they departed were fulfilled.'

For Latter-day Saints, the fulfillment of every prophecy given to the Battalion is one of the clearest collective testimonies of inspired prophetic leadership in Church history.