John Borrowman: A Man Healed by Priesthood Blessing During the Mormon Battalion March (1847)

John Borrowman's journal, which spans from 1846 to 1860, contains multiple entries documenting the spiritual practices of the Mormon Battalion during the march. Among the most striking is a recorded account of a soldier who 'requested a blessing and was healed.'

The Mormon Battalion Historic Site's research team, which has been systematically reviewing Borrowman's original journal (held on microfilm at the Church Historical Department), noted this entry in their documentation of the Battalion's final march to California.

The journal entry is brief — characteristic of frontier diary writing — but its content is significant. In the midst of one of the most physically grueling military marches in American history, when men were weakened by months of reduced rations, desert heat, and disease, the practice of priesthood blessings for the sick was ongoing.

Borrowman's journal also records a 'prayer meeting held in one of our cook's rooms' during the march — evidence that regular communal worship, including healing ordinances, continued throughout the Battalion's service.

For Latter-day Saints, these journal fragments are a window into a company of men who maintained their religious identity — holding meetings, giving blessings, and recording healings — while wearing U.S. Army uniforms and marching under military command.