Fent F. Allred: Born and Buried on the Mormon Battalion Trail on the Same Day — September 8, 1846

On September 8, 1846, somewhere on the trail between Santa Fe, New Mexico, and Pueblo, Colorado, Eliza Bridget Manwaring Allred — wife of Battalion private James Tillman Sanford Allred, who was marching in Company A — gave birth to a son.

The baby was named Fent F. Allred.

He died the same day he was born.

Born and buried on the trail. September 8, 1846.

James Tillman Sanford Allred was born March 28, 1825, in Bedford County, Tennessee. He had enlisted in the Mormon Battalion along with his brothers Reddick, James Riley, and Reuben — four Allred brothers in Company A. His wife Eliza had come as part of the families accompanying the march.

When the sick detachments were formed and Colonel Cooke ordered women and the ill to turn north toward Pueblo, Colorado, for the winter, Eliza was among those who went. James continued marching toward California.

The birth and immediate death of Fent F. Allred on the same September day is documented in the BYU Mormon Battalion Project records, which list him simply: born on the Mormon Battalion trail, died on the Mormon Battalion trail — the same entry for both events.

His existence lasted one day. His name endured. He is listed among the members of the Mormon Battalion family — not as a soldier who marched, but as a life given in the same sacrifice that every family of the Battalion paid, in ways that history does not always record.