The Battle of the Bulls: The Mormon Battalion’s Only ‘Battle’ Was with Wild Cattle — Not a Single Soldier Killed in Combat (December 11, 1846)

On December 11, 1846, as the Mormon Battalion marched north along the San Pedro River in what is now Cochise County, Arizona, a herd of wild cattle roaming the valley suddenly charged.

There was no warning. The bulls came in waves. Soldiers scattered. Wagons were overturned. Mules were gored. The chaos was total. One eyewitness wrote: 'The rampaging bulls charged on and on. There was great confusion and fear.'

When it was over: three soldiers had been injured, three mules were dead, and at least nine bulls had been killed by Battalion members defending themselves and their equipment.

Not a single human soldier was killed.

Historians have noted the irony with a kind of reverence: the Mormon Battalion's only significant 'battle' during its entire year of active U.S. military service was not with Mexican soldiers. It was with livestock. Before the men departed Council Bluffs, Brigham Young and the Twelve had promised them they would not be required to engage in actual warfare against human enemies. The promise held.

The 'Battle of the Bulls' has been memorialized at the site on the San Pedro River, where a historical marker stands. The Ensign Peak Foundation has documented the site, noting accounts from multiple soldiers' journals.

For Latter-day Saints, the Battle of the Bulls is not a footnote. It is the most concrete single moment of prophetic fulfillment in the Battalion's history: the visual proof that Brigham Young's promise had been kept. Nearly 500 men spent a year marching through contested territory during an active war with Mexico — and came home without having fired a single shot at another human being.

Fuller account of this event (as retold in Battle of the Bulls – Glenn Rawson Stories):

It was near the San Pedro River in Southern Arizona that on Dec 11, 1846, a significant event occurred in the history of the Mormon Battalion. The men were camped and for a change had water and adequate food. The hills around the area were teeming with abandoned wild cattle. Some of the men went out to hunt these cattle when all of a sudden pandemonium broke loose. The bulls stampeded down out of the hills and charged through the camp, goring and shoving and just making a mess. They charged into one of the wagons, overturning it. Another man was being chased and suddenly just dropped to the ground and the bull leaped over him. Colonel Phillip St. George Cooke, the commander of the Battalion, mounted on a white mule, watched the fray from nearby, when suddenly, a black bull, about a hundred yards away, charged at Colonel Cooke. Standing near the Colonel was Corporal Lafayette Frost. The bull roared closer and closer, Corporal Frost just stood there. And then when the bull was scarcely 6 paces away, Corporal Frost raised his musket and fired. The bull fell at his feet. To say the least, Colonel Cooke was relieved and impressed.