"The Lieutenant-Colonel commanding congratulates the Battalion on their safe arrival on the shores of the Pacific ocean, and the conclusion of their march of over two thousand miles. History will be searched in vain for an equal march of infantry."

So wrote Lieutenant-Colonel P. St. George Cooke in "Order No. I," from "Head Quarters Mormon Battalion, Mission of San Diego", under date of January 30th, 1847. If Col. Cooke is accurate in his statement—and one has a right to assume that he is, since he was a graduate of the United States Military academy of West Point, and hence versed in the history of such military incidents—then the march of this Battalion is a very wonderful performance. For if history might be searched in vain for an equal march of infantry when Col. Cooke wrote his "Order No. I," then certainly no march of infantry since that time has equaled it.

The only other historical marches that are comparable with the Mormon Battalions' march are Xenophon's and Doniphan's, the former in ancient, the latter in modern times.

"Retreat of the Ten Thousand."—Xenophon's march is commonly known as the "Retreat of the Ten Thousand," 401 B. C. The account of the "Retreat" is given in Xenophon's Anabasis. About fourteen thousand Greek soldiers under a Spartan leader named Clearchus entered the service of a Persian prince, Cyrus, surnamed the younger, brother of the then reigning King of Persia, Artaxerxes II. The purpose of Cyrus was to deprive his brother of the throne of Persia, and reign in his stead. The expedition marched through Asia Minor to Cunaxa, near old Babylon, where an army of 900,000 Persians engaged the army of Cyrus, which, with his Greek auxiliaries number but 300,000. The smaller army was really successful in the battle, but a rash attempt on the part of Cyrus to slay his brother during the engagement—in which he himself was killed—changed the fortunes of the day, the expedition ended in failure and hence the retreat of the Greek ten thousand up the valley of the Tigris, through Armenia to Trebizond, a Greek city on the Euxine—our modern Black Sea.

This march of Greek infantry though attended with almost incredible hardships from cold, hunger, and the assaults of enemies, was not equal to the march of the Mormon Battalion for the reason that it covered but fifteen hundred miles, as against the two thousand miles covered by the Battalion. While the Greek infantry in their retreat numbered more men than the Battalion, and fought many battles, their march was, for the most part, through settled lands and along well defined roads, while the greater part of the Battalion's march was through desert lands; and four hundred and seventy-four miles of it through trackless deserts where nothing but savages and wild beasts were found, "or deserts where, for want of water, there was no living creature."[2:a]Doniphan's Expedition into Mexico.—Doniphan's march occurred in the same year, and in the same war in which the Battalion served—the war with Mexico, 1846. The march is known as Doniphan's Expedition into Mexico. The expedition started from Santa Fe and marched to Matamoras, near where the Rio Grande empties into the Gulf of Mexico—a distance of about thirteen or fourteen hundred miles.[3:b] The march was via El Paso, Chihuahua, Parras, Saltillo and Monterey, thence to Matamoras. Here the expedition embarked for New Orleans, where the men were mustered out of service. The important battles of Brazito and Sacramento were fought enroute, the former placing El Paso, and the latter the city of Chihuahua—capital of the state of the same name—in the hands of the Americans. The expedition numbered about nine hundred men, mostly from Missouri, and under the command of Col. Alexander W. Doniphan of that state, and returned to Missouri via the Gulf of Mexico and the Mississippi.

The march overland it will be observed was less than that of the Battalion's. For the most part, moreover, Doniphan's march was through a settled country, and over roads long used between Santa Fe and points in northern and central Mexico. Besides, the Expedition was not exclusively made up of infantry, being mixed cavalry and infantry, and therefore would not strictly come in competition with the Battalion which was entirely of infantry, with accompanying baggage wagons. Doniphan's Expedition is so wonderful a performance, however, and has been so generously acclaimed, that if unmentioned in connection with the performance of the Battalion, and the contrast made as above, it might be thought by some to rival the march of the latter. This, however, is not the case.

The World's Record for a March of Infantry.—Not even in the World's Great War, now happily ended, has the Mormon Battalion's march been equaled, though in all other things that war has surpassed the previous war experiences of mankind. And since the Battalion's march has not been equaled by any march of infantry in the World's Great War, nor in ancient times, it is not likely now, owing to the new methods for the transportation of troops that have been developed, that the Mormon Battalion's march across more than half of the North American continent will ever be equaled. It will stand as the world's record for a march of infantry.

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