A CONCISE HISTORY OF THE MORMON BATTALION IN THE MEXICAN WAR. 1846-1847. By Sargent Daniel Tyler. 1881. N.p. [Salt Lake City], 1882? 22.5x14.5 cm (octavo), pp. [1-2] [i-iii] iv-viii [9-10] 11-376, publisher's decorated black cloth stamped in gold and blind, all edges speckled black, marbled endpapers. First edition, first printing. Formed in July 1846 to aid the U.S. in securing California and to provide financial support for Latter-day Saint pioneers migrating west after being driven from Illinois, the Mormon Battalion was a unique 500-member volunteer unit of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints that served in the U.S. Army during the Mexican-American War (1846–1848), marching nearly 2,000 miles from Council Bluffs, Iowa, to San Diego, California. The battalion did not participate in combat as it reached San Diego on 29 January 1847, by which time major fighting in California had concluded. However, the march established a critical wagon route to the Pacific Coast, linking the East with Southern California, and hastened the eventual cession of much of the American Southwest from Mexico to the United States. Written by one of its members, Tyler's history is "the earliest and probably the best book on the famous Mormon Battalion of the Mexican War ... A complete list of the members of the battalion is given and every detail of the hard journey is told by Sergeant Tyler ... Although the title page bears the date 1881 the book was probably published in the latter part of 1882 since a list of surviving members of the battalion as of March, 1882, is given on page 370" (Zamorano Eighty). Cowan (1933), p. 648. Howes T 447. Zamorano Eighty 75. A fine copy. (#179145).
Price: $2,250.00
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