Existing comment:
Following the days of their severest persecutions in the winter of 1846-7 when the Mormon pioneers, driven from their beloved city of Nauvoo, Illinois by mob violence, were scattered across the frozen plains of Iowa, there came into their midst a young man, Thomas L. Kane, a native of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, who expressed a desire to assist them in their suffering.
Through the Christian and economic benefactions of Thomas L. Kane and his father Judge John K. Kane, United States District Judge of Philadelphia, the war department at Washington, D.C. was directed by President James K. Polk to accept the enlistment of the Mormon Battalion of 500 men in the war with Mexico who under the command of Lt. Col. P. St. George Cooke marched to California, built Fort Moore at Los Angeles and aided in establishing American sovereignty in Southern California.
The government money paid the Battalion members was used to feed and clothe the destitute Mormons in Iowa and this with their indomitable faith and perseverance enabled them to make their migration to the Salt Lake Valley in July, 1847.
Later, on January 24, 1848, while several mustered-out Mormon Battalion soldiers were digging a mill race at Sutters Mill on the American River near Sacramento, California, gold was discovered which resulted in the California gold rush of 1849 which brought statehood to California in 1850. |