WHEELS THAT WON THE WEST®: Memorial Day 2016

WHEELS THAT WON THE WEST®: Memorial Day 2016: For many, this coming weekend will offer a respite of sorts; a time to enjoy activities with family and friends, do a little traveli...

Mormon Battalion Monument, Salt Lake City Utah.

If there's a photo that gives a worse depiction of a monument on this page than this one, I don't know what it is.

However, as a business traveler, and having seen this for the first time, and not knowing when I'll have the opportunity to photograph it again, here's an early morning photograph of the monument to the Mormon Battalion of the Mexican War on the grounds of Utah's capitol.  

The unit is unique in that its probably the only religiously based unit to have ever served in US service, although there are other units that can claim to be religiously homogeneous.  The unit was raised in a period of extreme tension between the Mormons, which were in the process of relocating to the Salt Lake Valley, and the United States.   The thought was that the raising of the volunteer unit would help dispel that.  

The unit was raised and did march a very long way to campaign in the war, but it did not see much in the way of actual combat, which is not to say that it did not see any.  The monument to the unit is being renovated, and as a result, this photograph only shows that a monument exists, without really given any details.

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