History of the Mormon Battalion: Religious militia started as a contingent in the Mexican-American War

ST. GEORGE — The story of the Mormon Battalion began in early 1846, amid growing opposition and prejudice to the relatively new religious denomination, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The most strident opposition occurred in Illinois with the forceful expulsion of the Latter-day Saints from Nauvoo by mobs posing as state militia. […]