In July 1846, the mustering of the Mormon Battalion began one of the most remarkable infantry marches in American history. Members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints responded to President James K. Polk’s request to serve the United States in the war with Mexico. Five hundred volunteers, among thousands who had left Nauvoo, Illinois, that year and were moving west in search of a new home, demonstrated Mormon patriotism and earned money for their westward trek. Accompanied by some wives and children who served as laundresses and aids, the Battalion marched south to Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, for equipment, then through Santa Fe, New Mexico, and Tucson, Arizona, to the Pacific Coast, covering more than 2,000 miles in six months. Though not required to engage in combat, the Battalion helped open new roads to California and the Pacific coast. At the Grand Encampment in 1846, 490 men, 12 boys, and 20 women joined the Battalion, while many pioneer companies assembled there and prepared for their westward journey to the valley of the Great Salt Lake. Thousands of tents and covered wagons stretched for nine miles of prairie along what is now State Highway 92, temporarily housing nearly ten thousand people. Tents were arranged in great squares, protected by wagons and sometimes split-rail fences, with one wagon serving as a post office and one tent as a newspaper reading room. Brigham Young’s tent was marked by a large American flag. Boys tended livestock, women and girls washed clothes, cared for children, and prepared meals, and men built fences, hunted, and repaired tents, wagons, and equipment. Several Mormon bishops also served as the first justices of the peace in Pottawattamie County. By the end of August 1846, the vast tent city had disappeared as some pioneers crossed the Missouri River and others settled temporarily in more than eighty communities in southwestern Iowa until they could continue west.