The Mormon Battalion, composed of 500 men, was mustered into the service of the United States in the war with Mexico as Mormon pioneers were beginning their historic trek to the Rocky Mountains. After a 2,000 mile march from Council Bluffs, Iowa, to San Diego, California, the leader who took command at Santa Fe praised the battalion’s achievement, saying that history could scarcely find an equal infantry march. He said that half of the route crossed wilderness inhabited only by savages and wild beasts, or deserts so dry that no living creature was found, and that the men dug wells for future travelers without a guide who had previously traversed the region. He said they ventured across trackless tablelands where water was absent for several marches, worked with crowbar, pick, and axe over mountains that seemed fit only for the wild goat, cut a pass through a chasm of living rock narrower than their wagons, preserved the strength of their mules by herding them over large tracts under laborious guard without loss, and, marching half naked and half fed while living on wild animals, discovered and made a road of great value to their country. Lieutenant Colonel P. St. George Cook issued this official order on January 30, 1847, upon the battalion’s safe arrival in San Diego, California.