WILL RETRACE LONGEST MARCH Ogden Standard June 30 -56 Modern Mormon Battalion To Leave S.L. Tomorrow By MURRAY M. MOLIER SALT LAKE CITY (UP) - Two hundred men, wearing uniforms that were stylish more than a century ago, leave Salt Lake City tomorrow to retrace - although in modern buses - the longest military march in American history. The men will be serving, for the occasion, as officers and noncomes of the Mormon Battalion as they visit Las Vegan, Nev., Colton, Los Angeles, Monterey, Santa Cruz, San Francisco and Sacramento, Calif., and Virgina City, and Elko, Nev. The party will stop in Las Vegas on Monday and in Colton on Tuesday morning. They will be guests of the Southern California Kiwanis Clubs at a Tuesday luncheon in the Biltmore Bowl. MILLION DOLLAR MARKER On Wednesday, the caravan members will join in an Independence Day celebration in downtown Los Angeles on the site of the old Ft. Moore, where a 1 million dollar monument is being erected by the state of California. They will motor to Monterey over the old Mormon Battalion trail on July 5 and visit Santa Cruz, San Francisco and Sacramento, on July 6th. At Sacramento, they will visit Sutters Fort, where six members of the original battalion had participated in California’s 1849 discovery of gold. Following the Donner Trail where possible, the new battalion will return to Salt Lake City on July 9th, after programs in Virginia City, Carson City and Elko. The battalion roles are being taken by members of the Sons of Utah Pioneers, led by Fred E. Curtis of Salt Lake City. For the trek, Curtis will us the name of Lt. Col. St. George Cook, commander of the original battalion. ORGANIZED IN 1846 The battalion was organized in January, 1846, when President Polk ordered the Mormon pioneers being led by LDS President Brigham Young on their famous westward migration to furnish 500 men to fight in the Mexican War. Formed at Council Bluffs, Iowa, where the Mormons had topped for the winter, and mustered in at Ft. Leavenworth, Kan., the original battalion marched more than 2,000 miles to San Diego, Calif., which they reached in January, 1847. Later in 1847, Cook moved his men to the little Settlement on the site of what is now Los Angeles and built Ft. Moore, where the American flag was first raised on July 4, 1847. CALLED OFF ATTACKS “Records show the Mexicans hoped to capture Ft. Moore that July and figured Independence Day would be a good time because the Americans would probably celebrate and be intoxicated,” Curtis said. “But the attack was called off when they found the officers and soldiers were non-drinking Mormons.” Actually, except for engagements with Indians on the way, the Mormon battalion never fired a shot in anger because the Mexican War ended and most of the group was mustered out of the Army on July 15, 1847. Ike Back at Gett