Kevin – Thursday. Pioneer Day is our last ‘hurrah’ for the trek. It’s the final ‘event’ except for the presentation during the OCTA conference in Pueblo come September. Today could almost be best told just by sharing photos, but context narrative is necessary, so here goes.
Denny and I pick up Mark Woodbury and his son Curtis at 6:45 AM. We staged our truck at Liberty Park where the parade will end so we will have wheels to hurry to up to This Is The Place Heritage Park as soon as the parade is done. Then Denny took the three of us to South Temple and dropped us off near where the color guard was to assemble.
Laura Anderson had already distributed the flags to the color guard and the imitation muskets and accouterment sets for those marching as Battalion soldiers. Mark and I have our replica guns though I lend mine to one of the marchers.
For colors, we have the current 50-star flag, our 28-star flag, a historic ‘old style’ Utah state flag and the Mormon Battalion flag patterned after an old parade banner. These are flanked on either end by a musket bearing guard or whom Mark is one.
And for those sharp-eyed, flag protocol experts who note that the 50-star flag is in the wrong location in the rank – that’s my fault. (hangs head in shame) The current US flag should be out in front by itself or at the right side of the color guard line facing forward on the line of march. We will get it right next year for sure.
The color guard rank is followed by Curtis (our drummer today), and two ‘file closers. Historically they would have been lieutenants or sergeants who kept the files in line. They could step out of line and instruct the following ranks to ‘close up’ or whatever. And following them, we had 15 Battalion boys arrayed in ranks of four (well, yes, the last rank only had three). So, for the Battalion we had a total of 24 men in military array. Following us were the four ladies carrying the Battalion banner.
Promptly at 9 AM the parade got underway. To their credit, the KSL script writers got the Battalion story correct and the Associations’ tradition of being the color bearers for the parade. Making our way down State Street, we are pleased to see many spectators rise and render honors to the colors. Occasionally we get clapping and cheers for the Battalion too but that’s secondary to the honor for the colors.
One of the most interesting parade events today was as we got to about 700 South, the announcers addressed the crowd in Spanish. The majority of spectators still rose, removed hats, rendered honors to the flag and some even cheered for the Mormon Battalion. As some of us discussed this later, we found it surprising and encouraging, especially given the tense situation with people being deported.
Where is Brent Holladay you may ask? Where is the Mississippi Saint representative? Well, Brent had come into contact with Devin Dowdell, another MS Saint descendant. He invited Brent and grand-daughter Kylie to march with the Ruston View Stake float. It’s modeled to represent an old Mississippi riverboat. Cool.
Brent is organizing a Mississippi Saints association. For more information go to www.mississippisaints.org
Arriving at Liberty Park, we quickly shed the 1847 gear then head out to the Heritage Park where we’re involved in two events at the same time; the encampment representing the Battalion on the march and the symposium which goes from 1 PM to 5 PM. Let’s tackle the symposium first.
Between 1 and 4 PM we were privileged to have four presenters, each with a good story and information. Travis Boley, executive director for the Oregon-California Trail Association (OCTA) spoke about his newly found connections to the Battalion. Second up was Jenny Reeder from Church History Department speaking about the women following the Battalion. Brent Holladay spoke about the Mississippi Saints and their connection to the Battalion detachments in Pueblo. The final speaker was Stephen (‘Riz’) Rizley who related how three Battalion veterans settled in Arizona, which they called ‘the unfinished part of the world.’ Since I was up at the encampment, others will have to weigh in on presentation specifics.
Let’s shift gears and go out to the encampment. For our tents and displays the Park staff designated an area up by the telegraph office building. The Park arranged a special ‘train’ stop for our area so people wouldn’t have to walk far to our location.
You could break the encampment into four general areas: 1. Battalion information; 2. Living History impressions, 3. Historic equipment, and 4. Games and activities.
Battalion Information: As people arrived at the encampment, Mark Ann Kirk had set up her display table with information about who was in the Battalion along with their life histories. She also had her collection of information about the women accompanying the Battalion. This is something nearly everyone who attends Mormon Battalion Association events is interested in, so it was wonderful to have it there. Unfortunately, it appears we didn’t get a photo of Mary Ann at work.
Living History impressions: We were privileged and fortunate to have a couple of high-level Battalion living history impressions with us today. Kayla Willey has been interpreting the laundress position for decades. The little girls and some boys were very happy to help wash clothes.
Also with us today was Val John Halford posing as an Army infantry officer. He was ‘overseeing’ the recruiting efforts to raise a battalion of volunteers from among the Mormons.
And here I am at the recruiting table taking names, filling out the enlistment forms and having the ‘doctor’ examine ‘volunteers’ to determine their fitness. You must have at least one upper and one lower incisor teeth in order to ‘bite the bullet’ as you load your musket.
Historic Equipment: Since we want people to have an appreciation for just how limited the Battalion men were with what they had with them, we invested heavily in procuring reproduction tents, weapons, packs, other gear. Here is a modified ‘common tent’ which we think is how Ltc Cooke had the men change the standard issue tents. This allowed nine men to a tent vs. the usual six. It reduced the weight and equipment they had to carry in the wagons.
In front of the tent is a reproduction ‘blanket pack’ or ‘backpack’ made using the correct materials and design. Everything a man wanted to carry had to fit into that pack – for his YEAR of enlistment. It’s very sobering to consider that when you hold the small pack.
Denny was busy at the seminar, but she had us bring the ‘camp kitchen.’ It’s a 4 cubic foot box containing cooking gear and supplies that a senior officer (like Ltc Cooke) might have carried in their personal wagon. Mark Woodbury did a yeoman’s job of explaining the muskets and rifles carried by the Battalion.
Games and activities: You may ask about the appropriateness of having games at a Battalion encampment. We’ve found over the years that involving people in activities increases their interest level. From their historic journals we know that the Battalion men wrestled, ran races, played ball, and tossed quoits (look it up), p>
They also held debating events, wrote lyrics, sang songs, and played instruments.
At the end of the day, the folks at the seminar broke down the recording equipment and made copies of the files to share. At the encampment, many people cooperated to bring down the tents, get equipment packaged and into the trucks. I think it took barely an hour. When I have time I’m going to put together a set of instructions for putting camp up and taking it down next time. Let me make special mention of Don and Carrie Trimble of Pueblo Colorado. They drove all the way over to participate with us – a kind gesture and greatly appreciated. Hard workers and enthusiastic Battalion lovers.
What’s next? Denny and I will need to inventory the gear, clean some and pack it all away until next time it’s needed. I need to finish the blogs, archive the photos, and start preparing my talk for the OCTA conference in Pueblo.
In a couple weeks I’ll post an ‘Epilogue.’ It takes some ‘quiet time’ to digest the larger take-aways of these kinds of events – at least it does for me. I’ll ruminate on it a while if you don’t mind.
One last photo – one of the two Mormon Battalion tableaus by Dr. Neal. This is ‘Duty Triumphs’ representing the men and women as they reached their goal. It tries to capture the gratitude they felt for their safety, for their success, for their ideals. We’re not nearly so ‘dramatic’ as these statues, but Denny and I can relate to emotions being portrayed.
