The battalion was made up of Mormon men who were among the thousands fleeing persecution in Illinois by heading west in the summer of 1846.

At that point in the exodus, none of the pioneers knew where they were going, they only knew where they'd been. In exchange for permission from the U.S. government for the rest of the emigrant pioneers to camp on Indian lands west of Iowa, and for $12 a day in military wages, some 543 men joined the U.S. Army, which at the time was involved in a war with Mexico that had been declared just two months earlier.

The men had no horses and ended up walking all the way from Council Bluffs, Iowa, to San Diego over the next six months. They didn't fight a single Mexican; the most action came one night in what is now Arizona when they were attacked by a herd of wild bulls along the San Pedro River and suffered two fatalities.

After attrition due to health and other problems, 360 members of the battalion staggered into San Diego on Jan. 29, 1847. Most of them made their way to Utah after that, making the unprecedented decision to leave California.

They were courageous men, and certainly great walkers, and they definitely helped the cause of their fellow pioneers who first wound up in the Salt Lake Valley. But like that cedar tree and the water diverted to the first potatoes planted in the Salt Lake Valley, over the years their reputation has greatly exceeded reality.

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Lee Benson's column runs Sunday, Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Please send e-mail to benson@desnews.com and faxes to 801-237-2527.