“A Complete Struggle”: Zion Building and Women Connected to the Mormon Battalion

Abstract

the assembly hall of the Nauvoo Temple was filled with Latter-day Saints gathered for conference. Since the murders of Joseph and Hyrum Smith, threats and rumors of further violence from mobs had been circulating the city for months. Some of the Saints had been victims of actual assaults. Fear of the future and uncertainty were everywhere. Furthermore, whispers of the leadership crisis occasioned by Smith's death still lingered in the city. The Twelve Apostles were well aware of the situation in Nauvoo and the potential consequences of lingering in the city. Parley P. Pratt spoke movingly on the future of the Saints and the freedom they were to find by moving west, an idea that was common knowledge LAURA K. ANDERSON is the first executive director for the Mormon Battalion Association. She is a homegrown historian taking after a long line of historians in her family. She worked on early church history at the Church History Library for ten years and has presented at the Mormon History Association, Oregon California Trails Association, RootsTech, and other conventions. ROBERT SWANSON recently graduated from Brigham Young University with a bachelor's in history. He worked for the Church History Library on projects related to the Saints volumes. He is currently a student at Rutgers University-Camden pursuing a master's degree in history.