The Mormon Battalion: United States Army of the West 1846-1848, by Norma Baldwin Ricketts

There are few major events in the history of the Far West from 1846 to 1849 that did not involve the Mormon Battalion. Recruited for the Mexican War from migrating Mormons in Iowa, the Battalion helped make that migration to Utah possible, opened four major western trails to wagons (including principal overland routes of the forty-niners) and participated in the United States conquest of California.