I Gotta Know

In 1846, the U.S. Army ordered 500 men to march 2,000 miles through uncharted desert — men who, just weeks earlier, had been driven from their own homes by that same government. This is the story of the Mormon Battalion: the longest sustained march by infantry in United States history. No major battles. No glory campaigns. Just distance, thirst, and will — carving the first wagon road to ever reach the Pacific coast, founding Fort Moore in Los Angeles, and standing at the discovery that triggered the California Gold Rush. As we mark 250 years of American history, this is one of the stories that never made the textbooks.