Alma 56

In the beginning of the 30th year of elected judges, Moroni received a letter from Helaman. “My dearly beloved brother,” Helaman wrote, “I wanted to apprise you of how the Lamanite conflicts are going in this part of the land. I have been leading 2,000 young Ammonite soldiers who took up arms to defend our land and traditions. As you remember, these are the former Lamanites whose fathers swore to refrain from killing, even in their own defense. To prevent their fathers from breaking their oaths, these sons have stepped forward to help.

“Several years ago we marched to the city of Judea to support Antipus, the regional commander whose forces had been badly decimated by the Lamanites. The cities of Manti, Zeezrom, Cumeni, and Antiparah had been conquered. The defenders of Judea were sorely depressed in body and spirit about their losses when I arrived, and were busy strengthening the fortifications of Judea. The Lamanites were determined to conquer Judea or die trying. So the arrival of my force of Ammonite sons was a great relief and blessing. [66 BC]

“When the Lamanites learned how much the defending forces had been strengthened, they were ordered not to attack Judea but to hold onto those cities that they’d taken. During the following year, we prepared the city and our army for defense. Having done that, we wanted the Lamanites to attack us rather than have to attack them behind their fortifications.

“Our spies were posted around the land to watch for Lamanite movements, and to insure that their armies did not pass Judea by to attack other cities to the north. We knew that these cities were insufficiently strong to resist the Lamanites. If they did move to attack them, we had developed a plan to fight from the rear when they were also fighting in the front. We thought that under these circumstances we could defeat them. But this is not what happened. They just sat still, and held onto their cities.

“Some months ago we received a large delivery of provisions from the Ammonites to support their defense. We also received a detachment of 2,000 more men from Zarahemla. This resulted in a well provisioned fighting force of 10,000. As the Lamanites saw our strength grow daily they began to test our defenses to see if it would be possible to intercept our flow of men and provisions. [65 BC]

“When we saw the uneasiness that our growing strength had on the Lamanites, we developed a strategy to defeat them. My 2,000 Ammonite sons and I marched northward to a neighboring city, posing as if we were carrying supplies to them. We planned our route so that it would pass close to the city of Antiparah, where the Lamanites were strongest. When our decoy supply convoy passed them by, they came out of the city and marched to meet us. When we saw that we had drawn out the strongest portion of the Lamanite army, we quickly fled northward, bringing the Lamanite army along in tow behind us.

“Meanwhile, the army of Antipus followed behind us to catch the Lamanites from behind. When the Lamanites became aware of their mistake, they quickened their speed to catch and defeat us before the army of Antipus caught up with them. They reasoned that it would be better to take our forces on one at a time rather than being surrounded and fighting us on both sides at once.

“When Antipus saw the situation, he also quickened the pace of his army to reach and help us. At nightfall, all three armies were still separated. At dawn, we found the Lamanite army was bearing down hard upon us, and far bigger than anything we were prepared to deal with. So we turned, and escaped into the wilderness. Seeing this, the Lamanites halted their pursuit of us and laid a trap to catch anyone who might attack.

“ ‘Are you ready for battle?’ I asked the Ammonite sons. They were ready. Never have I seen such courage. ‘Our God is with us,’ they said, ‘and he will not let us fall. We only go forward to kill because they will not leave us alone. Let’s go before they ambush Antipus and defeat his army.’

“Now these Ammonite sons had never fought before, but at this moment they thought more about the freedom of their families than they did about their own lives. Their mothers had taught them that if they didn’t doubt, God would deliver them. With this in their minds, they returned to fight the Lamanites. When we arrived, we discovered that the army of Antipus had caught up with the Lamanites, and that a terrible battle had begun.

“Because of their long, fast march, Antipus’ army was tired. The Lamanites had prepared well to receive them and were about to defeat the army when we returned. Antipus himself, and many of his commanders, had already been killed. Without leadership, the army was in disarray with the Lamanites were closing in for the final kill.

“My small army of 2,000 came upon the rear of the Lamanites and began methodically killing them from behind. Now, the Lamanite army turned and faced us. When this happened, Antipus’ army regathered and then started attacking from what was the new rear of the Lamanite army. Together, our combined army had them surrounded. We killed so many Lamanites that the survivors were compelled to lay down their weapons, and surrender themselves as prisoners of war.

“After the battle was over I began counting my men to see how many had perished. To my joy, I discovered that not a single one of my 2,000 had died fighting. They had fought with the strength and protection of God. No one had ever seen men fight with such miraculous strength and power. They fought so ferociously that they caused the Lamanites to surrender. The prisoners were sent back to Zarahemla with some of the survivors of Antipus’ army. The rest of his army joined us, and returned to Judea.” [64 BC]