The Lamanites come to battle, but see an imposing sight in front of them. They decide not to engage. The extant artistic representations of Mesoamerican warfare suggest that the visual presentation of the army may have been an important aspect of warfare, and specifically designed for intimidation. While the intimidation of the Lamanites was created by a difference in armor, intimidation in later years was attempted by visual displays in addition to the armor.
The most exciting visual display of this visually impressive armor/intimidation is found in the murals of Bonampak where warriors are shown in elaborate headdresses and body clothing/armor made of jaguar skins (Mary Miller. “Understanding the Murals of Bonampak.” Maya: Divine Kings of the Rain Forest. Ed. Nikolai Grube, Konemann, 2001, p. 240-241). The importance of military presentation and intimidation reached a pinnacle among the Aztec warriors. Tributary states were required to supply military “suits” which can be seen in all of their impressive glory in the Codex Medoza folios 19-41 and others (Frances f. Berdan and Patricia Rieff Anawalt. The Essential Codex Mendoza. University of California Press, 1997, pp. 4:43-87).
The flight of the Lamanite armies as a result of this visual intimidation is no more than a desired outcome of Mesoamerican battle. This principle became part and parcel of later battles, and the modes of intimidation increased, including the sounding of trumpets to increase the noise, and probably to invoke the sounds of the divine. The jaguar costumes that we see so often in Maya paintings were certainly used to invoke the divine power of the jaguar in behalf of the warriors. This short scene in the Book of Mormon is quite at home in the Mesoamerican location.
When the Lamanites decline to attack Jershon they pick a different target. That target is Manti, which is located south of Zarahemla, perhaps 75 miles upstream (Sorenson, Mormon’s Map, p. 57). This redirection of tactics is important for several reasons. The first, and most obscure, is that the Lamanites apparently thought that Manti might not be guarded by the men in the armor as was Jershon. This is implied by the their reluctance to fight the armored men in Jershon, but their willingness to continue fighting. If they were to always face armor, they might have decided to press an attack where they had already planned to, particularly with the base of Antionum to work from. The fact that they shied away from Jershon and still determined to fight at Manti not only suggests that they thought that the Nephites might not use armor at that location, it tells us that the expectation of the Nephite hegemony was a lack of uniformity.
This is an important point because modern presumptions of a centralized government tend to include some conception that there are fairly uniform aspects of culture across the units. The United States may have States and a Federal Government, but the clothing is reasonably national. Automobiles are national. The ancient world in Mesoamerica might have had some similar overriding cultural traits, but there would have been large distinctions between the various cities that were part of a political hegemony. Thus it is not surprising that the Lamanites might have assumed that the armor was specific to Jershon, and that they might not see it in Manti.
The next important information to be gleaned from both the initial attempt on Jershon, and the secondary attempt on Manti is that the real objective of the Lamanites was the political heartland of the land of Zarahemla in the Sidon river valley. In Sorenson’s correlation we have Jershon on the northern end of the river valley, where the Lamanites could have begun moving up the valley to arrive at Zarahemla. Manti lies at the opposite end of the river valley. Thus the Lamanites have kept the same objective, but decided to attack from a different direction. What is important in the selection of both sites is that it was preferable to march an army “around” rather than over the physical barrier that separated the Sidon river valley from the location of Antionum. This geographic feature will become important in the next few verses.