Mormon copies this letter, even though it covers some of the history Mormon related in Alma 53:13–20. One thing we do learn is some of the timing of this event, which is a little more confusing in Mormon’s text. Mormon introduced the twenty-sixth year in Alma 52:14, but at that point he continued to tell the story of Teancum’s siege-like defense of the northeastern territory. Mormon often has to tell stories that occur at the same time, and he tends to do so by finishing one, and then returning back in time to tell the other. That is what happened with the story of the two thousand stripling soldiers.
Mormon also recapitulates the most important part of the young men’s story. Their parents had made a covenant not to take up arms, and Helaman had to stop them from breaking that covenant. The young men could take up arms because they had been too young to make the covenant themselves.