Here the 1888 LDS edition switched from the inverted word order of “and thus were we favored” to “and thus we were favored”. That edition never served as a copytext, so this change was never copied into any subsequent LDS edition. Either word order is theoretically possible. Later on in this verse, the same original inverted word order is used: “but thus were we favored”. Yet later in this chapter we get the noninverted word order: “and thus we were prepared with ten thousand men” (Alma 56:28). The critical text will, in each case, follow the earliest textual sources: “thus were we favored” twice in Alma 56:19 and “thus we were prepared” in Alma 56:28. For another example of this kind of change (but in the 1837 edition), see under Mosiah 11:6, where an original “thus were they supported” was changed to “thus they were supported”. favored of the Lord”).
Summary: Maintain the original inverted word order were we in Alma 56:19 (“and thus were we