On this third morning when the Lamanites halt, Helaman spells out the options for his young men. He has no way of knowing if Antipus has succeeded in coming up to attack. If he has not engaged the Lamanites, they may have simply stopped, attempting to draw Helaman’s men back into a trap. Once they have hewn Helaman’s unit to pieces, they can turn about to engage Antipus.
Hassig suggests that it is reasonable to assume a square meter of distance between any soldier and his nearest companion in a column. A single column of 8,000 warriors would stretch for fifteen miles, and the end of the column could be six to ten hours behind the front of the column. Of course, a better military arrangement would be roughly parallel columns; and the larger the number of parallel columns, the shorter each would be. Nevertheless, over uneven and rough terrain, it seems unlikely that they could keep more than three or four parallel columns together. Thus, Helaman probably could not see the end of the Lamanite army, let alone the beginning of Antipus’s. Helaman had to make his decision without knowing a crucial piece of information: the location of Antipus’s army.