As we return to events on the eastern front, it is easy to get confused about the general course of events. In contrast to Helaman’s miraculous success on the western front, Moroni has been struggling in the East. It has been a full five years since the Lamanites had taken the eastern cities of Moroni, Lehi, Morianton, Omner, Gid, and Mulek (Alma 51:26). For the last three years, Moroni had been in direct command of the eastern forces and had only been able to recapture the cities of Mulek and Gid (see Alma 52:26; 55:24). The remainder of those possessions and cities which the Lamanites had taken includes the cities of Moroni, Lehi, Morianton, and Omner. Last we read, Moroni’s plans were to attack the city of Morianton (Alma 55:34-35). But before Moroni could execute his plan, the Nephites lose another city—Nephihah.
Hugh Nibley
“Moroni…turned to the execution of an ambitious plan he had been working on, a grand stratagem to regain all the Nephite cities (”Alma 59:4Alma 59:4). It was never put into operation, however, because the Lamanites beat Moroni to the punch with a massive attack on the people of Nephihah, whose survivors came streaming to Moroni’s camp (“Alma 59:5”Alma 59:6“Alma 59:7”Alma 59:8Alma 59:5-8). It seems that Moroni had made a serious mistake in overestimating the defensive strength of Nephihah (“Alma 59:9Alma 59:9); his grand design collapsed and he was greatly out of sorts, blaming the failure of the operation onto ‘the wickedness of the people’ while his staff stood around nodding agreement, and berating the indifference of the government, with which he was very angry (”Alma 59:11“Alma 59:12”Alma 59:13Alma 59:11-13)." (Since Cumorah, p. 322)