The original manuscript is extant here, but it is difficult to determine whether it reads men or more. The sense of this passage supports men since the following phrase “to the assistance of the people to maintain that city” implies that without sending these men there would be no soldiers in the city of Nephihah for defense besides the local inhabitants. If the text had intended ‘more’, it probably would have used the noun phrase “more men”, as in the following nearby example:
The use of more alone as a noun phrase does occur in the text, but only once:
Even for that passage, as speakers of modern English, we prefer that more be followed by a head noun, such as people. Excluding the case here in Alma 59:9, the text has 15 occurrences of “send … men” and 6 of “send ... more X” (where X is a noun) but none of “send ... more”. Thus internal evidence supports men here in Alma 59:9, which is how Oliver Cowdery copied the word into 𝓟.
Summary: Accept in Alma 59:9 the word men, the reading in 𝓟, as the correct interpretation of the unclear men /more in 𝓞.