Narrative: The Lamanite army is defeated, and Moronihah retakes Zarahemla. Mormon is interested in this particular threat, but he condenses the aftermath. What has been important is not so much the winning of the war, but the fact of the war, and the danger inherent in the fact of that war. Mormon’s purpose in writing about the battles differs greatly from the purpose of war-relations in the typical writings of the acts of the leaders of a people. Contrast Mormon’s descriptions of this battle with two typical battle-records from the Old World. The following are texts from two different records carved in stone commemorating battles of Shalmaneser III, between 853-841 BC:
“…They came directly toward me in close battle, (but) with the superior aid which Ashur the lord had given, and with the mighty weapons which Nergal, my leader, had gifted me, I fought with them. From Qarqar to Gilzau I defeated them. I smote 14,000 of their men with weapons, falling upon them like Adad pouring down a hailstorm. I flung their bodies about, filling the plain with their scattered soldiery.
In my eighteenth regnal year I crossed the River Euphrates for the sixteenth time. Hazael of Aram put his trust in the numerical strength of his army and called out his army in great numbers. He made Sanir, a mountain-peak which stands out in front of the Lebanon, his strong position, (but) I fought with him and defeated him, smiting with weapons 16,000 of his experienced troops. I snatched away from him 1,121 of his chariots and 470 of his cavalry-horses together with his baggage train. He went off to save his life, (but) I followed after him and surrounded him in Damascus, his capital city. I cut down his plantations (and then) marched as far as the mountains of the Hauran. I destroyed, tore down, and burnt with fire numberless villages, carrying away innumerable spoil from them. I marched as far as the mountains of Ba’ali-ra’si, a headland by the sea, and put up on it a representation of my royal person. At that time I received the tribute of the people of Tyre, Sidon, and of Jehu, son of Omri.” (The Kurkh Stele and a Black Obelisk. Documents from Shalmaneser III, 853-841 BC. Documents from Old Testament Times. Ed. D. Winton Thomas. Harper Torchbooks, New York 1958, pp. 47-8)
In Shalmaneser’s record the emphasis is on the victory, not the setup of the war. Even when specific events are discussed, such as the second inscriptions discussion of Hazael of Aram’s stand at Sanir, the emphasis is on the victory, not on the details of the battle. There is nothing at all of the reasons for the war in either of these texts.
The typical method of writing about the wars of the kings in the Old World is to exalt the deads of the kings. The reasons for wars are unnecessary, for only the obvious justification of the victorious king counted. In the New World, we have more terse accounts of the deeds of the kings, and not surprisingly, we hear more of their victories than their defeats.
It is against this backdrop of the expected that we should see the very unusual reporting of Mormon. Against all ancient logic, Mormon dwells on the causes and the problems, and tends to move quickly over the victories. This should tell us that Mormon has a very different agenda, and that his agenda has to do with the problems rather than the victories. Mormon includes the battles because the show the difficulties that arise out of the Nephites internal divisions away from the pure Nephite ideal. Their own rejection of their tradition means that the foundational promise no longer applies. They are susceptible.
Textual: Mormon continues to organize his text along year lines. Even when he does not elect to use the year change to mark a new chapter, the year change becomes the structural element that defines a unit of thought. This incident is contained inside the bounds of a year structure. The first event listed is the murder of Pacumeni and the introduction of the Gadiantons. This event is bounded by the fortieth year. In the forty first year we have this battle against Coriantumr. Of course those events occurred within those years, but the point here is that Mormon is using the year structures to structure his text, even internal to a chapter. There is no chapter break at this point, even though there is a year-ending.