Mormon, almost overwhelmed with grief; his hopes vanished, and his fears fully realized, took the Plates of Nephi which Ammaron, the last of the Nephite historians, had placed in his care, and, finding space thereon, finished the record of his peoples' destruction.
Only a few details of their mass extermination is given by him, but enough is told us that we can see the power and the purpose of the Lord in the Nephites being swept off the face of the earth.
To begin the story of this phase of the struggle which Mormon knew was the last battle in the long period of warfare that had engulfed both the wicked Lamanites and the still more wicked Nephites, he tells of writing an epistle to the King of the Lamanites, requesting him to grant unto the Nephites time that therein might be gathered together his people in the Land called by them, Cumorah; near a Hill by the same name, and there give him battle. The King granted Mormon's request.
Mormon at its head, the Nephite Armies began the march which eventually took them to the Land of Cumorah. Only he, it seems, sensed that the proposed battle there would be the final struggle between the Nephites and the Lamanites. Only he, but it may be a few others, realized that God was not with them, nor with the Lamanites. Arrived at Cumorah, the Nephites pitched their tents around a Hill which was called by the same name. Cumorah was a land where there were many rivers and lakes, and here Mormon hoped "to gain advantage over the Lamanites."
Now, in the 385th year, the Nephites had gathered into one group all those who claimed an affiliation with their cause. But by this time Mormon was getting old, and perhaps a little feeble for such a strenuous undertaking as the one in which he was engaged. He, knowing as we have stated, that the impending battle would be the last violent effort of both sides to annihilate the other, took the records and other sacred things which were in his possession, for the Lord had commanded him to suffer them not to fall into the hands of the Lamanites, for he says, "The Lamanites would destroy them," and after making a record of these times on the Plates of Nephi, he hid them all in the Hill Cumorah save "these few plates which I gave to my son, Moroni."