In Mormon 1:15, Mormon indicated that he had been fifteen and had “somewhat of a sober mind, therefore I was visited of the Lord.” After that statement, he spoke of the return of the Gadianton robbers. In the 1830 edition of the Book of Mormon, our Chapters 1 and 2 were combined into the original Chapter I (using the Roman numeral for the 1830 chapters).
This is important because we are beginning the next year in Mormon’s life, and the next phase of his career. Either somewhere in his fifteenth year, or early in his sixteenth, Mormon was made the leader of the Nephite armies. That one so young was selected probably tells us two things. First, that he was born to a military family, and therefore had military training. Second, his father had probably died in the earlier war with the Lamanites.
The contrast between the previous war and this one is important and instructive, and will be noted in the next verses.