Alma Ch52

The Lamanites wake up to a dead king and accept his brother as their new king who still fights against the Nephites but is unsuccessful thanks to Moroni, Teancum, and Lehi. It may seem random that Jacob the Lamanite is mentioned in the heading but its a good story and I'm sure we'll find some kind of insight hidden in there for us.
The Lamanites were freaked out seeing the Nephite army ready to attack their king lying dead on the first day of the 26th year, so they ran off northward to the city of Mulek which was fortified pretty well (v1-2). Ammoron was appointed to reign in the stead of his brother Amalickiah, and he caused that the Lamanites not back down, but keep the cities they had taken (v3-4). Teancum was wise enough to see that he could not over take the cities so he pretended to be preparing to attack the cities so the Lamanites would prepare to defend, but really he was stalling until Moroni sent men to support him with orders to keep all prisoners as bargaining chips and protect more cities from falling under the Lamanites (v5-9).
Moroni would have come himself with his armies and easily taken back cities where Teancum was, but Ammoron had told the queen what happened then came back with another army in a different part of the land to harass the Nephites on both sides (v10-14). Now after a year of all that, Moroni could finally come to assist Teancum in retaking the cities, in year 27, because there was no way that Teancum could do it alone because of the awesome fortifications it had started with (v15-17). Moroni finally arrived and a war council was held to strategize on how to retake Mulek in the 28th year (v18-19).
The leader of the Lamanites who possessed Mulek was a man by the name of Jacob, a Zoramite, who prefered staying cooped up in the city and not battling it out with the Nephites on fair grounds (v20-21). So the council planned to send a decoy of a small number of men to march close enough and small enough to be bait to draw out the armies of the Lamanites to pursue them down the seashore (v22-23). As Teancum's little force fled, Jacob's army began pursuing with confidence while the army Moroni commanded easily killed the small number of guards left to defend the city of Mulek (v24-26).
Once they got the city, they went to meet Jacob and his army who happened to be fleeing from Teancum and the reinforcements Lehi gave when they came near Bountiful, and because the Nephites knew the plan was to trap Jacob outside the city all along, Lehi didn't worry about catching them (v27-30). When the armies finally all met, the Nephites were pretty fresh and ready for battle while the Lamanites had been marching so much they were tired, so Moroni gave them the chance to surrender but Jacob led them to fight anyway (v31-33). After a while of fighting, Moroni was wounded, Jacob was killed, and many died but then the Lamanites began to surrender and be confused without their leader, so a majority of the army was taken prisoner, more than had been slain on both sides (v34-40).
So here is my guess at the insight to why Jacob is important enough for us to know about that he is in the scriptures. Not only is he a Zoramite leading the Lamanite army, but he is a coward and hides in the city until he finds a small army he knows he would have a good chance of beating. So this guy is a bully and like all bullies, only picks fights with those who are weaker than them. This also says a lot about how to beat the bullies, you can be smarter than them and have a good plan! It's also helpful to have a friend or two to help you, and within the gospel you have a friend in Jesus Christ and the Holy Ghost who love to help you beat up on Satan and his temptations.