UTAH WAR

The 'Utah War', also known as the 'Utah Expedition' or 'Buchanan's Blunder', was a dispute between Mormon settlers in Utah Territory and the United States federal government. From 1857 to 1858, the Mormons and Washington each sought control over the government of the territory, with the national government ultimately victorious. The confrontation between the Mormon militia and the U.S. Army involved some destruction of property but no actual battles between the contending military forces. However, at the height of the conflict, more than 100 California-bound settlers from Arkansas were killed by Mormon militia allied with local Paiutes, in what was later called the Mountain Meadows massacre.

Contents

Background

Troop movements

Consequences

Timeline of events

See also

Notes

References

External links

Background

In the Presidential Election of 1856 the Republicans attacked the "twin relics of barbarism"—polygamy and slavery. Newly elected President James Buchanan (a Democrat) opposed the practice of polygamy. However, more importantly, the theocratic dominance of Utah Territory by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (the Mormons) under Brigham Young was seen as a violation of American principles. (''See also Theodemocracy''.)
Information from several federal officials who had difficulties with the Mormon dominated territorial government and so left their Utah appointments for the east convinced the new President that the Mormons were nearing rebellion. According to LDS historians James B. Allen and Glen M. Leonard, the most influential information came from William W. Drummond, associate justice of the Utah territorial supreme court beginning in 1854. Drummond's March 1857 letter of resignation contained charges that Young's power set aside the rule of law in the territory, that the Mormons had ignored the laws of Congress and the Constitution, and that male Mormons acknowledged no law but the priesthood.
:''He further charged the Church with murder, destruction of federal court records, harassment of federal officers, and slandering the federal government. He concluded by urging the president to appoint a governor who was not a member of the Church and to send with him sufficient military aid to enforce his rule.'' (Allen and Leonard, pp. 298-299)
Buchanan was unfamiliar with Drummond's character, which federally appointed territorial chief justice John F. Kinney found to be immoral and ''..entirely unworthy of a place upon the bench'' (Allen and Leonard, p. 298). Buchanan failed to investigate this report or contact Young regarding the accusations. Drummond's report and additional information from other officials led Buchanan to appoint Alfred Cumming as the new governor. He failed to notify Young of the change in territorial adminstration.

Troop movements

U.S. Army units, totaling 2,500 men, were ordered to escort Cumming to the Utah Territory and enforce the change. The troops marching toward Utah were originally led by Gen. William S. Harney, but Harney was forced to return to Kansas to deal with border skirmishes between Missouri and Kansas during the Bleeding Kansas build up to the American Civil War. Because of Harney's unavailability, Col. Edmund Alexander was charged with the first detachment of troops headed for Utah, only to later rendezvous with and relinquish command to Col. Albert Sidney Johnston.
Just as misunderstanding of Mormon culture and their governmental system contributed to sending the expedition, so the Mormons lack of information on the army's mission created apprehension and led to elaborate preparations. Mormon contractors for mail service to Utah, in the east at the time, received word that their contract was canceled. They used their mail facilities along the Oregon/California/Mormon trail to quickly notify Brigham Young that U.S. Army units were marching on the Mormons. Young quickly responded to the perceived threat, asking residents in much of the northern Utah territory to prepare for evacuation, making plans to burn their homes and property and stockpile food and stock feed. Guns were manufactured and ammunition was cast. Mormon colonists in small outlying communities in Nevada, Idaho and California were ordered to abandon their homes and fields and consolidate with the main body of Latter-day Saints in Northern Utah. All LDS missionaries serving in the United States and Europe were recalled.
The Nauvoo Legion (essentially all able bodied men between 15 and 60), the Utah militia commanded by Daniel Wells under Young's leadership, was activated and ordered to harass and delay the federal troops, buying time for the Mormon settlements to prepare. Militia Colonel Robert T. Burton and a reconnaissance unit were sent east from Salt Lake City with orders to observe the American regiments traveling to the territory and protect Mormon emigrants traveling on the Mormon trail. While the U.S. troops were under Alexander's command, three Army supply trains that were trailing the main army detachments were found, attacked and burned, after their teamsters were driven off, by legion members led by Lot Smith. Associated horses and cattle were "liberated" from the supply trains and taken west by the militia. (Allen and Leonard, pp. 300-301) In October and November, between 1,200 and 2,000 militiamen were stationed in the only easy access to Utah, Echo Canyon and Weber canyon, the two narrow canyons leading into the Salt Lake Valley. Dealing with a heavy snowfall and intense cold, the Mormon men built fortifications, dug rifle pits and dammed streams and rivers in preparation for a possible battle in the spring. Several thousand more milita men prepared their families for evacuation and underwent military training for possible conflict.
Only days after taking command of the combined U.S. forces, Col. Johnston, looking at his supply situation, decided to forgo moving immediately into Utah territory. He settled his troops into winter camps designated Camp Scott and Eckelsville, near the burned out remains of Fort Bridger, Wyoming. In the spring, approximately 3,000 additional U.S. Army reinforcements arrived to resupply and strengthen the Army's presence. In Utah, the Nauvoo Legion was bolstered as Mormon communities were asked to supply and equip an additional thousand volunteers to be placed in the over one hundred miles of mountains that separated Camp Scott and Great Salt Lake City.
Fortunately, no conflict erupted as cooler heads started negotiations. Hearing of the potential conflict, Thomas L. Kane of Pennsylvania, who had been helpful to the Mormons in their migration west, had contacted Buchanan and offered to mediate. Receiving permission to attempt mediation, Kane immediately started for Utah. During the heavy winter of 1857-1858, he traveled over 3,000+ miles from the East coast under an alias to Utah by ship to Panama, crossing the isthmus by newly constructed (1855) Panama Railway, and taking another ship to southern California. He then went overland through San Bernardino to Salt Lake City on the strenuous southern branch of the California Trail, arriving in February 1858. Kane persuaded Young to accept Buchanan's appointment of Cumming as Territorial governor, and to present no opposition to the troops acting as escort, if Cumming would make the transition peacefully. Kane then traveled to the winter base at Fort Bridger, and persuaded Governor Cumming to travel under guarantee of safe conduct to Salt Lake City without his military escort. Cumming was courteously received by Young and Utah residents, and was shortly installed in his new office. The Army troops came in later and settled in Camp Floyd, then vacant land, over 30+ miles from Salt Lake City. They left in 1860 when called back east for service in the American Civil War.

Consequences

Although Eastern editors continued to condemn the Mormons' religious beliefs and practices, they praised their heroism in the face of military threat. By the time Governor Cumming was securely placed in office, the Utah War had become an embarrassment for President Buchanan. Called 'Buchanan's Blunder' by elements of the national press,^[1] the President was criticized for:

★ failing to officially notify Governor Young about his replacement,

★ incurring the expense of sending troops without investigating the reports on Utah's disloyalty to the United States,

★ dispatching the expedition late in the season, and

★ failing to provide an adequate resupply train for the winter.
In response to public opinion, Buchanan sent two ''peace commissioners'' to Utah. Arriving in June 1858, Ben McCullock and Issac Powell carried a global pardon to the Latter-day Saints, if they would reaffirm their loyalty to the federal government. Indignant, the Latter-day Saints insisted they had never been disloyal. Arthur P. Welchman, member of a company of missionaries recalled due to the war, wrote in his travel journal:
:''June -- On the head-waters of the Sweet-Water, met Grosebecks' camp going to Platt Bridge for a train of goods. By these Brethren we had a proclamation from President Buchannan(sic) to the Inhabitants of Utah read to us. It was so full of lies, and showed so much meanness, that it elicited three groans from the company.''
However, President Young and the people of Utah accepted the pardon to establish peace in the territory.
Republicans won control of the House of Representatives in 1858 and every significant bill they passed fell before the votes of southern Democrat Senators or a Presidential veto. The Federal Government remained stalemated and little could be done. By 1860 sectional strife split the Democratic Party into northern and southern wings indirectly leading to the election of Republican Abraham Lincoln in 1860. The resolution of the slavery question led to the ugly result of the American Civil War, the Utah "War" had accomplished little or nothing.
The people of Utah lost much during the brief period of conflict. Suspicious and fearful, Young and the Saints made plans to abandon their fields, orchards, businesses and homes and destroy them if the army should invade Utah territory. Scouts had identified new areas for settlement in central and southern Utah and in the White Mountains of Arizona. Up to 30,000 Latter-day Saints boarded up their homes, packed their property, and began to move south. Historians Allen and Leonard wrote:
:''It was an extraordinary operation. As the Saints moved south they cached all the stone cut for the Salt Lake Temple and covered the foundations to make it resemble a plowed field. They boxed and carried with them twenty thousand bushels of tithing grain, as well as machinery, equipment, and all the Church records and books. The sight of thirty thousand people moving south was awesome, and the amazed Governor Cumming did all he could to persuade them to return to their homes. Brigham Young replied that if the troops were withdrawn from the territory, the people would stop moving....'' (Allen/Leonard p. 308).
The troops had peacefully passed through Salt Lake City and settled in a permanent base, Camp Floyd, near Fairfield in Cedar Valley, west of Utah Lake and more than 30 miles from Salt Lake City. Young personally led a large group of Saints back into northern Utah and the Salt Lake Valley. However, the settler's livelihoods and economic well being were seriously impacted for at least that year. Field crops had been ignored for most of the two month planting season and livestock herds had been culled for the journey. A years worth of work improving their living conditions had essentially been lost. Some poverty would be widespread in the territory for several years. A number of Mormon settlements in Idaho, Nevada and California would not be resettled for decades and some were permanently abandoned.
Utah was under nominal military occupation. Historian Leonard J. Arrington noted that "the cream of the United States Army" jeered and reviled the Utah settlers. Relations between the troops, their commanders and the Mormons were often tense. Fortunately, the near isolation of Camp Floyd kept interaction to a minimum, as troops stayed on or near their base. Settlers living near the 7,000 troops quartered in Cedar Valley did sell the troops lumber for building construction, farm produce and manufactured goods. When the army finally abandoned Camp Floyd in 1861 at the outbreak of the American Civil War, surplus goods worth an estimated four million dollars were auctioned off for a fraction of their value.

Timeline of events

★ July 24, 1847: Mormon Pioneers found Salt Lake City as the first city of Deseret.

★ February 2, 1848: The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo is signed by the U.S. and Mexico, granting the region of Deseret to the U.S.

★ September 9, 1850: The Great Compromise of 1850 is signed into law, creating the Utah Territory and appointing Brigham Young governor.

★ March 4, 1857 James Buchanan takes office as President of the United States.

★ April 1857: Troops are mobilized for the Utah campaign . The press in the Eastern U.S. begins to speculate on who would be appointed to replace Brigham Young.^[2]

★ May 28, 1857: Winfield Scott, General-in-Chief of the U.S. Army, announces the creation of the Military Department of Utah, to be assembled at Fort Leavenworth .

★ June 29, 1857: U.S. President James Buchanan declares Utah in rebellion of the U.S. government, and mobilizes a regiment of the U.S. army, initially led by Col. Edmund Alexander.

★ July 2, 1857: Heber C. Kimball refers to 2,500 approaching troops and states that if somehow their wagons and cattle arrive in Utah without the troops, it would be "a mighty help to us" . Jokingly, he said he had "wives enough to whip out the United States" .

★ July 5, 1857: Brigham Young refers in a sermon to "rumors" that the U.S. is sending 1,500 to 2,000 troops into the Utah Territory, and warns them that if people enter the territory and don't "behave themselves", they will be subject to a "Vigilance Committee", and the Danites will "bite[] their heels" .

★ July 13, 1857: President Buchanan appoints Alfred Cumming as governor of Utah, and directs him to accompany the military forces into Utah .

★ July 18, 1857: Two Mormons, Porter Rockwell and Abraham Owen Smoot, learn of Buchanan's declaration in Kansas City while on a mail run. The same day, Col. Alexander and troops begin the journey to Utah.

★ July 23, 1857: Rockwell and Smoot arrive in Salt Lake City and inform Brigham Young of the government's plans.

★ August 2 1857: Brigham Young publicly discusses secession of the Mormon theocracy from the United States and establishment as an independent kingdom . Heber C. Kimball issues a curse upon President Buchanan and predicts his untimely death (JD 5:129).

★ August 5 1857: Brigham Young declares martial law .

★ August 28, 1857: Col. Johnston is ordered to replace Gen. Harney in command of the U.S. troops.

★ August 30 1857: Brigham Young discusses possible secession of the Mormon "Kingdom of God" from the United States, and announces: "We must have the kingdom of God, or nothing. We are not to be overthrown." (JD 5:166).

★ September 11, 1857 - A group of Mormons in Southern Utah, led by John D. Lee, attack and kill a group of traveling civilians in the Mountain Meadows massacre.

★ September 15, 1857: Brigham Young calls out the Nauvoo Legion to fight the U.S. Troops if they enter Utah Territory.

★ September 18, 1857: Col. Johnston and troops leave Fort Leavenworth, Kansas headed for Utah.

★ October 5, 1857: Lot Smith leads the Nauvoo Legion on a guerrilla-style attack on the provision wagons of the U.S. Army. Fifty-two wagons belonging to outfitters Russell, Majors and Waddell are burned. The government never reimburses the outfitters and in 1860 they form the Pony Express to earn a government mail contract to keep them from falling into bankruptcy.

★ November 3, 1857: Col. Albert Sidney Johnston catches up with Col. Alexander and replaces him as commander. Johnston orders the regiment to spend the winter in Fort Bridger and to delay the move to Salt Lake City until next spring.

★ December 19, 1857: President James Buchanan submits the nomination of Alfred Cumming to the United States Senate .

★ March 23, 1858: Brigham Young implements a scorched earth policy. All faithful are ordered to move south to Provo and to prepare their homes in Salt Lake City for burning.

★ April 12, 1858: The U.S. Army and Cumming arrive in Salt Lake City. Brigham Young surrenders the title of governor to Alfred Cumming.

See also

★ Mormon War (1838 Missouri) ★ Extermination Order (1838 Missouri) ★ Illinois Mormon War (1844-1845) ★ Mormon Exodus (1846-1857) ★ Mormon Reformation (1856-1858) ★ Mountain Meadows Massacre (1857) ★ Morrisite War (1862) ★ Morrill Anti-Bigamy Act (1862)

★ Poland Act (1874) ★ ''Reynolds v. United States'' (1879) ★ Edmunds Act (1882) ★ Edmunds-Tucker Act (1887) ★ ''Mormon Church v. United States'' (1890) ★ 1890 Manifesto ★ Smoot Hearings (1903-1907) ★ Second Manifesto (1904)

Notes

1. Poll, Richard D., and Ralph W. Hansen. ""Buchanan's Blunder" The Utah War, 1857-1858." Military Affairs (Lexington, VA) 25, 3 (1961): 121-131.
2. Furniss, Norman F., ''The Mormon Conflict, 1850-1859, p. 63.

References

★ Allen, James B. and Leonard, Glen M. ''The Story of the Latter-day Saints.'' Deseret Book Co., Salt Lake City, UT, 1976. ISBN 0-87747-594-6.

★ Arrington, Leonard J. ''Great Basin Kingdom: An Economic History of the Latter-day Saints, 1830-1900''; Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1958, reprinted by University of Illinois Press, October 2004. ISBN 0-252-02972-0.

★ Journal of Arthur Welchman, LDS Missionary

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★ Fleek, Sherman L. "The Church and the Utah War, 1857-1858," Robert Freeman, ed., ''Nineteenth Century Saints at War'', Provo, UT: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University, 2006.

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★ Poll, Richard D., and Ralph W. Hansen. ""Buchanan's Blunder" The Utah War, 1857-1858." Military Affairs (Lexington, VA) 25, 3 (1961): 121-131.

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★ Journal of Arthur Welchman, LDS Missionary

External links

★ The Story of the Mormons: The Mormon "War"

★ Bancroft's History of Utah: The Utah War

★ The Utah War:Eugene Campbell

★ historynet.The Utah War