Buchanan named Alfred Cumming of Georgia territorial governor but inexplicably failed to inform Young, a decision that would prove costly to Buchanan personally and to his party politically. The fight lasted five days and the Baker-Fancher party began to run out of ammunition, water, and food. The leader hefted a particularly nice repeater from the stack by the fire. Fearing an invasion by the approaching US Army in 1857, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints President Brigham Young evacuated Salt Lake City and ordered the Mormon Militia to prevent the soldiers from entering the valley. We stopped to feed and dine at the site of "General" Well's Camp during the Mormon War of 1857-8, and passed, ten miles below, the fortifications constructed under his orders in that famous campaign. Thousands of “Saints” had journeyed 15 miles up the dogleg canyon to escape the valley heat and enjoy Silver Lake’s pine and aspen groves. In 1860, the Republican Party revived its  rhetoric against polygamy and slavery and, capitalizing on Democrat fractiousness, vaulted Abraham Lincoln into the White House. From 1857 to 1858, President James Buchanan sent U.S. forces to the Utah Territory, in what became known as the Utah Expedition. Utah, which was settled by the Mormans (Latter-day Saints) in the mid-1840s, was declared a US territory in 1850, and Brigham Young (1801-77), a Mormon leader was appointed governor. “Send him, then,” Young said. Social and religious conflict between Mormons and non-Mormons continued to influence the life of the city for a century. By May 1, Smith and the new Utah Cavalry were marching to Independence Rock, 50 miles southwest of Casper, Wyoming, to join the U.S. Army’s 11th Ohio Cavalry in patrolling the telegraph lines. Mormon leader Brigham Young vowed to burn Salt Lake City rather than surrender to the Army. A decade ago, on the day they had arrived in the valley, he had told his followers, “If our enemies will give us ten years unmolested, we will ask no odds of them; we will never be driven again.”. The wagoners, employees of the Russel, Majors, and Waddell Freight Company, were famished after a day of hauling U.S. Army provisions bound for the Utah Territory. Oktober 1838 befahl der Gouverneur von Missouri Lilburn Boggs, dass ... Bis 1857 waren die Spannungen zwischen Mormonen und anderen Amerikanern erneut eskaliert, vor allem als Folge der Anschuldigungen wegen Polygamie und der theokratischen Herrschaft von Brigham Young im Utah-Territorium durch den Beisitzenden Richter … Saved by Microsoft Bing. “He also said,” said one, “that he had wives enough to whip the United States.”, “With our help,” Smith said. Lot Smith became the first sheriff of Davis County, Utah. The Utes stalked the party, stealing livestock. Der Utah-Krieg war eine militärische Auseinandersetzung zwischen den Mormonen in den Rocky Mountains und der Regierung der USA von 1857 bis 1858. The confrontation lasted from May 1857–July 1858. 1857 Mormon Defensive Breastworks at Mormon Flat, Utah . Young had declared Utah Territory unsafe for non-Mormons, or “gentiles,” and most skirted his domain. “He said the troops wouldn’t get to Salt Lake City, but goods and cattle would come.” Smith’s men laughed. Alexander, who ached for a scrap, proclaimed he would “give his plantation for a chance to bombard [Salt Lake City] for 15 minutes.” Anticipating no resistance in Utah, Alexander had sent Captain Stewart van Vliet of the Quartermaster Corps ahead to Salt Lake City to make arrangements for accommodating federal troops. The Utah War (1857-1858) The Mormons began to settle Utah in 1847, after mobs murdered the Prophet Joseph Smith and expelled the Mormon Church membership from Illinois. Young bristled; the Mormons had never been disloyal. Johnston renamed the ruins “Fort Scott” and ordered his men to make camp. Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson, Confederate General. With Mormon settlement, this desert state began to blossom. The Mormon War, otherwise known as the Utah War or Mormon Rebellion, describes the violence surrounding an armed confrontation between Mormon settlers in Utah Territory and the U.S. Army, which lasts from March 1857 to July 1858. He died in 1901 and is buried in Arlington National Cemetery. “So consider what’s worth packing.” Haphazardly outfitted, the prisoners, herded by a few armed riders, shambled into the dark. September 1857 Bundestruppen das Vordringen auf das Territorium Utah. The Utah War, also known as the Utah Expedition, Utah Campaign, Buchanan's Blunder, the Mormon War, or the Mormon Rebellion was an armed confrontation between Mormon settlers in the Utah Territory and the armed forces of the United States government. By Sept. 11, the Mormons feared that the settlers had realized their identities. After years of antagonizing America with their strange beliefs and practices, the sect, forcibly ejected from the States (see “Origins,” p. 43), had emigrated to the unsettled Indian and trapper lands of the Great Basin. Arnold K. Garr and Clark V. Johnson, Department of Church History and Doctrine, Brigham Young University, 1994, pp. Now 27, he was a proven fighter, uncommonly brave, noble-hearted, and a faithful Latter-day Saint. mormons missouri war summary? Buchanan, fearing his over-extended, ill-conceived expedition might lose to the Mormons, agreed. Crossing the Green River in southwestern Wyoming, Alexander, hoping to stop Smith’s persistent raids, mounted 100 soldiers on mules, which the amused Mormon raiders dubbed the “Jackass Cavalry.” In their one encounter, militia and soldiers exchanged rounds, but the only damage was a bullet through a raider’s hat and a horse grazed by a slug. In June 1858 a disgusted Johnston, as ordered, marched his men through abandoned Salt Lake City past Utah militiamen with torches at the ready in case of a federal misdeed. Thomas Leiper Kane & the Utah-Mormon War of 1857-58 On July 24th, 1847, a number of wagons, filled with beleagured, worn & weary 'Mormon' pioneers, entered what is now, the Salt Lake Valley, which would later become Utah Territory, under the leadership of an American religious leader & colonizer, Brigham Young. The Mormon Rebellion: America's First Civil War, 1857–1858 [Bigler, David L., Bagley, Will] on Amazon.com. By Nights on the rolling eastern upslope of the Great Divide had turned cool with fall. The Presidency feared the Mormon community would not accept a non-Mormon governor, resulting in the suspension of mail to Utah and … Eldredge tells stories at a bleak spot called the "Camp of Death," where a race for survival began for U.S. soldiers harassed by Mormon militia during the so-called "Utah War" of 1857-58. Their leader was Salt Lake City Mayor Abraham Smoot, who, while carrying the June mail east, had seen U.S. Army soldiers mustering at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. His reports of Mormon preparations did not impress Alexander. “When I was a boy on the farm in Illinois, there was a great deal of timber which we had to clear away,” Lincoln told the Mormon. The driver sat down. The incident of 1857-58 known as the Utah Expedition, the Utah War or Buchanan’s Blunder was a collision of territorial self-determination against a federal government already faced with insubordination in Kansas and its Southern states. The autumn before, the upstart. “Occasionally we would come to a log which had fallen down. In mid-October, the Army still had more than 100 miles to go to reach Salt Lake City when a blizzard hit, killing cattle and consigning soldiers to shiver at their fires near Fort Bridger, which Smith and his raiders had reduced to little more than scorched walls. Thousands of “Saints” had journeyed 15 miles up the dogleg canyon to escape the valley heat and enjoy Silver Lake’s pine and aspen groves. Shortly after organizing the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in 1830, Joseph Smith Jr. revealed that the Second Comingof Christ was near, that the City of Zion would be near the town of Independence in Jackson County, Missouri, and that his followers were destined to inherit the land held by the current settlers. The aggrieved judge, W.W. Drummond, demanded Buchanan replace Young as territorial governor with a non-Mormon. Until September 1857, the Mormons had been the victims of violence more than its purveyors. Also called Mormon War. At Young’s request, Kane petitioned Buchanan, asking to mediate the conflict. spring, Johnston had 5,500 soldiers, teamsters, and suppliers ready to invade Utah at the thaw. A flock of buzzards is perched just down the trail, almost as if, by chance, age-old events might repeat to their benefit. History Coursework Mormons 34th anniversity Argentina declare war on Falklands oil show 10 more British Empire attitudes in Britain 1857-90 The rifles remained leveled. It sounds outlandish now, but the United States went to war with Mormons in the late 1850s. [1] It resulted from misunderstandings that transformed a simple decision to give Utah Territory a new governor into a year-long comedy of errors with a tragic potential. The Mormans, for their … During August, federal troops traversed Nebraska along the meandering Platte River, the trail used by pioneers heading for California and Oregon. They seem childish affairs, more suited to the genius of Chinese than of civilized warfare. Returning from Big Cottonwood Canyon, Young, who saw the federals as hostile, declared martial law and called home remote settlers and missionaries. The Mormons had a friend in U.S. Army Colonel Thomas Kane, an ally during painful times in Missouri and Illinois. The various factors and motivations instigating the massacre remain unclear, but it is notable that roughly as many lives were lost in the Mormon War as in the "Bleeding Kansas" era. They should gather what they needed from their wagons, he added. Other articles where Utah War is discussed: Salt Lake City: History: officials led to the so-called Utah War of 1857–58, when General Albert Sidney Johnston’s troops marched through the city to establish Camp Floyd west of Utah Lake. A driver started to rise. Angered by the U.S. government’s decision to send troops into the Utah territory, Mormons there were further incensed in 1857 when a band of Learning of the troops’ mission, Smoot had whipped his horse 1,000 miles home to warn his people. Every able-bodied man was mustered into the militia. “Let’s move out, boys. “Now finish up,” said the interloper. Young sent an emissary to Washington, DC, to learn Lincoln’s stance toward the Saints. That path passed through Salt Lake City, whose residents viewed the Fancher outfit with suspicion and fear. Utah War (1857-58) References. Wanting to distract public attention from slavery, Floyd suggested federal troops accompany Buchanan’s new governor to Utah, a move that coincidentally would weaken federal military strength in the East. This little known war resulted in the deaths of hundreds of men, women and children. Kane sailed to Panama, crossed the isthmus, and sailed to California, traveling overland to Fort Bridger and arriving as talk was arising of putting Salt Lake City to the torch. You go back and tell Brigham Young that if he will let me alone I will let him alone.”. Quantrill goes to Utah in the spring of 1858 to resupply federal forces, and he supposedly befriends Southern-sympathizing guerillas and acquires a taste for banditry, and a year later he returns to Kansas and falls in with Missouri border ruffians. Word of the massacre stirred fury back East. Colonel Albert Sidney Johnston’s U.S. Army force had not even reached Utah Territory and already the federals had lost most of their provisions, including 500 gallons of whiskey. “Heber Kimball is a true prophet,” the commander said, naming a militant Mormon leader. In early September, Captain Van Vliet reached Salt Lake City to find the town on a war footing. The federal government took action against the Mormons after the 1857 Mountain Meadows Massacre. Near Fillmore, in central Utah, the Fanchers bartered with a Ute band, reportedly trading them tainted beef that sickened several Indians. Federal officials complained of Young's dictatorial ways and the power of the church, while others were shocked at the Mormons' practice of polygamy. The Saints, stockpiling provisions against a threatened army siege and fearing the Fancher group might be spies, refused to sell them foodstuffs. Ironically, as a result of his kindness, he was the only Mormon who was positively identified to have participated in the home burnings. Johnston, accompanied by Territorial Governor Cumming and two federal judges, caught up with his command. Captain Van Vliet served in 1861-62 as chief quartermaster of the Army of the Potomac, retiring as brigadier general in 1881. They felled trees across the trail and trenched the canyon floor to obstruct wagons and wheeled cannon. Mormon Historians Shed Light On Sept. 11, 1857 Three historians working with church records have published an official Mormon account of a 151-year-old incident that remains a … No casualties result from battles with the U.S. forces, but in total, approximately 150 people die violently in the conflict, most notably in the Mountain Meadows Massacre, which involves the Mormon slayings of between 100 and 140 migrants of the Baker-Fancher wagon train in southern Utah, between September 7-11, 1857. After that evening’s festivities, Young asked Daniel Wells, commander of the Mormon militia and his counselor, to alert the assembled Saints to the threat. The Mormons, fearing violent persecution, arm themselves and occasionally skirmish with U.S. soldiers. That same evening in September 1857, Major Lot Smith’s 24 raiders surprised two more federal wagon trains, burning 74 rigs down to the irons, scattering oxen and cattle, and sending the drivers whence they came. Civil War on the Western Border: The Missouri-Kansas Conflict,1855-1865, This project is supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the But by 1857, non-Mormon newspapers from New York to California had begun reporting that the Mormons were seeking the Indians' allegiance in case of a clash with the United States. “It is my intention,” he said, “on arriving in Salt Lake City, to capture Brigham Young and the twelve apostles and execute them in a summary fashion.” Unable to discourage Alexander, Van Vliet raced east, hoping to convince President Buchanan to recall the expedition. Already several southern states were threatening secession and the northern states were doubting the depth of the president’s abolitionist bona fides. Soon Cumming was as pro-Mormon as Kane. In that desolation, Young organized a thriving theocracy. Young said to let the travelers be, but his orders arrived too late. Within the hour, Young once again was asking his friend Daniel Wells who should lead that force. Young, hearing of their distress, helpfully sent a wagonload of salt. Tensions between followers of the Latter Day Saint movement (Mormons) and Protestant Americans had simmered for two decades, including intense conflicts in the 1838 Mormon War (otherwise known as the Missouri Mormon War, involving David Rice Atchison as a militia general and resulting in the death of the movement's founder, Joseph Smith Jr.) and the 1844-1846 Illinois Mormon War (resulting in the Mormon Exodus to Utah Territory under the leadership of Brigham Young). But he was a realist and made the pledge, extracting from Cumming a promise that the Army would not tarry in Salt Lake City. provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act as administered by the Missouri State Library, a division of the Office of the Secretary of State with additional support from the William T. Kemper Foundation - Commerce Bank, Trustee, Civil War on the Western Border: The Missouri-Kansas Conflict, 1854-1865. At Camp Floyd, however, the Army bartered for milk, eggs, fish, and wheat from Mormons, infusing the local economy with cash, clothing, utensils, and tea, all scarce in Utah. Two militiamen, their faces washed clean of paint and plain clothes on their bodies, approached the wagons with a white flag. In March 1858, recalling how during the Crimean War in 1854 the Russians had threatened to destroy Sevastopol if Britain and allies attacked the port, Young suggested to the Saints that they torch Salt Lake City if federals entered the valley. In Utah, Alfred Cumming was governor, but Young effectively ruled. From the darkness, two dozen rifle barrels jutted into view. “You boys go ahead and finish your supper,” the redhead said. He found the Saints peculiar but hardly savages. 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