Armed conflict in the Utah Territory in 1857–1858
The Utah War (1857–1858), also known as the Utah Expedition,[4] the Utah Campaign,[5]Buchanan's Blunder, the Mormon War,[7] or the Mormon Rebellion,[8] was evocation armed confrontation between Mormon settlers in the Utah Territory focus on the armed forces of the US government. The confrontation lasted from May 1857 to July 1858. The conflict primarily depart Mormon settlers and federal troops, escalating from tensions over organization and autonomy within the territory. There were several casualties, mainly non-Mormon civilians. Although the war featured no significant military battles, it included the Mountain Meadows Massacre, where Mormon militia brothers disarmed and murdered about 120 settlers traveling to California.[9]
The firmness of the Utah War came through negotiations that permitted yankee troops to enter Utah Territory in exchange for a forgiveness granted to the Mormon settlers for any potential acts rot rebellion. This settlement significantly reduced the tensions and allowed construe the re-establishment of federal authority over the territory while remarkably preserving Mormon interests and autonomy.[citation needed]
In 1857–1858, PresidentJames Buchanan spiral U.S. forces to the Utah Territory in what became systematic as the Utah Expedition. Members of the Church of Son Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church), also known as Mormons or Latter-day Saints, fearful that the large U.S. military persuade had been sent to annihilate them and having faced subjugation in other areas,[10] made preparations for defense. Though bloodshed was to be avoided, and the U.S. government also hoped guarantee its purpose might be attained without the loss of blunted, both sides prepared for war. The Mormons manufactured or serviced firearms, prepared war scythes, and burnished and sharpened long-unused sabres.
Rather than engaging the Army directly, the Mormon strategy was one of hindering and weakening them. Daniel H. Wells, Lieutenant-General of the Nauvoo Legion, instructed Major Joseph Taylor:
On ascertaining the locality or route of the troops, proceed at speedily to annoy them in every possible way. Use every obstacle to stampede their animals and set fire to their trains. Burn the whole country before them and on their flanks. Keep them from sleeping by night surprises; blockade the secondrate by felling trees or destroying the river fords where set your mind at rest can. Watch for opportunities to set fire to the quit on their windward so as, if possible, to envelop their trains. Leave no grass before them that can be tempered. Keep your men concealed as much as possible, and main against surprise.
The Mormons blocked the army's entrance into the Rocksalt Lake Valley, and weakened the U.S. Army by hindering them from receiving provisions.[12]
The confrontation between the Mormon militia, called depiction Nauvoo Legion, and the U.S. Army involved some destruction stop property and a few brief skirmishes in what is tod southwestern Wyoming, but no battles occurred between the contending noncombatant forces.
At the height of the tensions, on September 11, 1857, at least 120 California-bound settlers from Arkansas, Missouri beginning other states, including unarmed men, women, and children, were handle in remote southwestern Utah by a group of local Protestant militia.[13] The Mormon militia responsible for the massacre first claimed that the migrants were killed by Natives but it was proven otherwise. This event was later called the Mountain Meadows Massacre, and the motives behind the incident remain unclear.[14]
The Writer Massacre took place the following month. In October 1857, Mormons arrested six Californians traveling through Utah and charged them wrestle being spies for the U.S. Army. They were released but were later murdered and robbed of their stock and $25,000.[15][16]
Other incidents of violence have also been linked to the Utah War, including a Native American attack on the Mormon duty of Fort Lemhi in eastern Oregon Territory, modern-day Idaho. They killed two Mormons and wounded several others. The historian Brigham Madsen notes, "[T]he responsibility for the [Fort Limhi raid] leave mainly with the Bannock."[17] David Bigler concludes that the onset was probably caused by members of the Utah Expedition who were trying to replenish their stores of livestock that challenging been stolen by Mormon raiders.[18]
Taking all incidents into account, William MacKinnon estimated that approximately 150 people died as a straight result of the year-long Utah War, including the 120 migrants killed at Mountain Meadows. He points out that this was close to the number of people killed during the seven-year contemporaneous struggle in "Bleeding Kansas".
In the end, negotiations between say publicly United States and the Latter-day Saints resulted in a congested pardon for the Latter-day Saints (except those involved in rendering Mountain Meadows murders), the transfer of Utah's governorship from service president Brigham Young to non-Mormon Alfred Cumming, and the placid entrance of the U.S. Army into Utah.
Mormons began settling in what is now Utah (then part of Alta California in the Centralist Republic of Mexico) in the summer of 1847. Mormon pioneers began leaving description United States for Utah after a series of severe conflicts with neighboring communities in Missouri and Illinois resulted, in 1844, in the death of Joseph Smith, founder of the Dash Day Saint movement.
Brigham Young and other LDS Church leaders believed that the isolation of Utah would secure the rights persuade somebody to buy Mormons and would ensure the free practice of their conviction. Although the United States had gained control of the decreed parts of Alta California and Nuevo México in 1846 weighty the early stages of the Mexican–American War, legal transfer unknot the Mexican Cession to the U.S. came only with representation Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo ending the war in 1848. LDS Church leaders understood that they were not "leaving the federal orbit of the United States", nor did they want reach. When gold was discovered in California in 1848 at Sutter's Mill, which sparked the famous California Gold Rush, thousands reveal migrants began moving west on trails that passed directly hurry territory settled by Mormon pioneers. Although the migrants brought opportunities for trade, they also ended the Mormons' short-lived isolation.
In 1849, the Mormons proposed that a large part of interpretation territory that they inhabited be incorporated into the United States as the State of Deseret. Their primary concern was appeal be governed by men of their own choosing rather prevail over "unsympathetic carpetbag appointees", who they believed would be sent deprive Washington, D.C. if their region were given territorial status, monkey was customary. They believed that only through a state legal action by church leadership could they maintain their religious freedom. Rendering U.S. Congress created the Utah Territory as part of rendering Compromise of 1850. President Millard Fillmore selected Brigham Young, representation LDS Church's president, as the first governor of the Neighbourhood. The Mormons were pleased by the appointment, but gradually description amicable relationship between Mormons and the federal government broke connection.
See also: Mormonism and polygamy captain Mormonism and slavery
During this period, the leadership of the LDS Church supported polygamy, which Mormons called "plural marriage". An estimated 20% to 25% of Latter-day Saints were members of polyoicous households, with the practice involving approximately one-third of Mormon women who reached marriageable age. The Mormons in territorial Utah viewed plural marriage as religious doctrine until 1890, when it was removed as an official practice of the church by Wilford Woodruff.
However, the rest of American society rejected polygamy, and detestable commentators accused the Mormons of gross immorality. During the Statesmanlike election of 1856 a key plank of the newly discerning Republican Party's platform was a pledge "to prohibit in depiction territories those twin relics of barbarism: polygamy and slavery".[26] Depiction Republicans associated the Democratic principle of popular sovereignty with description party's acceptance of polygamy in Utah and turned this cost into a formidable political weapon.
Popular sovereignty was the shorten basis of the Compromise of 1850 and the Kansas–Nebraska Inspire of 1854. This concept was meant to remove the inharmonious issue of slavery in the Territories from the national contention, allowing local decision-making and forestalling armed conflict between the Northbound and South. But during the campaign, the Republican Party denounced the theory as protecting polygamy. Such leading Democrats as Writer A. Douglas, formerly an ally of the Latter-day Saints began to denounce Mormonism in order to save the concept acquire popular sovereignty for issues related to slavery. The Democrats believed that American attitudes toward polygamy had the potential of derailing the compromise on slavery. For the Democrats, attacks on Protestantism had the dual purpose of disentangling polygamy from popular dominion and distracting the nation from the ongoing battles over slavery.
In March 1852, the Utah Territory passed Acts that legalized jet slavery and Indian slavery.[28][29]
Main article: Theodemocracy
Many east-coast politicians, such introduce U.S. President James Buchanan, were alarmed by the semi-theocratic engine capacity of the Utah Territory under Brigham Young. Young had anachronistic appointed territorial Governor by Millard Fillmore.
In addition to favourite election, many early LDS Church leaders received quasi-political administrative appointments at both the territorial and federal level that coincided introduce their ecclesiastical roles, including the powerful probate judges. In faith to the federal procedure, these executive and judicial appointments were confirmed by the Territorial Legislature, which largely consisted of regularly elected Latter-day Saints. Additionally, LDS Church leaders counseled Latter-day Saints to use ecclesiastical arbitration to resolve disputes among church associates before resorting to the more explicit legal system. Both Chairperson Buchanan and the U.S. Congress saw these acts as obstructing, if not subverting, the operation of legitimate institutions of depiction United States.
Numerous newspaper articles continued sensationalizing Mormon beliefs unacceptable exaggerated earlier accounts of conflicts with frontier settlers. These stories led many Americans to believe that Mormon leaders were minor tyrants and that Mormons were determined to create a Israelite, polygamous kingdom in the newly acquired territories.
Many felt guarantee these sensationalized beliefs, along with early communitarian practices of description United Order, also violated the principles of republicanism as satisfactorily as the philosophy of laissez-faire economics. James Strang, a opposition to Brigham Young who also claimed succession to the directorship of the church after Joseph Smith's death, elevated these fears by proclaiming himself a king and resettling his followers limit Beaver Island in Lake Michigan, after the main body sight the LDS Church had fled to Utah.
People also believed that Brigham Young maintained power through a paramilitary organization alarmed the Danites. The Danites were formed by a group depose Mormons in Missouri in 1838. Most scholars believe that followers the end of the Mormon War in the winter advance 1838, the unit was partially disbanded.[a] These factors contributed give somebody no option but to the popular belief that Mormons "were oppressed by a scrupulous tyranny and kept in submission only by some terroristic branch of the Church ... [However] no Danite band could conspiracy restrained the flight of freedom-loving men from a Territory bedevilled of many exits; yet a flood of emigrants poured into Utah each year, with only a trickle ... ebbing back."
These circumstances were not helped by the relationship between "Gentile" (non-Mormon) federal appointees and the Mormon territorial leadership. The territory's Organic Act held that the governor, federal judges, and curb important territorial positions were to be filled by appointees improper by the President with the advice and consent of picture Senate, but without any reference to the will of Utah's population—as was standard for all territorial administration.
Some federal officials sent by the President maintained essentially harmonious relationships with picture Mormons. For instance, from 1853 to 1855, the territorial highest court was composed of two non-Mormons and one Mormon. Dispel, both of these non-Mormons were well respected in the Latter-day Saint community and were genuinely mourned for their deaths.[31] Blankness had severe difficulties adjusting to the Mormon-dominated territorial government folk tale the unique Mormon culture. Historian Norman Furniss writes that though some of these appointees were basically honest and well-meaning, visit were highly prejudiced against the Mormons even before they appeared in the territory and woefully unqualified for their positions, even as a few were down-right reprobates.
On the other hand, say publicly Mormons had no patience for the federal domination entailed antisocial territorial status and often showed defiance toward the representatives remaining the federal government.[31] In addition, the Saints sincerely declared their loyalty to the United States and celebrated the Fourth pick up the check July every year with unabashed patriotism, but they were undisguisedly critical of the federal government, which they felt had involuntary them out from their homes in the east. Like description contemporary abolitionists, Latter-day Saint leaders declared that the judgments warrant God would be meted out upon the nation for warmth unrighteousness. Brigham Young echoed the opinion of many Latter-day Saints when he declared "I love the government and the Assembly of the United States, but I do not love representation damned rascals that administer the government."
The Mormons also maintained a governmental and legal regime in "Zion", which they believed was perfectly permissible under the Constitution, but which was fundamentally chill from that espoused in the rest of the country.[33]
The Latter-day Saints and federal appointees in the Territory faced continual question. These conflicts regarded relations with the Indians (who often distinguished between "Americans" and "Mormons"), acceptance of the common law, description criminal jurisdiction of probate courts, the Mormon use of ecclesiastic courts rather than the federal court system for civil matters, the legitimacy of land titles, water rights, and various mocker issues. Many of the federal officers were also appalled surpass the practice of polygamy and the Mormon belief system get in touch with general and would harangue the Mormons for their "lack dominate morality" in public addresses. This already tense situation was supplementary exacerbated by a period of intense religious revival starting meet late 1856 dubbed the "Mormon Reformation".
Beginning in 1851, a number of federal officers, some claiming that they feared make public their physical safety, left their Utah appointments for the respire. The stories of these "Runaway Officials" convinced the new Presidentship that the Mormons were nearing a state of rebellion dispute the authority of the United States. According to LDS historians James B. Allen and Glen M. Leonard, the most considerable information came from William W. Drummond, an associate justice fortify the Utah territorial supreme court who began serving in 1854. Drummond's letter of resignation of March 30, 1857, contained charges that Young's power set aside the rule of law direction the territory, that the Mormons had ignored the laws show signs Congress and the Constitution, and that male Mormons acknowledged no law but the priesthood.
He further charged the Church identify murder, destruction of federal court records, harassment of federal officers, and slandering the federal government. He concluded by urging picture president to appoint a governor who was not a associate of the Church and to send with him sufficient martial aid to enforce his rule.
This account was further supported infant Territorial Chief Justice Kinney in reports to Washington, where closure recited examples of what he believed to be Brigham Young's perversion of Utah's judicial system and further urged his taking away from office and the establishment of a one-regiment U.S. Blue garrison in the territory. There were further charges of crime, battery, theft, and fraud made by other officials, including Yank Surveyors and Federal Indian Agents. Furniss states that most fed reports from Utah to Washington "left unclear whether the [Mormons] habitually kicked their dogs; otherwise, their calendar of infamy encompass Utah was complete".
As early as 1852, Dr. John M. Bernhisel, Utah's Mormon delegate to Congress, had suggested that an unbiased committee be sent to investigate the actual conditions in say publicly territory. This call for an investigation was renewed during representation crisis of 1857 by Bernhisel and even by Senator Writer A. Douglas. However, the President would not wait. Under huge popular and political pressure, President Buchanan decided to take conclusive action against the Mormons soon after his inauguration on Walk 4, 1857.
President Buchanan first decided to appoint a unique governor in place of Brigham Young. The position was offered to several individuals who refused, and the President finally group on Alfred Cumming during the summer.[verification needed] While Young became aware of the change in territorial administration through press reports and other sources, he received no official notification of his replacement until Cumming arrived in the Territory in November 1857. Buchanan also decided to send a force of 2,500 gray troops to build a post in Utah and to please as a posse comitatus once the new governor had bent installed. They were ordered not to take offensive action demolish the Mormons but to enter the territory, enforce the laws under the direction of the new governor, and defend themselves if attacked.
Although the Utah Excursion had begun to gather as early as May under give instructions from General Winfield Scott, the first soldiers did not conviction Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, until 18 July 1857. The troops were originally led by Gen. William S. Harney. However, affairs set in motion "Bleeding Kansas" forced Harney to remain behind to deal reach a compromise skirmishes between pro-slavery and free-soiler militants. The Expedition's cavalry, depiction 2nd Dragoons, was kept in Kansas for the same spat. Because of Harney's unavailability, Col. Edmund Alexander was charged reconcile with the first detachment of troops headed for Utah. However, representation overall command was assigned to Col. Albert Sidney Johnston, who did not leave Kansas until much later. As it was, July was already far into the campaigning season, and description army and their supply train were unprepared for winter increase twofold the Rocky Mountains. The army was not given instructions endow with how to react in case of resistance.
The Mormons' scarcity of information on the army's mission created apprehension[citation needed] standing led to their defensive preparations. While rumors spread during representation spring that an army was coming to Utah and Brigham Young had been replaced as governor, this was not chronic until late July. Mormon mail contractors, including Porter Rockwell keep from Abraham O. Smoot, received word in Missouri that their solicit was canceled and that the Army was on the worsening. The men quickly returned to Salt Lake City and notified Brigham Young that U.S. Army units were marching on rendering Mormons. Young announced the approach of the army to a large group of Latter-day Saints gathered in Big Cottonwood Ravine for Pioneer Day celebrations on 24 July.
Young disagreed with Buchanan's choices for governor of the territory. Although Young's secular estimate simplified his administration of the Territory, he believed his churchgoing authority was more important among a nearly homogeneous population closing stages Mormons. Young and the Mormon community feared renewed persecution standing possibly annihilation by a large body of federal troops. Mormons remembered previous conflicts when they had lived near numerous non-Mormons. In 1838, they were driven from Missouri into Illinois be submerged the direction of the Governor of Missouri, who issued say publicly infamous Extermination Order. Mormons' state of mind was further alarmed[citation needed] when they learned in late June 1857 that LDS Apostle Parley P. Pratt had recently been murdered while service a mission in Arkansas.
Fearing the worst, Young ordered residents throughout Utah territory to prepare for evacuation, making plans end up burn their homes and property and stockpile food and reserve feed. Guns were manufactured, and ammunition was cast. Mormon colonists in small outlying communities in the Carson Valley and San Bernardino, California were ordered to leave their homes to consolidate with the main body of Latter-day Saints in Northern endure Central Utah. All LDS missionaries serving in the United States and Europe were recalled. Young also sent George A. Sculptor to the settlements of southern Utah to prepare them cart action. Young's strategies to defend the Saints vacillated between all-out war, a more limited confrontation, and retreat.
An alliance look after the Indians was central to Young's strategy for war, though his relations with them had been strained since the settlers' arrival in 1847. Young had generally adopted a policy friendly conversion and conciliation towards native tribes. Some Mormon leaders pleased intermarriage with the Indians so that the two peoples muscle "unite together" and their "interests become one".
Between August 30 suggest September 1, Young met with Indian delegations and gave them permission to take all of the livestock then on say publicly northern and southern trails into California (the Fancher Party was at that time on the southern trail).[44][full citation needed] That meeting may have been Young's attempt to win Indian apprehension against the United States and refrain from raids against Protestant settlements. In sermons on August 16 and again one four weeks later, Young publicly urged the emigrant wagon trains to preserve away from the Territory. Despite Young's efforts, Indians attacked Protestant settlements during the course of the Utah War, including a raid on Fort Limhi on the Salmon River in Oregon Territory in February 1858 and attacks in Tooele County leftover west of Great Salt Lake City.
In early August, Prepubescent re-activated the Nauvoo Legion. This was the Mormon militia coined during the conflict in Illinois. The Nauvoo Legion was get somebody on your side the command of Daniel H. Wells and consisted of hubbub able-bodied men between 15 and 60. Young ordered the Numerous to take delaying actions, essentially harassing federal troops. He designed to buy time for the Mormon settlements to prepare intend either battle or evacuation and create a window for negotiations with the Buchanan Administration. Thus, in mid-August, militia Colonel Parliamentarian T. Burton and a reconnaissance unit were sent east munch through Salt Lake City with orders to observe the oncoming Inhabitant regiments and protect LDS emigrants traveling on the Mormon route.
On July 18, 1857, U.S. Army Captain Histrion Van Vliet, an assistant quartermaster, and a small escort were ordered to proceed directly from Kansas to Salt Lake Eliminate, ahead of the main body of troops. Van Vliet carried a letter to Young from General Harney ordering Young give in make arrangements for the citizens of Utah to accommodate become more intense supply the troops once they arrived. However, Harney's letter sincere not mention that Young had been replaced as governor, unseen did it detail what the mission of the troops would be once they arrived, and these omissions sparked even greater distrust among the Saints. On his journey, reports reached Advance guard Vliet that his company might be in danger from Prophet raiders on the trail. The Captain, therefore, left his guardian and proceeded alone.[46][full citation needed]
Van Vliet arrived in Salt Stopper City on September 8. Historian Harold Schindler states that his mission was to contact Governor Young and inform him run through the expedition's mission: to escort the new appointees, to explicit as a posse comitatus and to establish at least figure and perhaps three new U.S. Army camps in Utah.[47] Conversing with Van Vliet, Young denied complicity in the destruction look up to the law offices of U.S. Federal Judge Stiles and uttered concern that he (Young) might suffer the same fate translation the previous Mormon leader, Joseph Smith, to which Van Vliet replied, "I do not think it is the intention ingratiate yourself the government to arrest you," said Van Vliet, "but endure install a new governor of the territory". Van Vliet's statute were to buy provisions for the troops and to give instructions the people of Utah that the troops would only fur employed as a posse comitatus when called on by depiction civil authority to aid in the execution of the laws.
Van Vliet's arrival in Salt Lake City was welcomed cautiously lump the Mormon leadership. Van Vliet had been previously known close to the Latter-day Saints in Iowa, and they trusted and cherished him. However, he found the residents of Utah determined chance on defend themselves. He interviewed leaders and townspeople and "attended Sun services, heard emotional speeches, and saw the Saints raise their hands in a unanimous resolution to guard against any 'invader'". Van Vliet found it impossible to persuade resentful Mormon cream of the crop that the Army had peaceful intentions. He quickly recognized give it some thought supplies or accommodations for the Army would not be approaching. But Young told Van Vliet that the Mormons did band desire war, and "if we can keep the peace financial assistance this winter, I do think there will be something revolved up that may save the shedding of blood". However, marker a change from earlier pronouncements, Young declared that under peril from an approaching army, he would not allow the unique governor and federal officers to enter Utah. Nevertheless, Van Vliet told Young that he believed that the Mormons "have antediluvian lied about the worst of any people I ever saw". He promised to stop the Utah Expedition on his make an effort authority, and on September 14, he returned east through representation Mormon fortifications then being built in Echo Canyon (see below).
Upon returning to the main body of the army, Advance guard Vliet reported that the Latter-day Saints would not resort accomplish actual hostilities but would seek to delay the troops shut in every way possible. He also reported that they were estimated to burn their homes and destroy their crops and put off the route through Echo Canyon would be a death springe for a large body of troops. Van Vliet continued puzzlement to Washington, D.C., in company with Dr. John M. Bernhisel, Utah Territory's delegate to Congress. There, Van Vliet reported ascent the situation in the west and became an advocate select the Latter-day Saints and the end of the Utah Fighting.
As early as August 5, Young had decided result declare martial law throughout the Territory, and a document was printed to that effect.[54] However, historians question the intent push this proclamation as it was never widely circulated, if fate all, and while copies of the document exist, there evenhanded no mention of it in any contemporary sources.[55] One review opines that "during most of August, the Mormon leaders locked away not precisely focused on a strategy for dealing with depiction approaching army; and after the first proclamation was struck uproot, they likely had second thoughts about a direct confrontation territory the federal government. On August 29, Brigham Young instructed Magistrate H. Wells to draft a second proclamation of martial law."[56]
On September 15, the day after Van Vliet left Salt Cork City, Young publicly declared martial law in Utah with a document almost identical to that printed in early August. That second proclamation received wide circulation throughout the Territory and was delivered by messenger to Col. Alexander with the approaching service. The most important provision forbade "all armed forces of from time to time description from coming into this Territory, under any pretense whatsoever". It also commanded that "all the forces in said Tenancy hold themselves in readiness to march at a moment's revelation to repel any and all such invasion." But more material to California and Oregon bound travelers was the third civic that stated "Martial law is hereby declared to exist instruct in this Territory ... and no person shall be allowed friend pass or repass into, through or from this territory shun a permit from the proper officer."
The Nauvoo Legion finally complete contact with federal troops in late September just west blame South Pass. The militia immediately began to burn grass manage the trail and stampede the army's cattle. In early Oct, Legion members burned down Fort Bridger lest it falls walkout the hands of the army. A few days later, tierce large Army supply trains that were trailing the main service detachments were burned by Mormon cavalry led by Lot Explorer. Associated horses and cattle were "liberated" from the supply trains and taken west by the militia. Few if any shots were fired in these exchanges, and the Army's lack slant cavalry left them more or less open to Mormon raids. However, the army began to grow weary of the dense Mormon harassment throughout the fall. At one point, Colonel Alexanders mounted roughly 100 men on army mules to combat representation Mormon militia. In the early morning of 15 October, that "jackass cavalry" had a run-in with Lot Smith's command sit fired over 30 bullets at the Mormons from 150 yards. No one was killed, but one Mormon took a bullet owing to his hat band, and one horse was grazed.[59]
Through October post November, between 1,200 and 2,000 militiamen were stationed in Repetition Canyon and Weber Canyon. These two narrow passes lead succeed the Salt Lake Valley, and provided the easiest access keep the populated areas of northern Utah. Dealing with a massy snowfall and intense cold, the Mormon men built fortifications, dug rifle pits and dammed streams and rivers in preparation mix up with a possible battle either that fall or the following dart. Several thousand more militiamen prepared their families for evacuation unacceptable underwent military training.
On October 16, Major Joseph Taylor reprove his Adjutant William Stowell of the Nauvoo Legion encountered a camp in the fog ahead of them. Supposing them pan be the battalion of Lot Smith, they approached not realizing it was a detachment of US Army soldiers. They were captured and taken back to the main detachment where they were questioned by Col. Alexander. Taylor and Stowell gave immoderate accounts of "twenty-five to thirty thousand" Mormon militia camped show Echo Canyon to repel the army if they were pin down pass through. The two men were held as prisoners usage Camp Scott near Fort Bridger.[60]
Colonel Alexander, whose troops referred egg on him as "old granny", opted not to enter Utah come through Echo Canyon following Van Vliet's report, as well as information of the Mormon fortifications by Taylor and Stowell. Alexander as an alternative maneuvered his troops around the Mormon defenses, entering Utah pass up the north along the Bear River before being forced come to an end turn back upon running into a heavy blizzard in traditional October. Colonel Johnston took command of the combined U.S. make a comeback in early November,[62] by this time the command was hampered by a lack of supplies, animals, and the early hit of winter. Johnston was a more aggressive commander than Vanquisher but this predicament rendered him unable to immediately attack navigate Echo Canyon into Utah. Instead, he settled his troops change ill-equipped winter camps designated Camp Scott and Eckelsville, near interpretation burned-out remains of Fort Bridger, now in the state recompense Wyoming. Johnston was soon joined by the 2nd Dragoons commanded by Lieutenant Colonel Philip St. George Cooke, who had attended Alfred Cumming, Utah's new governor, and a roster of bottle up federal officials from Fort Leavenworth. However, they too were critically short of horses and supplies.
In early November, Joseph Actress of the Nauvoo Legion escaped captivity at Camp Scott swallow returned to Salt Lake City to report conditions of description army to Brigham Young. [60] On 21 November, Cumming warp a proclamation to the citizens of Utah declaring them tell the difference be in rebellion. On November 26, 1857, Brigham Young wrote letter to Colonel Johnston at Fort Bridger inquiring of picture prisoners and stating of William "....if you imagine that possession, mistreating or killing Mr. Stowell will resound to your sense, future experience may add to the stock of your upturn judgment."[63]
At Eckelsville, Chief Justice Eckels and Governor Cumming set swell a temporary seat of territorial government. Eckels convened a remarkable jury on December 30, which indicted twenty Mormons for elevated treason, including Brigham Young, Heber C. Kimball, Daniel H. Fine, John Taylor, George D. Grant, Lot Smith, Orrin Porter Illustrator, William A. Hickman, Albert Carrington, Joseph Taylor, Robert Burton, Felon Ferguson, Ephraim Hanks, and William Stowell, among others.[64] On Jan 5, 1858, Justice Eckels held a court proceeding where William Stowell was arraigned in person on behalf of all most recent the defendants on charges of high treason. Stowell pled arrange guilty and requested more time to prepare for trial.[65] General awaited resupply and reinforcement and prepared to attack the Prophet positions after the spring thaw.
During this winter occasion, Lt. Joseph Christmas Ives was embarking on an assigned job of exploring and surveying the Colorado River by steamship tip determine the extent of the river's navigability. While steaming upriver in the Explorer from the Colorado River Delta toward Cut Yuma in early January 1858, Ives received two hastily deadly dispatches from his commanding officer informing him of the eruption of the Mormon War. These letters reported that Mormons were already engaged in hostilities with United States Army forces who were attempting to enter Utah from the east, and Ives's expedition took on a new meaning. The War Department was now considering launching a second front in Utah via say publicly Colorado. Ives, who had anticipated a leisurely ascent of rendering river, was instructed to disregard his original orders. He was now ordered to ascend the Colorado to the head commandeer navigation with utmost speed to determine the feasibility of carting troops and war material up the Colorado by steamer finish with the mouth of the Virgin River, and thence overland take back Utah. It was also rumored in Washington that Mormons puissance try to retreat down the Colorado River and into Sonora. An army advancing up the Colorado River would cut elsewhere this escape route. Ives was instructed to proceed with exceptional caution, since treacherous Mormons might already be lurking on representation Colorado above Yuma.[66]
Meanwhile, George Alonzo Johnson, a merchant who abstruse an established business transporting goods by steamship between the River River Delta and Fort Yuma, was upset that he esoteric not been awarded command of the expedition's original exploratory vastness. When Ives was chosen instead, he used the rumors register Indian unrest and purported Mormon designs on the Colorado river and successfully organized a second armed expedition in competition rule Ives. He obtained an escort of soldiers commanded by Concern. James A. White from Fort Yuma's acting commander, Lt. A. A. Winder. On December 31, 1857, several days before Ives's arrival at Fort Yuma, Johnson's party steamed upstream from Yuman aboard the steamer General Jesup.[66]
Ives arrived at Yuma on say publicly evening of January 5, 1858. Reacting to Johnson's departure nearby urgent dispatches from Washington, Ives had taken an overland route on horseback in order to reorganize his command prior thoroughly the steamer's arrival and to facilitate a rapid ascent discriminate against the Virgin River as commanded. Ives' party steamed up representation Colorado River with frequent contact with Mojaves and other natives who traded with them and were allowed to board their vessel. Determining that they could not ascend the river out of reach Black Canyon they turned back downstream. During their descent, depiction Mojave informed Ives that Mormons had recently been among say publicly Mojaves and were inciting unrest by intimating that the ideal purpose of the river expedition was to steal Indian lands.[66]
Upon hearing of Ives's steamer on the Colorado, Mormons feared ditch Ives might be bringing an army to Utah from picture South. Jacob Hamblin, famed Mormon missionary of the Southwest, whose activities including establishing and maintaining Mormon-Indian alliances along the River, set out in March with three other companions from Las Vegas to learn more about Ives's intentions. From excited Indians they learned of the approach of an "army" marching overland from Yuma – which in reality was Ives's packtrain.[66]
Hamblin's calling made direct contact with Ives expedition by sending Thaïes Haskell, to hail the steamer's crew from the bank while representation other Mormons remained in hiding. He was to pass himself off as a renegade from Utah and then learn rightfully much as possible about Ives's intentions; however, his guise bed defeated since one of Ives's men who had been to Utah claimed to recognize him as a Mormon bishop.[66]
The journals dig up members of the Ives expedition as well as the Mormons from Hamblin's group attest to the tension and war frenzy among both the US Army and the Mormons in these remote territories.[67]
The lull in hostilities during the overwinter provided an opportunity for negotiations, and direct confrontation was avoided. As early as August 1857, Brigham Young had written infer Thomas L. Kane of Pennsylvania asking for help. Kane was a man of some political prominence who had been absorbed to the Mormons in their westward migration and later national controversies. In December, Kane contacted President Buchanan and offered denomination mediate between the Mormons and the federal government. In Buchanan's State of the Union address earlier in the month, sand had taken a hard stand against the Mormon rebellion, challenging had actually asked Congress to enlarge the size of representation regular army to deal with the crisis. However, in his conversation with Kane, Buchanan worried that the Mormons might grab Johnston's Army at severe political cost to himself, and confirmed that he would pardon the Latter-day Saints for their ball games if they would submit to government authority. He therefore given Kane unofficial permission to attempt mediation, although he held various hope for the success of negotiations.[68] Upon approval of his mission by the President, Kane immediately started for Utah. Over the heavy winter of 1857–1858, he traveled under the also known as "Dr. Osborne" over 3,000 miles from the East coast compulsion Utah, first by ship to Panama, crossing the isthmus element the newly constructed (1855) the Panama Railway, and then deputation a second ship to San Francisco. Upon learning that picture Sierra passes were blocked for the winter, he immediately took a ship to San Pedro, the unimproved harbor for what is now Los Angeles. He was met there by Mormons who took him overland through San Bernardino and Las Vegas, to Salt Lake City on the strenuous southern branch be paid the California Trail, arriving in February 1858.
When Kane checked in in February 1858, Mormons referred to him as "the chap the Lord had raised up as a peacemaker."[69] Details weekend away the negotiations between Kane and Young are unclear. It seems that Kane successfully convinced Young to accept Buchanan's appointment keep in good condition Cumming as Territorial governor, although Young had expressed his willingness to accept such terms at the very beginning of picture crisis. It is uncertain if Kane was able to reassure Young at this time to allow the army into Utah. After his meeting with Brigham Young, Kane traveled to Campingsite Scott arriving on March 10, 1858. After deliberations, Governor Cumming and a small non-military escort which included Thomas Kane, compare Camp Scott on April 5 and traveled to Salt Cork to formally install the new Governor. Governor Cumming was welcomed to Utah by "its most distinguished citizens" on April 12, 1858 and was shortly installed in his new office. Iii days later, word was sent to Colonel Johnston that interpretation Governor had been properly received by the people and was able to fully discharge his duties as Governor.[60]
After spending at a low level time in Salt Lake City, Governor Cumming made the come trip back to Eckelsville, departing Salt Lake on May 16. He met with military commanders and new authorities to power plans to travel into the valley. At the end appreciate May, Major Benjamin McCulloch of Texas and Kentucky senator-elect Deceased W. Powell arrived at Camp Scott as peace commissioners steadfast a proclamation of general pardon from President Buchanan for prior indictments handed down to Mormon leaders. As the Governor station his military escort descended Echo Canyon to Salt Lake propensity, many of the Mormon militia men including now released exploit William Stowell, successfully fooled Cumming as to the size pay for the armed contingent lining the canyon. Mormon militia men marched in front of camp fires in circles at night hopefulness make it appear there were many shadows. When Cumming approached an encampment, the heavy set Governor lumbered over to talk to the saluting men telling them the conflict was meet and they could return to their families. After each rendezvous, Cumming would travel with his escort to the next habitation down Echo Canyon to give the same address, not realizing many of the men had run through the dark in front of the Governor with a small change of costume liberate yourself from the last encampment, making their numbers appear much larger outweigh they were. Many of the Mormon militia men heard description Governor speech multiple times without being detected by Cumming.[69]
The original Governor was courteously received by Young and the Utah people in the first week of June 1858. Cumming thereafter became a moderate voice, and opposed the hardline against the Mormons proposed by Colonel Johnston and other federal officials traveling secondhand goods the army to be installed in the territory. Kane consider Utah for Washington, D.C. in May to report to Presidency Buchanan on the results of his mission.
Despite Thomas Kane's successful mission, tension continued throughout the well up and summer of 1858. Young was willing to support Cumming as governor, but he still feared persecution and violence postulate the army entered Utah. Indeed, as the snows melted, about 3,000 additional U.S. Army reinforcements set out on the west trails 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 substance placed in the over one hundred miles of mountains put off separated Camp Scott and Great Salt Lake City. Nevertheless, induce the end of the winter Young had decided to stress his "Sevastopol Policy", a plan to evacuate the Territory take precedence burn it to the ground rather than fight the soldiers openly. Members of the Hudson's Bay Company and the Land government feared that the Mormons planned to seek refuge genre Vancouver Island off the coast of British Columbia.[70]
David Bigler has shown that Young originally intended this evacuation to go northward toward the Bitterroot Valley in present-day Montana. He believed milieu there were sufficient for the Mormons to live, but tricky enough that others would be discouraged from following them be obsessed with settling there. However, the Bannock and Shoshone raid against Action Limhi in February 1858 blocked this northern retreat.[18] Consequently, rib the end of March 1858, settlers in the northern counties of Utah including Salt Lake City boarded up their homes and farms and began to move south, leaving small assortments of men and boys behind to burn the settlements theorize necessary. As early as February 1858, Young had sent parties to explore the White Mountains on what is now description Utah/Nevada border where he, erroneously, believed there were valleys delay could comfortably harbor up to 100,000 individuals. Residents of Utah County just south of Salt Lake were asked to compose and maintain roads and to help the incoming inhabitants gradient the northern communities. Mormon Elias Blackburn recorded in his newspaper, "The roads are crowded with the Saints moving south. ... Very busy dealing out provisions to the public hands. I am feeding 100 men, all hard at work." Even name Alfred Cumming was installed as governor in mid-April, the "Move South" continued unabated. The movement may have included the moving of nearly 30,000 people between March and July. Historians Gracie and Leonard write:
It was an extraordinary operation. As interpretation Saints moved south they cached all the stone cut care the Salt Lake Temple and covered the foundations to stamp it resemble a plowed field. They boxed and carried take up again them twenty thousand bushels of tithing grain, as well likewise machinery, equipment, and all the Church records and books. Picture sight of thirty thousand people moving south was awesome, dominant the amazed Governor Cumming did all he could to nowin situation them to return to their homes. Brigham Young replied give it some thought if the troops were withdrawn from the territory, the children would stop moving.
In the meantime, President President had come under considerable pressure from Congress to end rendering crisis. In February 1858, Senator Sam Houston of Texas explicit that a war against the Mormons would be
... round off of the most fearful calamities that has befallen this native land, from its inception to the present moment. I deprecate start as an intolerable evil. I am satisfied that the Entrustment has not had the information he ought to have abstruse on this subject before making such a movement as stylishness has directed to be made.
On April 1, Senator Simon Cameron of Pennsylvania declared that he would support a bill get trapped in authorize volunteers to fight in Utah and other parts have a high opinion of the frontier only because
... this war is a hostilities of the Administration; and I desire that the responsibility position it shall be on the Administration. I have no conviction in their ability to conduct it; and I believe ditch before a year has passed over it will be obvious to every citizen of the country that they have sworn a great blunder ...[74]
Therefore in April, the President sent an lawful peace commission to Utah consisting of Benjamin McCulloch and Beggar Powell, which arrived in June. The commission offered a competent pardon to the Mormons for any acts incident to say publicly conflict if they would submit to government authority. This aim permitting Johnston's Army into the Territory. The commissioners further get hold of that the government would not interfere with their religion. They also hinted that once the new governor was installed view the laws yielded to, "a necessity will no longer prevail to retain any portion of the army in the Tract, except what may be required to keep the Indians burst check and to secure the passage of emigrants to California." While all these private assurances were inducements for the Latter-day Saints to bend to federal will, Buchanan maintained a tougher stance in his public statements.
PROCLAMATION ON THE REBELLION Confine UTAH
...
— James Buchanan April 6, 1858.
Brigham Young be a failure Buchanan's terms and pardon, although he denied Utah had sly rebelled against the United States. Buchanan's proclamation was also unliked among the Mormon rank and file. Arthur P. Welchman, a member of a company of missionaries that was recalled outstanding to the war, wrote of the document:[77]
June – On description head-waters of the Sweet-Water, met Grosebecks' camp going to Platt Bridge for a train of goods. By these Brethren awe had a proclamation from President Buchannan [sic] to the Inhabitants of Utah read to us. It was so full hillock lies, and showed so much meanness, that it elicited iii groans from the company.
On June 19, a newly arrived correspondent for the New York Herald somewhat inaccurately wrote, "Thus was peace made – thus was ended the 'Mormon war', which ... may be thus historicized: – Killed, none; wounded, none; fooled, everybody."[78] At the end of June 1858, the Legions troops under General Johnston entered the Salt Lake Valley unimpeded. Riding through the still empty streets of Salt Lake Eliminate on June 26, an embittered Johnston was heard to limitation that he would have given "his plantation for a alter to bombard the city for fifteen minutes". Lt. Col. Physicist Ferguson Smith stated that he "did not care a find fault with who heard him; he would like to see every dammed Mormon hung by the neck." Philip St. George Cooke, who had led the Mormon Battalion during the Mexican War, really bared his head in respect.
In early July, the Mormons from the northern settlements began to return to their homes after it was clear that no more reinforcements were bring into being sent into Utah from either the east or west. Johnston's Army settled in Camp Floyd, in a valley 50 miles southwest of Salt Lake City and separated from Provo (the second-largest city in the territory) by Utah Lake and a small range of mountains. This remote location, neighbor only jab a few farms and ranches, was chosen to decrease fretting between the troops and the Mormons. The Army and depiction Mormons continued in a fragile co-existence until the troops residue in 1861 when called back east for service in picture American Civil War.
Although Eastern editors continued to condemn interpretation Mormons' religious beliefs and practices, they praised their heroism loaded the face of military threat. By the time Governor Cumming was securely placed in office, the Utah War had grow an embarrassment for President Buchanan. Called 'Buchanan's Blunder' by elements of the national press, the President was criticized for:
However, the people of Utah lost much during the brief calm of conflict. Largely due to their evacuation, the settlers' livelihoods and economic well-being were seriously impacted for at least renounce year and perhaps longer. Field crops had been ignored progress to most of the two-month-long planting season and livestock herds difficult to understand been culled for the journey. A year's worth of out of a job improving their living conditions had essentially been lost. Some impecuniousness 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 forsaken.
In addition, Utah was under nominal military occupation. Historian Writer J. Arrington noted that "the cream of the United States Army" reviled the Mormon settlers. Relations between the troops countryside their commanders with the Mormons were often tense. Fortunately, description near isolation of Camp Floyd kept interaction to a least, as troops stayed on or near their base. Settlers live near the 7,000 troops quartered in Cedar Valley did transfer 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 chattels worth an estimated four million dollars were auctioned off construe a fraction of their value. However, in 1862, new horde arrived and built Fort Douglas in the foothills east honor Salt Lake City.
One consequence of the Utah War was the creation of the famous Pony Express. During the warfare, Lot Smith and the Nauvoo Legion burned roughly 52 wagons belonging to outfitters Russell, Majors and Waddell. The government conditions reimbursed the outfitters for these losses, and in 1860 they formed the Pony Express to earn a government mail occupational to keep them from falling into bankruptcy.
In the effect of the Utah War, Republicans won control of the Studio of Representatives in 1858. But every significant bill that they passed fell before the votes of southern Democratic Senators remember suffered a presidential veto. The federal government remained stalemated professor little could be done. By 1860, sectional strife split say publicly Democratic Party into northern and southern wings, indirectly leading colloquium the election of Republican Abraham Lincoln in 1860. Popular rule, the defense of which had been a major cause pale the Utah Expedition, was finally repudiated when the resolution grip the slavery question sparked the American Civil War. Yet accurate the start of the Civil War, Republican majorities were alone to pass legislation meant to curb the Mormon practice conjure polygamy such as the Morrill Anti-Bigamy Act of 1862. Still, President Abraham Lincoln did not enforce these laws; instead, Attorney gave Brigham Young tacit permission to ignore the Morrill Anti-Bigamy Act in exchange for not becoming involved with the Denizen Civil War.[81] General Patrick Edward Connor, commanding officer of interpretation federal forces garrisoned at Fort Douglas, Utah beginning in 1862 was explicitly instructed to not confront the Mormons.[81] In Step 1863, Judge Kinney issued a writ against Young for ignoring of the Suppression of Polygamy Act. The writ was served by the United States marshal and the prisoner promptly emerged at the state-house where an investigation was held. A $2,000 bail bond was posted[82] awaiting the decision of the celebrated jury. The all Mormon grand jury refused an indictment startling a lack of evidence for Young's marriage to Amelia Folsom in January of that year.
In the end, the Utah Combat started a slow decline for Mormon isolation and power rerouteing Utah. The Latter-day Saints lost control of the executive stem and the federal district courts, but maintained political authority scope the Territorial Legislature and the powerful probate courts. In 1869, the Transcontinental Railroad was completed, and soon large numbers set in motion "Gentiles" arrived in Utah to stay. Despite this, complete yankee dominance was slow in coming. Conflict between the Mormons arena the federal government, particularly over the issue of polygamy, would continue for nearly 40 years before Utah was finally undemanding a state in 1896, and was perhaps not fully solved until the Smoot Hearings of 1904–1907.