Utah War facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Utah War
Part of the Mormon wars
Date March 1857 – July 1858 Location Utah Territory (present day Utah and Wyoming) Result De facto US victory, resolution through negotiation; Brigham Young replaced as Governor of Utah Territory Full amnesty for charges of sedition and treason issued to the citizens of Utah Territory by President James Buchanan if they accepted US federal authority
Belligerents
United States 5th Infantry 10th Infantry B Battery (Phelps') of the 4th Artillery 2nd Dragoons	Deseret / Utah Mormons Nauvoo Legion Native American allies
Commanders and leaders
President James Buchanan Governor Alfred Cumming General Albert S. Johnston	Gov. Brigham Young Gen. Daniel H. Wells Cap. Lot Smith
Strength
2,500	unknown
Casualties and losses
38	Unknown
Civilians: 126 killed (120 in Mountain Meadows Massacre)

The Utah War (1857–1858), 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 US government. The confrontation lasted from May 1857 to July 1858. There were some casualties, most of which were non-Mormon civilians. The war had no notable military battles.

Overview

In 1857–1858, President James Buchanan sent U.S. forces to the Utah Territory in what became known as the Utah Expedition. The members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church), known as Mormons or Latter-day Saints, fearful that the large U.S. military force had been sent to annihilate them and having faced persecution in other areas, made preparations for defense. Though bloodshed was to be avoided, and the U.S. government also hoped that its purpose might be attained without the loss of life, both sides prepared for war. The Mormons manufactured or repaired firearms, turned scythes into bayonets, and burnished and sharpened long-unused sabres.

Rather than engaging the Army directly, 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 once to annoy them in every possible way. Use every exertion 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 road by felling trees or destroying the river fords where you can. Watch for opportunities to set fire to the grass on their windward, so as, if possible, to envelop their trains. Leave no grass before them that can be burned. Keep your men concealed as much as possible, and guard against surprise.

The Mormons blocked the army's entrance into the Salt Lake Valley, and weakened the U.S. Army by hindering them from receiving provisions.

The confrontation between the Mormon militia, called the Nauvoo Legion, and the U.S. Army involved some destruction of property and a few brief skirmishes in what is today southwestern Wyoming, but no battles occurred between the contending military forces.

At the height of the tensions, on September 11, 1857, at least 120 California-bound settlers from Arkansas, Missouri and other states, including unarmed men, women and children, were killed in remote southwestern Utah by a group of local Mormon militia. They 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.

The Aiken massacre took place the following month. In October 1857, Mormons arrested six Californians traveling through Utah and charged them with being spies for the U.S. Army. They were released but were later murdered and robbed of their stock and $25,000.

Other incidents of violence have also been linked to the Utah War, including a Native American attack on the Mormon mission 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] lay mainly with the Bannock." David Bigler concludes that the raid was probably caused by members of the Utah Expedition who were trying to replenish their stores of livestock that had been stolen by Mormon raiders.

Taking all incidents into account, MacKinnon estimates that approximately 150 people died as a direct 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 the United States and the Latter-day Saints resulted in a full pardon for the Latter-day Saints (except those involved in the Mountain Meadows murders), the transfer of Utah's governorship from church president Brigham Young to non-Mormon Alfred Cumming, and the peaceful entrance of the U.S. Army into Utah.

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, 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.

However, the people of Utah lost much during the brief period of conflict. Largely due to their evacuation, the settlers' livelihoods and economic well-being were seriously impacted for at least that year and perhaps longer. Field crops had been ignored for most of the two-month-long planting season and livestock herds had been culled for the journey. A year's 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.

In addition, Utah was under nominal military occupation. Historian Leonard J. Arrington noted that "the cream of the United States Army" reviled the Mormon settlers. Relations between the troops and their commanders with 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. However, in 1862, new troops arrived and built Fort Douglas in the foothills east of Salt Lake City.

One consequence of the Utah War was the creation of the famous Pony Express. During the war, Lot Smith and the Nauvoo Legion burned roughly 52 wagons belonging to outfitters Russell, Majors and Waddell. The government never reimbursed the outfitters for these losses, and in 1860 they formed the Pony Express to earn a government mail contract to keep them from falling into bankruptcy.

In the aftermath of the Utah War, Republicans won control of the House of Representatives in 1858. But every significant bill that they passed fell before the votes of southern Democratic Senators or suffered 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. Popular sovereignty, the defense of which had been a major cause of the Utah Expedition, was finally repudiated when the resolution of the slavery question sparked the American Civil War. Yet with the start of the Civil War, Republican majorities were able to pass legislation meant to curb the Mormon practice of polygamy such as the Morrill Anti-Bigamy Act of 1862. However, President Abraham Lincoln did not enforce these laws; instead, Lincoln gave Brigham Young tacit permission to ignore the Morrill Anti-Bigamy Act in exchange for not becoming involved with the American Civil War. General Patrick Edward Connor, commanding officer of the federal forces garrisoned at Fort Douglas, Utah beginning in 1862 was explicitly instructed to not confront the Mormons. In March 1863, Judge Kinney issued a writ against Young for violation of the Suppression of Polygamy Act. The writ was served by the United States marshal and the prisoner promptly appeared at the state-house where an investigation was held. A $2,000 bail bond was posted awaiting the decision of the grand jury. The all Mormon grand jury refused an indictment citing a lack of evidence for Young's marriage to Amelia Folsom in January of that year.

In the end, the Utah War started a slow decline for Mormon isolation and power in Utah. The Latter-day Saints lost control of the executive branch and the federal district courts, but maintained political authority in the Territorial Legislature and the powerful probate courts. In 1869, the Transcontinental Railroad was completed, and soon large numbers of "Gentiles" arrived in Utah to stay. Despite this, complete federal dominance was slow in coming. Conflict between the Mormons and the federal government, particularly over the issue of polygamy, would continue for nearly 40 years before Utah was finally made a state in 1896, and was perhaps not fully resolved until the Smoot Hearings of 1904–1907.

Timeline

• March 1857: James Buchanan takes office as President of the United States, and decides to take action.
• April 1857: The press in the Eastern U.S. begins to speculate on who would be appointed to replace Brigham Young.
• 29 June 1857: U.S. President James Buchanan declares Utah in rebellion against the U.S. government, and mobilizes a regiment of the U.S. Army, initially led by Col. Edmund Alexander.
• 5 July 1857: Brigham Young refers in a sermon to "rumors" that the U.S. is sending 1,500–2,000 troops into the Utah Territory (Young 1857a, p. 5).
• 13 July 1857: President Buchanan appoints Alfred Cumming governor of Utah, and directs him to accompany the military forces into Utah.
• 18 July 1857: Col. Alexander and his troops begin the journey to Utah, at the same time, Mormons Porter Rockwell and Abraham Owen Smoot learn that the Army is on the move.
• 23 July 1857: Rockwell and Smoot arrive in Salt Lake City and inform Brigham Young of the government's plans.
• 28 August 1857: Col. Johnston is ordered to replace Gen. Harney as commander of the U.S. troops.
• 7–11 September 1857: An emigrant wagon train of non-Mormons is attacked at Mountain Meadows by a Mormon militia dressed as Paiute Indians. After several days siege, a group of Mormons under John D. Lee, approach the survivors and, under the promise of leading them to safety, kill nearly all of them.
• 15 September 1857: Brigham young declares martial law, forbidding "all armed forces of every description from coming into this Territory, under any pretense whatsoever".
• 18 September 1857: U.S. troops leave Fort Leavenworth, Kansas headed for Utah.
• 5 October 1857: Lot Smith leads the Nauvoo Legion on a guerrilla-style attack on the provision wagons of the United States Army. Fifty-two wagons are burned.
• 3 November 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.
• February 1858: Thomas Kane, a friend of the Mormons, arrives in Salt Lake to act as a negotiator between the Mormons and the approaching army.
• March 1858: Kane visits camp Scott, and persuades Governor Cumming to travel to Salt Lake City without his military escort, under guarantee of safe conduct.
• 23 March 1858: Brigham Young implements a scorched earth policy. Salt Lake City is vacated, with most of the saints relocating to settlements south of the Salt Lake Valley.
• 6 April 1858: James Buchanan: Proclamation on the Rebellion in Utah. ("a free pardon for the seditions and treasons heretofore by them committed;")
• 12 April 1858: Governor Cummings arrives in Utah, and is installed in office.
• June 1858: Johnston's army arrives in Utah, passing through a now-vacant Salt Lake city to establish Camp Floyd some 50 miles distant.
• 1861: Camp Floyd is abandoned at the outset of the Civil War.

See also

In Spanish: Guerra de Utah para niños