As a teen Smith had marched with the Mormon Battalion in the American war with Mexico. We will not be governed one whit by the men that are sent here,” to which the congregation of 2,000 shouted assent. There would be no federal pay, arms, horses, or provisions. Returning from Big Cottonwood Canyon, Young, who saw the federals as hostile, declared martial law and called home remote settlers and missionaries. Bands played, children scampered, and women cooked in preparation for that night’s dinner and dance. Withdrawal of the U.S. Army in 1861 left unguarded a section of the new transcontinental telegraph lines stretching from Fort Kearney, Nebraska, to Salt Lake City. From 1857 to 1858, President James Buchanan sent U.S. forces to the Utah Territory, in what became known as the Utah Expedition. “And send This little known war resulted in the deaths of hundreds of men, women and children. 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. On Sept. 7, 1857, Paiutes and some Mormons dressed as Paiutes first attacked. Though bloodshed was to be avoided, and the U.S. government also hoped that its purpose might be attained without the loss of life, preparations were made for war. War can be as much political construct as military exercise, and in July 1857 U.S. President James Buchanan needed political ammunition. Firearms were manufactured or repaired by the Mormons, scythes wer… The rifles remained leveled. 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.”. Republicans, running Californian John C. Frémont and promising to obliterate the “twin relics of barbarism, poly-gamy and slavery,” had nearly beaten Buchanan. 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. September 1857 Bundestruppen das Vordringen auf das Territorium Utah. 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. Nights on the rolling eastern upslope of the Great Divide had turned cool with fall. 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. It was too hard to split, too wet to burn, and too heavy to move, so we plowed around it. 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. 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. “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. Anderson, Richard L., Clarifications of Bogg's 'Order' and Joseph Smith's Constitutionalism, Church History Regional Studies, Missouri, ed. With white men among the raiding party, they convinced the settlers that Mormons cut a deal with the Paiutes to allow their safe passage, so long as they gave up their weapons. You go back and tell Brigham Young that if he will let me alone I will let him alone.”. “Then we’ll get to work.”, When his prisoners had eaten, the redhead, Major Lot Smith of the Utah Militia, explained that the drivers would be going back to Fort Laramie, 80 miles east. All winter, Buchanan reinforced and supplied Camp Scott. Ethan Allen, American Revolutionary commander. The unmistakable sound of a rifle being cocked startled the men at the cookfire. Young’s orders to the Mormon force read, “Be kind, forbearing, and righteous in all your acts and sayings in public and private… abstain from card playing, dicing, gambling, drinking intoxicating liquors, or swearing… and be kind to your animals.” En route, the ex-raiders repaired bridges and roads they had destroyed and rebuilt mail stations Indians had burned. 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. Diverting the creek, they forced the road against 200-foot canyon walls and loosened limestone boulders, ready to topple onto the foe. When President James Buchanan decided to flex federal muscle against Utah Territory and ‘the Mormon problem,’ he ignited a full rebellion that, before … The driver sat down. Social and religious conflict between Mormons and non-Mormons continued to influence the life of the city for a century. The Mormon Rebellion: America's First Civil War, 1857… They felled trees across the trail and trenched the canyon floor to obstruct wagons and wheeled cannon. Two militiamen, their faces washed clean of paint and plain clothes on their bodies, approached the wagons with a white flag. 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. For nearly a decade, the Mormons in Utah enjoyed relative peace and were free to practice their religion as they saw fit. We’ve got more work tonight.”. “He said the troops wouldn’t get to Salt Lake City, but goods and cattle would come.” Smith’s men laughed. Buchanan was playing to his base. Cumming resigned the governorship and, true to his secessionist stance, returned to Georgia. 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. The Mormans, for their … As they marched 40 miles south to Camp Floyd, the outpost they had established, the well-provisioned soldiers jeered at returning Saints, who were facing starvation because they had missed spring planting season. 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 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. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. “Why, Lot Smith, of course,” Wells said. From the darkness, two dozen rifle barrels jutted into view. A unanimous vote affirmed his counsel. In 1860, the Republican Party revived its  rhetoric against polygamy and slavery and, capitalizing on Democrat fractiousness, vaulted Abraham Lincoln into the White House. But one late-starting party, the Fancher company, knowing that starvation had claimed the Donner expedition a year before, struck south along the Old Spanish Trail. In a telegram, President Lincoln asked Young to “raise and equip one hundred men for ninety days’ service” to protect the lines in Wyoming. He found the Saints peculiar but hardly savages. Mormon leader Brigham Young was appointed territorial governor after the United States annexed the region in 1850. Bands played, children scampered, and women cooked in preparation for that night’s dinner … “Let’s move out, boys. With the April 1861 start of civil war, the Army left for the east, selling locals $4 million in provisions and facilities for a dime on the dollar. Now 27, he was a proven fighter, uncommonly brave, noble-hearted, and a faithful Latter-day Saint. Mormon War Of 1857 - Bing Images. Buchanan, fearing his over-extended, ill-conceived expedition might lose to the Mormons, agreed. 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. 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 … government abuses against the Saints. Delayed in Kansas to deal with skirmishes between pro-slavery and free-soiler militants, expedition commander Colonel Albert S. Johnston did not at first accompany his soldiers. Already several southern states were threatening secession and the northern states were doubting the depth of the president’s abolitionist bona fides. 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. HistoryNet.com is brought to you by Historynet LLC, the world's largest publisher of history magazines. 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. Photo/NPS . Word of the massacre stirred fury back East. “You won’t have horses,” Smith said, smiling. The fight lasted five days and the Baker-Fancher party began to run out of ammunition, water, and food. 3. Der Utah-Krieg war eine militärische Auseinandersetzung zwischen den Mormonen in den Rocky Mountains und der Regierung der USA von 1857 bis 1858. Captain Van Vliet served in 1861-62 as chief quartermaster of the Army of the Potomac, retiring as brigadier general in 1881. Young sent an emissary to Washington, DC, to learn Lincoln’s stance toward the Saints. Tensions built up between the rapidly-growing Mormon co… “He also said,” said one, “that he had wives enough to whip the United States.”, “With our help,” Smith said. Ashton Albrecht's video focuses on the Mormon Extermination Order in Missouri in 1838. At Young’s request, Kane petitioned Buchanan, asking to mediate the conflict. “Heber Kimball is a true prophet,” the commander said, naming a militant Mormon leader. As Young coolly relinquished his governorship, Cumming begged him to stop the 30,000-person exodus from Salt Lake City. Johnston, accompanied by Territorial Governor Cumming and two federal judges, caught up with his command. History Coursework Mormons 34th anniversity Argentina declare war on Falklands oil show 10 more British Empire attitudes in Britain 1857-90 Had there been transcontinental telegraphic … 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. GCSE History American West (Edexcel) I'm a Mormon, AMA! Learning of the troops’ mission, Smoot had whipped his horse 1,000 miles home to warn his people. On September 11, at a place called Mountain Meadows near modern day Cedar City, Indians and Mormons set upon the Fancher party, murdering 120 men, women, and children. HistoryNet.com contains daily features, photo galleries and over 5,000 articles originally published in our various magazines. 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