05 the Church & the Utah War.Indd

3 The Church and the Utah War, 1857–58 SHERMAN L. FLEEK *** THE UTAH WAR WAS DIFFERENT from any other military conflict or venture in which members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints have participated. In subsequent wars and military expeditions—with the exception of the Civil War—the Church and its members have supported and fought for the United States and other nations’ armed forces to defeat other enemies. In the Utah War, however, this was not the case. In acts of self-preservation, the Church and the Lieutenant Colonel Sherman L. Fleek, United States Army (retired), is a former chief historian for the National Guard Bureau. 81 Lot Smith (1830–92) Territory of Utah openly chal- At the young age of sixteen, Lot Smith lenged federal authority and con- volunteered to be a member of the Mormon ducted military operations against Battalion. The experience and knowledge the U.S. Army. The territorial mi- he gained on this litia, known as the Nauvoo Legion, overland march to destroyed valuable U.S. military California would provisions and supplies and stole prove invaluable government livestock, stopping just to the Church for short of engaging in combat. Thus, many years to the Utah War is a unique military come. Upon re- experience in Church history. turning to Salt During most wars, Church Lot Smith. Courtesy of Lake, Smith be- membership has grown and lands Church Archives. came a leader in have been opened to missionary the Nauvoo Legion. opportunities in the aftermath of During the Utah War, Major Smith carried out war. Similarly, in most conflicts, his orders to impede the progress of the army the Church has supported national while also following the order not to hurt war efforts through nonmilitary anyone except in self-defense. means by donating food, goods, At the outbreak of the Civil War, Lot and money to ease the pain of those Smith was again called upon to participate affected by the war. in a military role. He was assigned with one During the Utah War, these hundred men to protect the telegraph lines, future trends did not apply. Instead the mail lines, and any settlers traveling from of increasing missionary opportu- St. Louis to Salt Lake City. His success earned nities, Church colonies and settle- him great acclaim from his peers and other ments closed; missions were ter- federal cavalry units. minated; calls to new missionaries After the Civil War, Smith was called by stopped; work on the Salt Lake Brigham Young to aid in the colonization ef- Temple ceased and the founda- forts of the Church. He was sent to Arizona tion was buried; food and resources to help establish settlements there. In June were hoarded and not allowed to 1892, he was killed by a renegade Native Ameri- be sold to non–Latter-day Saint can in Tuba City, Arizona (Arnold K. Garr, immigrant trains; shops and manu- Donald Q. Cannon, and Richard O. Cowan, eds., Encyclopedia82 of Latter-day Saint History [Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 2000], 1134–35). facturing entities produced war materiel as opposed to consumer goods; and most of the population of the northern Utah cities left their homes and property and moved south to Utah Valley for several weeks in 1858. In fact, during the spring of 1858, residents of Salt Lake City had prepared to destroy their city rather than allow the U.S. Army to occupy it. During the Utah War the most dreadful event in Church history occurred—the Mountain Meadows Massacre. This tragedy occurred as an act related to war hysteria generated during the Utah War, which led some Latter-day Saints to become crazed in their zeal against their perceived enemies.¹ The Utah War was different from any other armed conflict the Church experienced. Significance of the Utah War Commonly called the “Utah Expedition” in official military and government sources, the title “Utah War” more accurately captures the broad scope of this political, economic, military, and religious conflict. It has come to represent the first major rebellion against federal authority by a political entity, the Utah Territory. In a sense, this conflict foreshadowed the Civil War (1861–65), when the Southern states rebelled against the Federal Union. Many of the political and ethical issues that were center stage in 1860 during the secession crisis were first addressed in Utah in the 1850s. Chief among them was the question of supremacy between state and national governments. The exercise of federal authority in Utah was unlike federal responses to earlier revolts in American history, such as Shays’s Rebellion in 1786–87 in New England and the Whiskey Rebellion of 1794 in the western Pennsylvania and Ohio Valley areas.² These earlier uprisings were led by common citizens, not by local or state government entities. During the Nullification Crisis of 1832, the state of South Carolina challenged the tariff law, but when President The Church and the Utah War, 1857–58 * 83 The Mountain Meadows Massacre One of the darkest days in Utah and Mormon history occurred during the Utah War period. On September 11, 1857, more than a hundred innocent men, women, and children in the Baker-Fancher party, mostly from Arkansas, were slaughtered as they crossed southern Utah on their way to California. Mormon militia, primarily members of the Nauvoo Legion, and Paiute Indians were involved in this tragedy. Some historians, including Juanita Brooks, consider the prime cause of this problem to be the war hysteria local citizens felt as federal troops were marching to Utah with unstated intentions. Other historians paint a picture of conspiracy in the Church. It is impossible to know all the events, decisions, and men involved in this brutal crime. The Baker-Fancher party did, in fact, surrender to Mormon militia leaders after four days of siege by Paiutes, as they supposed, but in reality most of the attackers were from the militia. The party was lined up and marched out in the desert plain near Mountain Meadows, a favorite water stop along the Old Spanish Trail. There, militia members and Indians fell upon the unarmed party and killed them. Only seventeen small children were spared. The conspirators swore oaths of secrecy, and for years many held the sorrow of that day in their hearts. Eventually some confessed, and one leader, Major John D. Lee, was tried and executed for his role in the massacre. Many others could have faced the same justice. Many historians and others have tried to connect Brigham Young and Church headquarters to this dreadful act, but only speculation and circumstantial pieces support this position. It would have been quite uncharacteristic of Brigham Young to order or approve such a massacre. With an army of U.S. regulars en route to Utah and with Utah’s inadequate resources of war materiel, why would he approve of the massacre of an unarmed wagon train? Several immigrant trains passed through Utah that year, and some traveled by the same route after the massacre, so why kill the Baker-Fancher party? The most reasonable answer lies with the hysteria of local citizens and their fear of upcoming war. Thus, the Utah War, which is remembered for avoidance of all-out conflict with federal troops, is darkened by the tragedy of the Mountain Meadows Massacre. 84 * SAINTS AT WAR Andrew Jackson threatened the use of federal troops, state officials relented.³ These other conflicts were either local popular contentions or political disputes, as in the Nullification Crisis. After the conflict in Utah ended, President James Buchanan issued pardons to indi- viduals in Utah Territory who had participated in open rebellion and destroyed government property.⁴ Utah rebelled only after regular army troops were involved and had entered Utah Territory. What is most interesting historically is the nature and status of Brigham Young as both the head of Utah’s dominant religion and the chief executive of the government body. He was more than just a deeply religious person in a public office of great trust—he was the head of a church in an area where the vast majority of the body politic were members of that church. Furthermore, it was more than just a normal, nineteenth-century American sect that Young headed. The Church claimed divine authority and viewed its head, who was also governor of Utah, as more than just a theological leader but as a prophet of God in every sense of the biblical definition. Brigham Young was the theological, ecclesiastical, cultural, legal, military, and political executive of life in Utah Territory. To the eastern political establishment, he was an American pope reigning over a federal entity in the West. This alone caused great alarm in Washington and among the American public.⁵ As the first Anglo-American settlers in the Great Basin, Latter- day Saints sought to establish political control and power for themselves. This basic desire to govern themselves with limited or no interference from any outside influence largely precipitated the Utah War. Unlike states’ rights as defined later by Southern agita- tors—with state authority being superior to federal authority—Utah wanted local control by filling federal judgeships and positions by local people and not outsiders. The conflict was the largest and most prominent military op- eration to occur between the Mexican (1846–48) and Civil wars. The Church and the Utah War, 1857–58 * 85 Dozens of officers from the Utah campaign served as generals during the Civil War. The Utah War was a valuable training and leadership exercise for the war in the East and for frontier campaigns for decades to come.

Load more