Volume: 67 Number: 4 Year: 2015 Chronicle: 248 Article: Postal History of the 1857-58 Utah Expedition Author(s): Steven C. Walske Table Of Contents items marked with * cannot be viewed as an individual PDF document Click here to view the entire Volume: 67 No: 4 Chronicle: 248 Starting Page Front Cover (1 page) Front Cover Display Advertisement (1 page) Inside Front Cover Display Advertisement (1 page) Advertiser: The Philatelic Foundation 289 Display Advertisement (1 page) Advertiser: Kelleher Auctions 290 Masthead (1 page) 291 Display Advertisement (2 pages) Advertiser: Robert A. Siegel Auction Galleries, Inc. 292 Display Advertisement (1 page) Advertiser: Columbian Stamp Company Inc. 294 Table of Contents (1 page) 295 Display Advertisement (1 page) Advertiser: Kelleher Auctions 296 Editor's Page In This Issue (2 pages) 297 Michael Laurence Prestamp and Stampless Period Registration of Stampless Covers (18 pages) 298 James W. 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Trepel Display Advertisement (1 page) Advertiser: United States Stamp Society 388 Display Advertisement (1 page) Advertiser: James E. Lee 388 The Cover Corner Explanation of Problem Cover in Chronicle 247 (1 page) 389 John W. Wright Problem Cover for this Issue (1 page) 390 John W. Wright Display Advertisement (1 page) Advertiser: USPCS 390 Advertiser Index (1 page) 392 Statement of Ownership, Management and Circulation (1 page) 392 Display Advertisement (1 page) Advertiser: Schuyler Rumsey Philatelic Auctions Inside Back Cover Display Advertisement (1 page) Advertiser: Robert A. Siegel Auction Galleries, Inc. Back Cover THE WESTERN MAILS STEVEN WALSKE, EDITOR POSTAL HISTORY OF THE 1857-58 UTAH EXPEDITION STEVEN WALSKE Introduction One of the least known and least understood wars in American history is the military expedition to restore Federal control over Utah Territory, which took place between May 1857 and July 1858. This has been described as the first American civil war, although a cor- respondent for the New York Herald noted that it was a good war: “Killed, none; wounded, none; fooled, everybody.” This article describes the postal services that were established to support the army that was sent to quell rebellion in Mormon-controlled Salt Lake City. In April 1830, disciples of Joseph Smith were organized as the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (commonly known as the Mormon Church) in western New York. Their separatism and different beliefs made them subject to harassment and violence. As a consequence, many members moved to Missouri in 1831, but were expelled by the Mis- souri state militia in 1838. They were able to re-settle in Nauvoo, Illinois between 1839 and 1845, but growing hostilities led to yet another expulsion in 1846. By then, it had become clear to the Mormons that they were not welcome within the boundaries of the United States, so they began to look westward for a permanent settlement site. On April 5, 1847, Brigham Young led a pioneer party westward from Winter Quarters on the western bank of the Missouri River. On July 21, 1847, advance scouts reached Salt Lake Valley, and Young declared it to be their home three days later. By 1850, over 6,000 people had immigrated to Salt Lake City. Figure 1 shows a map of the region between the Missouri River and Utah Territory. Resentful of non-Mormon judges and U.S. marshals, the Mormon residents of Utah Territory drove the Federal officials out and unsuccessfully petitioned the government for Figure 1. Map of the region between the Missouri River and Utah Territory, showing var- ious features and locations discussed in this article. Chronicle 248 / November 2015 / Vol. 67, No. 4 337 statehood in 1856. The Mormons envisioned a self-governing theocracy, free from Federal oversight, in which they could exercise their religious beliefs. This position was rightfully perceived as a rebellion against United States control, so President Buchanan decided to replace Brigham Young as governor of Utah Territory, and to send a military force to Salt Lake City to install and protect non-Mormon Federal officials. On May 28, 1857, General Winfield Scott ordered a military force of 2,500 men to escort newly-named governor Alfred Cumming to Utah. Ironically, Brigham Young learned of this on June 23 through the United States mail. The Post Office Department had estab- lished a contract mail route between Independence, Missouri and Salt Lake City on August 1, 1850. A series of contractors had failed to satisfactorily service the monthly contract, mainly due to adverse winter weather on the plains and in the mountains, so the contract was held by Salt Lake City-based Hiram Kimball in 1857. However, when the July 1857 Independence mail reached Salt Lake City on July 23, it contained a June 24 letter notifying Kimball that his mail contract had been annulled. The reason given was that Kimball had not signed his contract by a December 1, 1846 deadline. Ironically, the Post Office Department had sent the accepted contract on October 16 in the overland mails. At that time, the mails to Salt Lake City were severely disrupted by winter weather. The November 1856 Independence mail (which included the Kimball contract) was held at the Platte River Bridge over the winter, and did not arrive in Salt Lake City until March 24, 1857. Instead, Kimball learned that he had been awarded the contract on January 6, 1857 by letter sent via Los Angeles to Salt Lake City. Accordingly, he commenced his service in February, even though he still had not received the actual contract. But he had not conformed to the technical requirements of the bid (through no fault of his own), and the rising tide of anti-Mormonism prompted the Post Office Department to annul his award. The Federal expedition The Federal expedition was made up of the 5th and 10th Infantry Regiments, the 2nd Dragoon Cavalry Regiment, and a battery of the 4th Artillery Regiment. The postal history of this expedition has been fortunately kept alive by two surviving correspondences: one from Captain Jesse A. Gove, commander of the 10th Regiment’s Company I; and another from Captain Fitz John Porter, adjutant to the expedition’s ultimate commander, Colonel Albert Sidney Johnston. Gove’s letters to his wife were published in 1928 (see Bibliog- raphy), and give a detailed description of the expedition’s westward progress across the plains and mountains. The 10th Regiment led the movement westward, departing from Fort Leavenworth on July 18, 1857. At the last minute, the dragoons were detached for duty in Kansas, so the expedition proceeded without a cavalry screen, leaving its supply trains vulnerable to Mormon raiders. Covers The expedition then moved ponderously to Fort Kearney (see Figure 1), where it stopped on August 7-11. While there, Gove wrote a letter to his wife, the cover of which is illustrated in Figure 2. Gove datelined his letter “In Camp 18, Platte River, Thursday, Aug. 6, 1857” and franked it for double-weight postage (to Concord, N.H.) with a pair of 3¢ 1851 stamps. He wrote, “Here we are at last within 10 miles or 9¼ of Fort Kearney. Tomorrow we shall be in Kearney by 10 o’clock A.M. … Will write you from Kearney. They have a weekly mail from there.” In his next letter, Gove reported that this letter left on Monday, August 10. He also de- scribed Fort Kearney as, “desolate indeed, the most forbidding place I ever saw. I prefer the wild prairie to it. The houses are adobe, or mud, the quarters are miserable, and, situated on 338 Chronicle 248 / November 2015 / Vol. 67, No. 4 Figure 2. Cover from the Jesse Gove correspondence, postmarked “Ft Kearny” on August 7, 1857 and franked (for double-weight postage) with a pair of 3¢ 1851 stamps. Cover courtesy of Ken Stach. Figure 3. Fort Kearney circa 1866, as depicted in a painting by western artist-photogra- pher William Henry Jackson. Illustration from the Brigham Young University collection. a level plain, has one of the most God-forsaken looks that you could well conceive a place to have.” Figure 3 presents a more favorable image of the fort, just after the Civil War, from a painting by William Henry Jackson.