To look back at this episode now is to see the nation at the brink of civil war in 1857 and 1858—only to pull back. ... a lawyer named Thomas L. Kane, a non-Mormon who had advised Mormon leaders ...
Jul 30, 2008 · During the winter of 1857-58, when much of the American public was convinced the 'Mormons' and Brigham Young were in 'armed rebellion' against Pres. James Buchanan & the government of the United States, Kane traveled some 3,000 miles from the East to Salt Lake City, Utah, in an attempt to halt any actual bloodshed that might possibly occur between the …
The Mormon War. The massacre came about in the context of a rising conflict between Mormon leader Brigham Young and the federal government. When the Mormons had first arrived in …
The Mormon War. Read in app. Nov. 19, 1857. ... See the article in its original context from November 19, 1857, Page 4 Buy Reprints. View on timesmachine.
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 ...
May 1857 – July 1858Utah War / Period
After meeting members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints at an 1846 Philadelphia conference, Kane offered to help in their conflicts with the US government as they tried to migrate West. He negotiated to allow them to occupy land along the Missouri River, and later worked to help Utah achieve statehood.
Shortly after receiving the letter, President Buchanan, without investigating the situation in Utah or communicating his intentions to Governor Young, appointed Alfred Cumming of Georgia to be governor and directed a military force of twenty-five hundred men to escort him to Salt Lake City.
1838 Mormon WarDateAugust 6, 1838 - November 1, 1838LocationNorthwestern Missouri, United States (Caldwell County, Carroll County, Daviess County, Livingston County)ResultMissourian victory Mormons expelled from Missouri and resettled in Nauvoo, Illinois.
The Mormons, as they were commonly known, had moved west to escape religious discrimination. After the murder of founder and prophet Joseph Smith, they knew they had to leave their old settlement in Illinois. Many Mormons died in the cold, harsh winter months as they made their way over the Rocky Mountains to Utah.
Colonel Kane was the Chief Ordnance Officer of the Far Eastern Air Forces in Tokyo during 1948-49 and was Commanding Officer of Frankford Arsenal, Pennsylvania, from 1953 to 1954. During the following year, he was Commanding Officer of the Explosive Ordnance Disposal Center at Aberdeen Proving Ground.
John HurtKaneBiographical informationFirst appearanceAlienLast appearanceAliens (image only)Portrayed byJohn Hurt14 more rows
The only "battle" they fought was near the San Pedro River in present-day Arizona against a sizable number of wild cattle. The Battalion reached this area in December 1846, and their presence aroused curiosity among these animals.
May 1857 – July 1858Utah War / Period
Governors of the State of UtahRepublican (11) Democratic (6)GovernorTerm of office14Mike Leavitt February 11, 1951January 4, 1993 – November 5, 200315Olene Walker November 15, 1930 – November 28, 2015 (aged 85)November 5, 2003 – January 3, 200516Jon Huntsman Jr. March 26, 1960January 3, 2005 – August 11, 200932 more rows
On July 24, 1847, a wagon rolled out of a canyon and gave Brigham Young, president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, his first glimpse of the Great Salt Lake Valley. That swath of wilderness would become the new Zion for the Mormons, a church roughly 35,000 strong at the time. "If the people of the United States will let us alone for ten years," Young would recall saying that day, "we will ask no odds of them." Ten years to the day later, when the church's membership had grown to about 55,000, Young delivered alarming news: President James Buchanan had ordered federal troops to march on the Utah Territory.
The first of the missionaries left Salt Lake City in May 1855. One band of men rode more than 350 miles north, into what is now Idaho—beyond Young's legal jurisdiction. Another headed 400 miles southwest—again, beyond Utah's boundaries—to the site of present-day Las Vegas, in the New Mexico Territory.
James Buchanan and Brigham Young (pictured) faced off over who would govern the Utah Territory. (Library of Congress) In 1831, Joseph Smith moved with about 75 congregants from New York to Ohio and sent an advance party to Missouri to establish what they believed would be a new Zion.
The Utah War culminated a decade of rising hostility between Mormons and the federal government over issues ranging from governance and land ownership to plural marriage and Indian affairs, during which both Mormons and non-Mormons endured violence and privation .
Mormons traveling from the Kansas-Missouri frontier brought word that federal troops were, in fact, headed for Utah, leading to Young's announcement on the tenth anniversary of his arrival in the Great Salt Lake Valley.
Allan Kent Powell, managing editor of the Utah Historical Quarterly, notes that Abraham Lincoln war ned, in 1858, that "a house divided against itself cannot stand," referring to the United States and slavery. "The same comment could have been applied to Utah," says Powell.
The tension was reflected in the fledgling Republican Party's 1856 presidential platform, which included a pledge to eradicate the "twin relics of barbarism—polygamy and slavery.". To look back at this episode now is to see the nation at the brink of civil war in 1857 and 1858—only to pull back.
The Mormon War. The massacre came about in the context of a rising conflict between Mormon leader Brigham Young and the federal government. When the Mormons had first arrived in the Salt Lake area in 1847, it was Mexican territory, but the U.S. soon claimed the land after the Mexican-American War. The Compromise of 1850 made Utah a U.S. territory.
Lee felt betrayed, but, in Young's words, "The time has come when they will try John D. Lee and not the Mormon Church, and that is all we have ever wanted.". The militia leader was convicted in 1876 and executed in March 1877 at Mountain Meadows. Support Provided by: Learn More.
Media detailing the massacre 1 Massacre at Mountain Meadows, by Ronald W. Walker, Richard E. Turley, Glen M. Leonard (2008) 2 House of Mourning: A Biocultural History of the Mountain Meadows Massacre, by Shannon A. Novak (2008) 3 Burying The Past: Legacy of The Mountain Meadows Massacre, a documentary film by Brian Patrick (2004) 4 American Massacre: The Tragedy At Mountain Meadows, September 1857, by Sally Denton (2003) 5 Blood of the Prophets: Brigham Young and the Massacre at Mountain Meadows, by Will Bagley (2002) 6 The Mountain Meadows Massacre, by Juanita Brooks (1950) 7 Mountain Meadows. – an article originally published in Cincinnati Gazette (July 21, 1875), then republished in St. Louis Globe-Democrat (July 26, 1875). An affidavit of James Lynch's testimony taken in 1859 about the human remains Lynch saw at Mount Meadows in March and April 1858, about the living conditions of the sixteen child survivors of the Massacre during that time, and about the children's statements regarding the perpetrators of the Massacre. Lynch accompanied Dr. Jacob Forney, Superintendent of Indian Affairs, on an expedition to the area. The affidavit was given in front of Chief Justice of the Utah Territory Supreme Court Delana R. Eckels on July 27, 1859 and sent by US Army officer S.H. Montgomery to Commissioner of Indian Affairs A.B. Greenwood in August 1859.
The Mountain Meadows massacre was caused in part by events relating to the Utah War, an 1857 deployment toward the Utah Territory of the United States Army, whose arrival was peaceful. In the summer of 1857, however, the Mormons expected an all-out invasion of apocalyptic significance. From July to September 1857, Mormon leaders and their followers prepared for a siege that could have ended up similar to the seven-year Bleeding Kansas problem occurring at the time. Mormons were required to stockpile grain, and were enjoined against selling grain to emigrants for use as cattle feed. As far-off Mormon colonies retreated, Parowan and Cedar City became isolated and vulnerable outposts. Brigham Young sought to enlist the help of Native American tribes in fighting the "Americans", encouraging them to steal cattle from emigrant trains, and to join Mormons in fighting the approaching army.
The Mountain Meadows Massacre was a series of attacks which resulted in the mass murder of 120 members of the Baker–Fancher emigrant wagon train. The massacre occurred September 7–11, 1857 at Mountain Meadows in southern Utah, and was perpetrated by Mormon settlers belonging to the Utah Territorial Militia (officially called the Nauvoo Legion ), together with some Southern Paiute Native Americans .
The Baker–Fancher party left Corn Creek and continued the 125 miles (201 km) to Mountain Meadows, passing Parowan and Cedar City, southern Utah communities led respectively by Stake Presidents William H. Dame and Isaac C. Haight. Haight and Dame were, in addition, the senior regional military leaders of the Mormon militia. As the Baker–Fancher party approached, several meetings were held in Cedar City and nearby Parowan by the local Latter Day Saint (LDS) leaders pondering how to implement Young's declaration of martial law. In the afternoon of Sunday, September 6, Haight held his weekly Stake High Council meeting after church services, and brought up the issue of what to do with the emigrants. The plan for a Native American massacre was discussed, but not all the Council members agreed it was the right approach. The Council resolved to take no action until Haight sent a rider, James Haslam, out the next day to carry an express to Salt Lake City (a six-day round trip on horseback) for Brigham Young's advice, as Utah did not yet have a telegraph system. Following the Council, Isaac C. Haight decided to send a messenger south to John D. Lee. What Haight told Lee remains a mystery, but considering the timing it may have had something to do with Council's decision to wait for advice from Brigham Young.
Maj. John H. Higbee, said to have shouted the command to begin the killings. He claimed that he reluctantly participated in the massacre and only to bury the dead who he thought were victims of an Indian attack.
In 1858, Young sent a report to the Commissioner of Indian Affairs stating that the massacre was the work of Native Americans. The Utah War delayed any investigation by the U.S. federal government until 1859, when Jacob Forney, and U.S. Army Brevet Major James Henry Carleton conducted investigations. In Carleton's investigation, at Mountain Meadows he found women's hair tangled in sage brush and the bones of children still in their mothers' arms. Carleton later said it was "a sight which can never be forgotten." After gathering up the skulls and bones of those who had died, Carleton's troops buried them and erected a cairn and cross.
The first monument for the victims was built two years after the massacre, by Major Carleton and the U.S. Army. This monument was a simple cairn built over the gravesite of 34 victims, and was topped by a large cedar cross. The monument was found destroyed and the structure was replaced by the U.S. Army in 1864. By some reports, the monument was destroyed in 1861, when Young brought an entourage to Mountain Meadows. Wilford Woodruff, who later became President of the Church, claimed that upon reading the inscription on the cross, which read, "Vengeance is mine, thus saith the Lord. I shall repay", Young responded, "it should be vengeance is mine and I have taken a little." In 1932 citizens of the surrounding area constructed a memorial wall around the remnants of the monument.
Wikimedia Commons Brigham Young, President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, as drawn in 1879 by George A. Crofutt.
Marion Doss/Flickr A Covered Wagon, like the ones used by the Baker-Fancher Party, during the Great Western Migration, 1886 in Loup Valley, Nebraska.
Wikimedia Commons The massacre of women and children, as drawn by Henry Davenport Northrop in 1900.
Wikimedia Commons The site of the Mountain Meadows Massacre, where nothing but bones remain, as drawn for Harpers Weekly on August 13, 1859.
The incident of 1857-58 known as the Utah Expedition, the Utah War or Buchanan’s Blunder was a collision of territorial self-determination against a federal government already faced with insubordination in Kansas and its Southern states. When President James Buchanan decided to flex federal muscle against Utah Territory ...
Envoys were sent east to Washington, D.C., and influential friends hoped to work out a negotiated solution. At the same time, plans were also discussed for a mass migration to distant mountain valleys where extended guerrilla war could be fought, as a last resort.
Uncle Sam was an unwitting accomplice. The Army troops being sent to Utah, as mandated in orders to the adjutant general and quartermaster dated May 28, 1857, consisted of the 10th Infantry, the 5th Infantry, Phelps’ Battery of the 4th Artillery and the 2nd Dragoons.
In southern Utah Territory, heightened emotions led to the tragic Mountain Meadows Massacre of September 11, 1857, in which some Mormon militiamen joined with native Americans to kill the members of a wagon train from Arkansas (see Wild West Magazine, February 2005).