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| - The Mormons settled in Utah beginning in 1847, after mobs murdered the Prophet Joseph Smith and expelled the Mormon Church from Illinois. As they settled in Utah, the desert territory began to blossom. For nearly a decade the Mormons in Utah had relative peace and were free to practice their religion as they saw fit. Beginning in 1856, the Mormon Reformation, which was really just a renewed call for Mormons to live their faith, began. This was to call the Mormons out of spiritual laxity after a trying decade of being mobbed, driven, and suffering the physical trials of starting over in Utah. In 1857, their isolation ended.
- From 1857 to 1858, President James Buchanan sent U.S. forces to the Utah Territory, in what became known as the Utah Expedition. The Mormons, fearful that the large U.S. military force had been sent to annihilate them[citation needed], 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, preparations were made for war. Firearms were manufactured or repaired by the Mormons, scythes were turned into bayonets, and long-unused sabres were burnished and sharpened.
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| - From 1857 to 1858, President James Buchanan sent U.S. forces to the Utah Territory, in what became known as the Utah Expedition. The Mormons, fearful that the large U.S. military force had been sent to annihilate them[citation needed], 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, preparations were made for war. Firearms were manufactured or repaired by the Mormons, scythes were turned into bayonets, and long-unused sabres were burnished and sharpened. Rather than engaging the enemy 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. However, while 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, no actual battles occurred between the contending military forces. Despite this, the confrontation was not bloodless. At the height of the tensions, on September 11, 1857, more than 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 militiamen. They first claimed that the migrants were killed by Native Americans. This event was later called the Mountain Meadows massacre and the motives behind the incident remain a mystery. 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 later murdered and robbed of their stock and $25,000. Other incidents of violence have also been linked to the Utah War, including an Indian attack on the Mormon mission of Fort Limhi in eastern Oregon Territory. 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 instigated by members of the Utah Expedition who were trying to replenish their stores of livestock which 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 Mormons, 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.
- The Mormons settled in Utah beginning in 1847, after mobs murdered the Prophet Joseph Smith and expelled the Mormon Church from Illinois. As they settled in Utah, the desert territory began to blossom. For nearly a decade the Mormons in Utah had relative peace and were free to practice their religion as they saw fit. Beginning in 1856, the Mormon Reformation, which was really just a renewed call for Mormons to live their faith, began. This was to call the Mormons out of spiritual laxity after a trying decade of being mobbed, driven, and suffering the physical trials of starting over in Utah. In 1857, their isolation ended. James Buchanan was the last antebellum President of the United States. A Democrat, his party was under intense pressure from the newly formed Republican party, which had campaigned strongly in 1856 on a platform opposed to "those twin relics of barbarism--polygamy and slavery." Slavery was not only legal, but a significant economic factor in fifteen states at the time; polygamy, practiced largely by the Mormon Church in far-off Utah territory, made a much softer target. Thus, it posed an inviting safety valve for the political pressure. In the meantime, some federal appointees to territorial offices in Utah had turned out to be either incompetent or corrupt, or both. When the worst offenders were expelled from the territory and told that they were not wanted, a group of them formed a committee and accused the Mormons of rebelling against the authority of the United States. This gave Buchanan the pretext he needed. He removed Brigham Young as governor, appointed Alfred Cumming in his stead, and ordered five thousand troops to accompany him to the territory, under the command of Colonel Albert Sidney Johnston. In making this move, Buchanan, either by mistake or by design, neglected to notify the incumbent governor, Brigham Young, that he had been replaced. (The fact that the mail routes to Utah were ordered closed strongly suggests that Buchanan intended to keep Young in the dark.) The first Young heard of this event was when two Mormons, O. Porter Rockwell and Abraham O. Smoot, reported to him of what they had learned during a mail run to the east. This was on July 23, 1857, almost ten years to the day since the Mormons had arrived in Utah. The army was already on the move. Young had experienced the expulsion of the Saints from Missouri and Nauvoo, and was determined that they should not be driven from their homes again. Adopting the view that a military force of undeclared intentions is by default hostile, he made preparations to defend the territory against invasion. The territorial militia, which still bore the name of "The Nauvoo Legion," under the command of Daniel H. Wells and Lot Smith, began a campaign that avoided direct military confrontation, but operated on the army's supply trains and communications. This had the effect of crippling the army's ability to carry out offensive operations, but avoided bloodshed, which the Mormon authorities were at all times anxious to do. In this they were mostly successful, but for the single tragic exception of the Mountain Meadows massacre— panicked Mormon settlers and Piute Indians attacked a wagon train carrying Missouri and Arkansas settlers heading for California out of the mistaken belief that these were either connected to the invading army, or were threatening the Mormon settlers. Attempts by Brigham Young to stop the massacre came too late. (See also the Wikipedia entry.) In April of 1858, after meeting with Cumming and obtaining assurances that the troops would not be permitted to harass Mormon settlers, Young resigned as governor, and within a few weeks the army was allowed to enter the Salt Lake Valley, and settle at Camp Floyd. Most of Salt Lake City had been abandoned for fear of the army, and most Mormons had fled to Provo, just south of Salt Lake, for refuge. Johnston's Army entered a deserted city. War was avoided as the army realized there was no rebellion. For the next several years, the Federal Government, distracted by the Civil War, largely left the Mormons alone and the Mormon Church was able to continue its growth and missionary work. Missionaries at this point began preaching in the South Pacific, New Zealand, and Europe. Proceed to next time period.
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