The government at Washington and the people of the Eastern states knew a
good deal more about Mormonism in 1856 than they did when Fillmore gave
the appointment of governor to Young in 1850. The return of one federal
officer after another from Utah with a report that his office
was untenable, even if his life was not in danger, the practical
nullification of federal law, and the light that was beginning to be
shed on Mormon social life by correspondents of Eastern newspapers had
aroused enough public interest in the matter to lead the politicians to
deem it worthy of their attention. Accordingly, the Republican National
Convention, in June, 1856, inserted in its platform a plank declaring
that the constitution gave Congress sovereign power over the
territories, and that "it is both the right and the duty of Congress to
prohibit in the territories those twin relics of barbarism--polygamy and
slavery."
A still more striking proof of the growing political importance of the
Mormon question was afforded by the attention paid to it by Stephen A.
Douglas in a speech in Springfield, Illinois, on June 12, 1856, when
he was hoping to secure the Democratic nomination for President.
This former friend of the Mormons, their spokesman in the Senate, now
declared that reports from the territory seemed to justify the belief
that nine-tenths of its inhabitants were aliens; that all were bound by
horrid oaths and penalties to recognize and maintain the authority of
Brigham Young; and that the Mormon government was forming alliances
with the Indians, and organizing Danite bands to rob and murder American
citizens. "Under this view of the subject," said he, "I think it is the
duty of the President, as I have no doubt it is his fixed purpose, to
remove Brigham Young and all his followers from office, and to fill
their places with bold, able, and true men; and to cause a thorough and
searching investigation into all the crimes and enormities which are
alleged to be perpetrated daily in that territory under the direction
of Brigham Young and his confederates; and to use all the military force
necessary to protect the officers in discharge of their duties and to
enforce the laws of the land. When the authentic evidence shall arrive,
if it shall establish the facts which are believed to exist, it will
become the duty of Congress to apply the knife, and cut out this
loathsome, disgusting ulcer."*
* Text of the speech in New York Times of June 23, 1856.
This, of course, caused the Mormons to pour out on Judge Douglas the
vials of their wrath, and, when he failed to secure the presidential
nomination, they found in his defeat the verification of one of Smith's
prophecies.
The Mormons, on their part, had never ceased their demands for
statehood, and another of their efforts had been made in the preceding
spring, when a new constitution of the State of Deseret was adopted by a
convention over which the notorious Jedediah M. Grant presided, and sent
to Washington with a memorial pleading for admission to the Union, "that
another star, shedding mild radiance from the tops of the mountains,
midway between the borders of the Eastern and Western civilization, may
add its effulgence to that bright light now so broadly illumining the
governmental pathway of nations"; and declaring that "the loyalty of
Utah has been variously and most thoroughly tested." Congress treated
this application with practical contempt, the Senate laying the memorial
on the table, and the chairman of the House Committee on Territories,
Galusha A. Grow, refusing to present the constitution to the House.
Alarmed at the manifestations of public feeling in the East, and the
demand that President Buchanan should do something to vindicate at least
the dignity of the government, the Mormon leaders and press renewed
their attacks on the character of all the federal officers who had
criticized them, and the Deseret News urged the President to send to
Utah "one or more civilians on a short visit to look about them and see
what they can see, and return and report." The value of observations by
such "short visitors" on such occasions need not be discussed.
President Buchanan, instead of following any Mormon advice, soon after
his inauguration directed the organization of a body of troops to march
to Utah to uphold the federal authorities, and in July, after several
persons had declined the office, appointed as governor of Utah Alfred
Cumming of Georgia. The appointee was a brother of Colonel William
Cumming, who won renown as a soldier in the War of 1812, who was a Union
party leader in the nullification contest in Jackson's time, and who was
a participant in a duel with G. McDuffie that occupied a good deal of
attention. Alfred Cumming had filled no more important positions than
those of mayor of Augusta, Georgia, sutler in the Mexican War, and
superintendent of Indian affairs on the upper Missouri. A much more
commendable appointment made at the same time was that of D. R. Eckles,
a Kentuckian by birth, but then a resident of Indiana, to be chief
justice of the territory. John Cradlebaugh and C. E. Sinclair were
appointed associate justices, with John Hartnett as secretary, and Peter
K. Dotson as marshal. The new governor gave the first illustration of
his conception of his duties by remaining in the East, while the troops
were moving, asking for an increase of his salary, a secret service
fund, and for transportation to Utah. Only the last of these requests
was complied with.
President Buchanan's position as regards Utah at this time was thus
stated in his first annual message to Congress (December 8, 1857):--
"The people of Utah almost exclusively belong to this [Mormon] church,
and, believing with a fanatical spirit that he [Young] is Governor of
the Territory by divine appointment, they obey his commands as if these
were direct revelations from heaven. If, therefore, he chooses that his
government shall come into collision with the government of the United
States, the members of the Mormon church will yield implicit obedience
to his will. Unfortunately, existing facts leave but little doubt that
such is his determination. Without entering upon a minute history of
occurrences, it is sufficient to say that all the officers of the United
States, judicial and executive, with the single exception of two Indian
agents, have found it necessary for their own safety to withdraw from
the Territory, and there no longer remained any government in Utah but
the despotism of Brigham Young. This being the condition of affairs in
the Territory, I could not mistake the path of duty. As chief executive
magistrate, I was bound to restore the supremacy of the constitution and
laws within its limits. In order to effect this purpose, I appointed a
new governor and other federal officers for Utah, and sent with them a
military force for their protection, and to aid as a posse comitatus in
case of need in the execution of the laws.
"With the religious opinions of the Mormons, as long as they remained
mere opinions, however deplorable in themselves and revolting to the
moral and religious sentiments of all Christendom, I have no right to
interfere. Actions alone, when in violation of the constitution and
laws of the United States, become the legitimate subjects for the
jurisdiction of the civil magistrate. My instructions to Governor
Cumming have, therefore, been framed in strict accordance with these
principles."
This statement of the situation of affairs in Utah, and of the duty of
the President in the circumstances, did not admit of criticism. But
the country at that time was in a state of intense excitement over the
slavery question, with the situation in Kansas the centre of attention;
and it was charged that Buchanan put forward the Mormon issue as a part
of his scheme to "gag the North" and force some question besides
slavery to the front; and that Secretary of War Floyd eagerly seized
the opportunity to remove "the flower of the American army" and a vast
amount of munition and supplies to a distant place, remote from Eastern
connections. The principal newspapers in this country were intensely
partisan in those days, and party organs like the New York Tribune could
be counted on to criticise any important step taken by the Democratic
President. Such Mormon agents as Colonel Kane and Dr. Bernhisel, the
Utah Delegate to Congress, were doing active work in New York and
Washington, and some of it with effect. Horace Greeley, in his "Overland
journey," describing his call on Brigham Young a few years later,
says that he was introduced by "my friend Dr. Bernhisel." The "Tribune
Almanac" for 1859, in an article on the Utah troubles, quoted as "too
true" Young's declaration that "for the last twenty-five years we have
trusted officials of the government, from constables and justices to
judges, governors, and presidents, only to be scorned, held in derision,
insulted and betrayed."* Ulterior motives aside, no President ever had
a clearer duty than had Buchanan to maintain the federal authority in
Utah, and to secure to all residents in and travellers through
that territory the rights of life and property. The just ground for
criticising him is, not that he attempted to do this, but that he
faltered by the way.**
* Greeley's leaning to the Mormon side was quite persistent,
leading him to support Governor Cumming a little later against the
federal judges. The Mormons never forgot this. A Washington letter
of April 24, 1874, to the New York Times said: "When Mr. Greeley was
nominated for President the Mormons heartily hoped for his election. The
church organs and the papers taken in the territory were all hostile to
the administration, and their clamor deceived for a time people far more
enlightened than the followers of the modern Mohammed. It is said
that, while the canvass was pending, certain representatives of the
Liberal-Democratic alliance bargained with Brigham Young, and that he
contributed a very large sum of money to the treasury of the Greeley
fund, and that, in consideration of this contribution, he received
assurances that, if he should send a polygamist to Congress, no
opposition would be made by the supporters of the administration that
was to be, to his admission to the House. Brigham therefore sent Cannon
instead of returning Hooper."
** It is curious to notice that the Utah troubles are entirely
ignored in the "Life of James Buchanan" (1883) by George Ticknor Curtis,
who was the counsel for the Mormons in the argument concerning polygamy
before the United States Supreme Court in 1886.
Early in 1856 arrangements were entered into with H. C. Kimball for a
contract to carry the mail between Independence, Missouri, and Salt Lake
City. Young saw in this the nucleus of a big company that would maintain
a daily express and mail service to and from the Mormon centre, and he
at once organized the Brigham Young Express Carrying Company, and had
it commended to the people from the pulpit. But recent disclosures
of Mormon methods and purposes had naturally caused the government to
question the propriety of confiding the Utah and transcontinental mails
to Mormon hands, and on June 10, 1857, Kimball was notified that the
government would not execute the contract with him, "the unsettled state
of things at Salt Lake City rendering the mails unsafe under present
circumstances." Mormon writers make much of the failure to execute this
mail contract as an exciting cause of the "war." Tullidge attributes
the action of the administration to three documents--a letter from Mail
Contractor W. M. F. Magraw to the President, describing the situation in
Utah, Judge Drummond's letter of resignation, and a letter from Indian
Agent T. S. Twiss, dated July 13, 1856, informing the government that a
large Mormon colony had taken possession of Deer Creek Valley, only one
hundred miles west of Fort Laramie, driving out a settlement of Sioux
whom the agent had induced to plant corn there, and charging that the
Mormon occupation was made with a view to the occupancy of the country,
and "under cover of a contract of the Mormon church to carry the
mails."* Tullidge's statement could be made with hope of its acceptance
only to persons who either lacked the opportunity or inclination to
ascertain the actual situation in Utah and the President's sources of
information.
* All these may be found in House Ex. Doc. No. 71, 1st Session,
35th Congress.
As to the mails, no autocratic government like that of Brigham Young
would neglect to make what use it pleased of them in its struggle with
the authorities at Washington. As early as November, 1851, Indian Agent
Holman wrote to the Indian commissioner at Washington from Salt Lake
City: "The Gentiles, as we are called who do not belong to the Mormon
church, have no confidence in the management of the post-office here. It
is believed by many that there is an examination of all letters coming
and going, in order that they may ascertain what is said of them and
by whom it is said. This opinion is so strong that all communications
touching their character or conduct are either sent to Bridger or
Laramie, there to be mailed. I send this communication through a friend
to Laramie, to be there mailed for the States."
Testimony on this point four years later, from an independent source, is
found in a Salt Lake City letter, of November 3, 1855, to the New York
Herald. The writer said: "From September 5, to the 27th instant the
people of this territory had not received any news from the States
except such as was contained in a few broken files of California
papers.... Letters and papers come up missing, and in the same mail come
papers of very ancient dates; but letters once missing may be considered
as irrevocably lost. Of all the numerous numbers of Harper's, Gleason's,
and other illustrated periodicals subscribed for by the inhabitants of
this territory, not one, I have been informed, has ever reached here."
The forces selected for the expedition to Utah consisted of the Second
Dragoons, then stationed at Fort Leavenworth in view of possible trouble
in Kansas; the Fifth Infantry, stationed at that time in Florida; the
Tenth Infantry, then in the forts in Minnesota; and Phelps's Battery of
the Fourth Artillery, that had distinguished itself at Buena Vista--a
total of about fifteen hundred men. Reno's Battery was added later.
General Scott's order provided for two thousand head of cattle to
be driven with the troops, six months' supply of bacon, desiccated
vegetables, 250 Sibley tents, and stoves enough to supply at least the
sick. General Scott himself had advised a postponement of the expedition
until the next year, on account of the late date at which it would
start, but he was overruled. The commander originally selected for this
force was General W. S. Harney; but the continued troubles in Kansas
caused his retention there (as well as that of the Second Dragoons),
and, when the government found that the Mormons proposed serious
resistance, the chief command was given to Colonel Albert Sidney
Johnston, a West Point graduate, who had made a record in the Black Hawk
War; in the service of the state of Texas, first in 1836 under General
Rusk, and eventually as commander-in-chief in the field, and later as
Secretary of War; and in the Mexican War as colonel of the First Texas
Rifles. He was killed at the battle of Shiloh during the War of the
Rebellion.
General Harney's letter of instruction, dated June 29, giving the
views of General Scott and the War Department, stated that the civil
government in Utah was in a state of rebellion; he was to attack no body
of citizens, however, except at the call of the governor, the judges, or
the marshals, the troops to be considered as a posse comitatus; he was
made responsible for "a jealous, harmonious, and thorough cooperation"
with the governor, accepting his views when not in conflict with
military judgment and prudence. While the general impression, both at
Washington and among the troops, was that no actual resistance to this
force would be made by Young's followers, the general was told that
"prudence requires that you should anticipate resistance, general,
organized, and formidable, at the threshold."
Great activity was shown in forwarding the necessary supplies to Fort
Leavenworth, and in the last two weeks of July most of the assigned
troops were under way. Colonel Johnston arrived at Fort Leavenworth
on September 11, assigned six companies of the Second Dragoons, under
Lieutenant Colonel P. St. George Cooke, as an escort to Governor
Cumming, and followed immediately after them. Major (afterward General)
Fitz John Porter, who accompanied Colonel Johnston as assistant adjutant
general, describing the situation in later years, said:--
"So late in the season had the troops started on this march that fears
were entertained that, if they succeeded in reaching their destination,
it would be only by abandoning the greater part of their supplies, and
endangering the lives of many men amid the snows of the Rocky Mountains.
So much was a terrible disaster feared by those acquainted with the
rigors of a winter life in the Rocky Mountains, that General Harney was
said to have predicted it, and to have induced Walker [of Kansas] to ask
his retention."
Meanwhile, the Mormons had received word of what was coming. When A. O.
Smoot reached a point one hundred miles west of Independence, with the
mail for Salt Lake City, he met heavy freight teams which excited his
suspicion, and at Kansas City obtained sufficient particulars of the
federal expedition. Returning to Fort Laramie, he and O. P. Rockwell
started on July 18, in a light wagon drawn by two fast horses, to carry
the news to Brigham Young. They made the 513 miles in five days and
three hours, arriving on the evening of July 23. Undoubtedly they gave
Young this important information immediately. But Young kept it to
himself that night. On the following day occurred the annual celebration
of the arrival of the pioneers in the valley. To the big gathering of
Saints at Big Cottonwood Lake, twenty-four miles from the city, Young
dramatically announced the news of the coming "invasion." His position
was characteristically defiant. He declared that "he would ask no odds
of Uncle Sam or the devil," and predicted that he would be President
of the United States in twelve years, or would dictate the successful
candidate. Recalling his declaration ten years earlier that, after ten
years of peace, they would ask no odds of the United States, he declared
that that time had passed, and that thenceforth they would be a free and
independent state--the State of Deseret.
The followers of Young eagerly joined in his defiance of the government,
and in the succeeding weeks the discourses and the editorials of the
Deseret News breathed forth dire threats against the advancing foe.
Thus, the News of August 12 told the Washington authorities, "If you
intend to continue the appointment of certain officers,"--that is, if
you do not intend to surrender to the church federal jurisdiction in
Utah--"we respectfully suggest that you appoint actually intelligent and
honorable men, who will wisely attend to their own duties, and send
them unaccompanied by troops"--that is, judges who would acknowledge the
supremacy of the Mormon courts, or who, if not, would have no force to
sustain them. This was followed by a threat that if any other kind
of men were sent "they will really need a far larger bodyguard
than twenty-five hundred soldiers."* The government was, in another
editorial, called on to "entirely clear the track, and accord us the
privilege of carrying our own mails at our own expense," and was accused
of "high handedly taking away our rights and privileges, one by one,
under pretext that the most devilish should blush at."
* An Englishman, in a letter to the New York Observer, dated
London, May 26, 1857, said, "The English Mormons make no secret of
their expectation that a collision will take place with the American
authorities," and he quoted from a Mormon preacher's words as follows:
"As to a collision with the American Government, there cannot be two
opinions on the matter. We shall have judges, governors, senators and
dragoons invading us, imprisoning and murdering us; but we are prepared,
and are preparing judges, governors, senators and dragoons who will
know how to dispose of their friends. The little stone will come into
collision with the iron and clay and grind them to powder. It will be in
Utah as it was in Nauvoo, with this difference, we are prepared now for
offensive or defensive war; we were not then." Young in the pulpit was
in his element. One example of his declarations must suffice:--
"I am not going to permit troops here for the protection of the priests
and the rabble in their efforts to drive us from the land we possess....
You might as well tell me that you can make hell into a powder house as
to tell me that they intend to keep an army here and have peace.... I
have told you that if there is any man or woman who is not willing to
destroy everything of their property that would be of use to an enemy
if left, I would advise them to leave the territory, and I again say so
to-day; for when the time comes to burn and lay waste our improvements,
if any man undertakes to shield his, he will be treated as a traitor;
for judgment will be laid to the line and righteousness to the
plummet."*
* Tullidge's "History of Salt Lake City," p. 160.
The official papers of Governor Young are perhaps the best illustrations
of the spirit with which the federal authorities had to deal.
Words, however, were not the only weapons which the Mormons employed
against the government at the start. Daniel H. Wells, "Lieutenant
General" and commander of the Nauvoo Legion, which organization had
been kept up in Utah, issued, on August 1, a despatch to each of twelve
commanding officers of the Legion in the different settlements in the
territory, declaring that "when anarchy takes the place of orderly
government, and mobocratic tyranny usurps the powers of the rulers, they
[the people of the territory] have left the inalienable right to defend
themselves against all aggression upon their constitutional privileges";
and directing them to hold their commands ready to march to any part
of the territory, with ammunition, wagons, and clothing for a winter
campaign. In the Legion were enrolled all the able-bodied males between
eighteen and forty-five years, under command of a lieutenant general,
four generals, eleven colonels, and six majors.
The first mobilization of this force took place on August 15, when
a company was sent eastward over the usual route to aid incoming
immigrants and learn the strength of the federal force. By the
employment of similar scouts the Mormons were thus kept informed of
every step of the army's advance. A scouting party camped within half a
mile of the foremost company near Devil's Gate on September 22, and did
not lose sight of it again until it went into camp at Harris's Fort,
where supplies had been forwarded in advance.
Captain Stewart Van Vliet, of General Harney's staff, was sent ahead
of the troops, leaving Fort Leavenworth on July 28, to visit Salt Lake
City, ascertain the disposition of the church authorities and the people
toward the government, and obtain any other information that would be of
use. Arriving in Salt Lake City in thirty three and a half days, he was
received with affability by Young, and there was a frank interchange of
views between them. Young recited the past trials of the Mormons farther
east, and said that "therefore he and the people of Utah had determined
to resist all persecution at the commencement, and that the TROOPS NOW
ON THE MARCH FOR UTAH SHOULD NOT ENTER THE GREAT SALT LAKE VALLEY. As he
uttered these words, all those present concurred most heartily."* Young
said they had an abundance of everything required by the federal troops,
but that nothing would be sold to the government. When told that,
even if they did succeed in preventing the present military force from
entering the valley the coming winter, they would have to yield to a
larger force the following year, the reply was that that larger force
would find Utah a desert; they would burn every house, cut down every
tree, lay waste every field. "We have three years' provisions on hand,"
Young added, "which we will cache, and then take to the mountains and
bid defiance to all the powers of the government."
* The quotations are from Captain Van Vliet's official report in
House Ex. Doc. No. 71, previously referred to. Tullidge's "History of
Salt Lake City" (p. 16l) gives extracts from Apostle Woodruff's private
journal of notes on the interview between Young and Captain Van Vliet,
on September 12 and 13, in which Young is reported as saying: "We do not
want to fight the United States, but if they drive us to it we shall do
the best we can. God will overthrow them. We are the supporters of the
constitution of the United States. If they dare to force the issue,
I shall not hold the Indians by the wrist any longer for white men to
shoot at them; they shall go ahead and do as they please."
When Young called for a vote on that proposition by an audience of four
thousand persons in the Tabernacle, every hand was raised to vote yes.
Captain Van Vliet summed up his view of the situation thus: that it
would not be difficult for the Mormons to prevent the entrance of the
approaching force that season; that they would not resort to actual
hostilities until the last moment, but would burn the grass, stampede
the animals, and cause delay in every manner.
The day after Captain Van Vliet left Salt Lake City, Governor Young gave
official expression to his defiance of the federal government by issuing
the following proclamation:--
"Citizens of Utah: We are invaded by a hostile force, who are evidently
assailing us to accomplish our overthrow and destruction.
"For the last twenty-five years we have trusted officials of the
government, from constables and justices to judges, governors, and
Presidents, only to be scorned, held in derision, insulted, and
betrayed. Our houses have been plundered and then burned, our fields
laid waste, our principal men butchered, while under the pledged faith
of the government for their safety, and our families driven from their
homes to find that shelter in the barren wilderness and that protection
among hostile savages, which were denied them in the boasted abodes of
Christianity and civilization.
"The constitution of our common country guarantees unto us all that we
do now or have ever claimed. If the constitutional rights which pertain
unto us as American citizens were extended to Utah, according to the
spirit and meaning thereof, and fairly and impartially administered, it
is all that we can ask, all that we have ever asked.
"Our opponents have availed themselves of prejudice existing against
us, because of our religious faith, to send out a formidable host to
accomplish our destruction. We have had no privilege or opportunity of
defending ourselves from the false, foul, and unjust aspersions against
us before the nation. The government has not condescended to cause an
investigating committee, or other persons, to be sent to inquire into
and ascertain the truth, as is customary in such cases. We know those
aspersions to be false; but that avails us nothing. We are condemned
unheard, and forced to an issue with an armed mercenary mob, which has
been sent against us at the instigation of anonymous letter writers,
ashamed to father the base, slanderous falsehoods which they have given
to the public; of corrupt officials, who have brought false accusations
against us to screen themselves in their own infamy; and of hireling
priests and howling editors, who prostitute the truth for filthy lucre's
sake.
"The issue which has thus been forced upon us compels us to resort to
the great first law of self-preservation, and stand in our own defence,
a right guaranteed to us by the genius of the institutions of our
country, and upon which the government is based. Our duty to ourselves,
to our families, requires us not to tamely submit to be driven and
slain, without an attempt to preserve ourselves; our duty to our
country, our holy religion, our God, to freedom and liberty, requires
that we should not quietly stand still and see those fetters forging
around us which were calculated to enslave and bring us in subjection to
an unlawful, military despotism, such as can only emanate, in a country
of constitutional law, from usurpation, tyranny, and oppression.
"Therefore, I, Brigham Young, Governor and Superintendent of Indian
Affairs for the Territory of Utah, in the name of the people of the
United States in the Territory of Utah, forbid:
"First. All armed forces of every description from coming into this
Territory, under any pretence whatever.
"Second. That all forces in said Territory hold themselves in readiness
to march at a moment's notice to repel any and all such invasion.
"Third. Martial law is hereby declared to exist in this Territory from
and after the publication of this proclamation, and no person shall be
allowed to pass or repass into or through or from this Territory without
a permit from the proper officer.
"Given under my hand and seal, at Great Salt Lake City, Territory of
Utah, this 15th day of September, A.D. 1857, and of the independence of
the United States of America the eighty-second.
"BRIGHAM YOUNG."
The advancing troops received from Captain Van Vliet as he passed
eastward their first information concerning the attitude of the
Mormons toward them, and Colonel Alexander, in command of the foremost
companies, accepted his opinion that the Mormons would not attack them
if the army did not advance beyond Fort Bridger or Fort Supply, this
idea being strengthened by the fact that one hundred wagon loads of
stores, undefended, had remained unmolested on Ham's Fork for three
weeks. The first division of the federal troops marched across Greene
River on September 27, and hurried on thirty five miles to what was
named Camp Winfield, on Ham's Fork, a confluent of Black Fork, which
emptied into Greene River. Phelps's and Reno's batteries and the Fifth
Infantry reached there about the same time, but there was no cavalry,
the kind of force most needed, because of the detention of the Dragoons
in Kansas.
On September 30 General Wells forwarded to Colonel Alexander, from Fort
Bridger, Brigham Young's proclamation of September 15, a copy of
the laws of Utah, and the following letter addressed to "the officer
commanding the forces now invading Utah Territory":
"GOVERNOR'S OFFICE, UTAH TERRITORY,
"GREAT SALT LAKE CITY, September 29, 1857.
"Sir: By reference to the act of Congress passed September 9, 1850,
organizing the Territory of Utah, published in a copy of the laws of
Utah, herewith forwarded, pp. 146-147, you will find the following:--
"Sec. 2. And be it further enacted, that the executive power and
authority in and over said Territory of Utah shall be vested in a
Governor, who shall hold his office for four years, and until his
successor shall be appointed and qualified, unless sooner removed by the
President of the United States. The Governor shall reside within said
Territory, shall be Commander-in-chief of the militia thereof', etc.,
etc.
"I am still the Governor and Superintendent of Indian Affairs for this
Territory, no successor having been appointed and qualified, as provided
by law; nor have I been removed by the President of the United States.
"By virtue of the authority thus vested in me, I have issued, and
forwarded you a copy of, my proclamation forbidding the entrance of
armed forces into this Territory. This you have disregarded. I now
further direct that you retire forthwith from the Territory, by the same
route you entered. Should you deem this impracticable, and prefer to
remain until spring in the vicinity of your present encampment,
Black's Fork or Greene River, you can do so in peace and unmolested, on
condition that you deposit your arms and ammunition with Lewis Robinson,
Quartermaster General of the Territory, and leave in the spring, as soon
as the condition of the roads will permit you to march; and, should you
fall short of provisions, they can be furnished you, upon making the
proper applications therefor. General D. H. Wells will forward this, and
receive any communications you may have to make.
"Very respectfully,
"BRIGHAM YOUNG,
"Governor and Superintendent of Indian Affairs, Utah Territory."
General Wells's communication added to this impudent announcement the
declaration, "It may be proper to add that I am here to aid in carrying
out the instructions of Governor Young."
On October 2 Colonel Alexander, in a note to Governor Young,
acknowledged the receipt of his enclosures, said that he would submit
Young's letter to the general commanding as soon as he arrived, and
added, "In the meantime I have only to say that these troops are here
by the orders of the President of the United States, and their future
movements and operations will depend entirely upon orders issued by
competent military authority."
Two Mormon officers, General Robinson and Major Lot Smith, had been sent
to deliver Young's letter and proclamation to the federal officer in
command, but they did not deem it prudent to perform this office in
person, sending a Mexican with them into Colonel Alexander's camp.* In
the same way they received Colonel Alexander's reply.
* Tullidge's "History of Salt Lake City," p. 171.
The Mormon plan of campaign was already mapped out, and it was thus
stated in an order of their commanding general, D. H. Wells, a copy
of which was found on a Mormon major, Joseph Taylor, to whom it was
addressed:--
"You will proceed, with all possible despatch, without injuring your
animals, to the Oregon road, near the bend of Bear River, north by east
of this place. Take close and correct observations of the country on
your route. When you approach the road, send scouts ahead to ascertain
if the invading troops have passed that way. Should they have passed,
take a concealed route and get ahead of them, express to Colonel Benton,
who is now on that road and in the vicinity of the troops, and effect
a junction with him, so as to operate in concert. 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 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. Keep
scouts out at all times, and communications open with Colonel Benton,
Major McAllster and O. P. Rockwell, who are operating in the same way.
Keep me advised daily of your movements, and every step the troops take,
and in which direction.
"God bless you and give you success. Your brother in Christ."
The first man selected to carry out this order was Major Lot Smith.
Setting out at 4 P.M., on October 3, with forty-four men, after an all
night's ride, he came up with a federal supply train drawn by oxen. The
captain of this train was ordered to "go the other way till he reached
the States." As he persistently retraced his steps as often as the
Mormons moved away, the latter relieved his wagons of their load and
left him. Sending one of his captains with twenty men to capture or
stampede the mules of the Tenth Regiment, Smith, with the remainder of
his force, started for Sandy Fork to intercept army trains.
Scouts sent ahead to investigate a distant cloud of dust reported that
it was made by a freight train of twenty-six wagons. Smith allowed
this train to proceed until dark, and then approached it undiscovered.
Finding the drivers drunk, as he afterward explained, and fearing that
they would be belligerent and thus compel him to disobey his instruction
"not to hurt any one except in self-defence," he lay concealed until
after midnight. His scouts meanwhile had reported to him that the train
was drawn up for the night in two lines.
Allowing the usual number of men to each wagon, Smith decided that his
force of twenty-four was sufficient to capture the outfit, and, mounting
his command, he ordered an advance on the camp. But a surprise was in
store for him. His scouts had failed to discover that a second train had
joined the first, and that twice the force anticipated confronted them.
When this discovery was made, the Mormons were too close to escape
observation. Members of Smith's party expected that their leader would
now make some casual inquiry and then ride on, as if his destination
were elsewhere. Smith, however, decided differently. As his force
approached the camp-fire that was burning close to the wagons, he
noticed that the rear of his column was not distinguishable in the
darkness, and that thus the smallness of their number could not be
immediately discovered. He, therefore, asked at once for the captain of
the train, and one Dawson stepped forward. Smith directed him to have
his men collect their private property at once, as he intended to "put
a little fire" into the wagons. "For God's sake, don't burn the trains,"
was the reply. Dawson was curtly told where his men were to stack their
arms, and where they were themselves to stand under guard. Then, making
a torch, Smith ordered one of the government drivers to apply it, in
order that "the Gentiles might spoil the Gentiles," as he afterward
expressed it. The destruction of the supplies was complete. Smith
allowed an Indian to take two wagon covers for a lodge, and some flour
and soap, and compelled Dawson to get out some provisions for his own
men. Nothing else was spared.
The official list of rations thus destroyed included 2720 pounds of ham,
92,700 of bacon, 167,900 of flour, 8910 of coffee, 1400 of sugar, 1333
of soap, 800 of sperm candles, 765 of tea, 7781 of hard bread, and
68,832 rations of desiccated vegetables. Another train was destroyed
by the same party the next day on the Big Sandy, besides a few sutlers'
wagons that were straggling behind.
On October 5 Colonel Alexander assumed command of all the troops in the
camp. He found his position a trying one. In a report dated October
8, he said that his forage would last only fourteen days, that no
information of the position or intentions of the commanding officer
had reached him, and that, strange as it may appear, he was "in utter
ignorance of the objects of the government in sending troops here, or
the instructions given for their conduct after reaching here." In
these circumstances, he called a council of his officers and decided to
advance without waiting for Colonel Johnston and the other companies, as
he believed that delay would endanger the entire force. He selected as
his route to a wintering place, not the most direct one to Salt Lake
City, inasmuch as the canyons could be easily defended, but one twice as
long (three hundred miles), by way of Soda Springs, and thence either
down Bear River Valley or northeast toward the Wind River Mountains,
according to the resistance he might encounter.
The march, in accordance with this decision, began on October 11, and a
weary and profitless one it proved to be. Snow was falling as the column
moved, and the ground was covered with it during their advance. There
was no trail, and a road had to be cut through the greasewood and sage
brush. The progress was so slow--often only three miles a day--and the
supply train so long, that camp would sometimes be pitched for the night
before the rear wagons would be under way. Wells's men continued to
carry out his orders, and, in the absence of federal cavalry, with
little opposition. One day eight hundred oxen were "cut out" and driven
toward Salt Lake City.
Conditions like these destroyed the morale of both officers and men, and
there were divided counsels among the former, and complaints among the
latter. Finally, after having made only thirty-five miles in nine days,
Colonel Alexander himself became discouraged, called another council,
and, in obedience to its decision, on October 19 directed his force to
retrace their steps. They moved back in three columns, and on November
2 all of them had reached a camp on Black's Fork, two miles above Fort
Bridger.
Colonel Johnston had arrived at Fort Laramie on October 5, and, after
a talk with Captain Van Vliet, had retained two additional companies
of infantry that were on the way to Fort Leavenworth. As he proceeded,
rumors of the burning of trains, exaggerated as is usual in such times,
reached him. Having only about three hundred men to guard a wagon train
six miles in length, some of the drivers showed signs of panic, and the
colonel deemed the situation so serious that he accepted an offer of
fifty or sixty volunteers from the force of the superintendent of the
South Pass wagon road. He was fortunate in having as his guide the well
known James Bridger, to whose knowledge of Rocky Mountain weather signs
they owed escapes from much discomfort, by making camps in time to avoid
coming storms.
But even in camp a winter snowstorm is serious to a moving column,
especially when it deprives the animals of their forage, as it did now.
The forage supply was almost exhausted when South Pass was reached, and
the draught and beef cattle were in a sad plight. Then came another big
snowstorm and a temperature of l6 deg., during which eleven mules and
a number of oxen were frozen to death. In this condition of affairs,
Colonel Johnston decided that a winter advance into Salt Lake Valley was
impracticable. Learning of Colonel Alexander's move, which he did not
approve, he sent word for him to join forces with his own command on
Black's Fork, and there the commanding officer arrived on November 3.
Lieutenant Colonel Cooke, of the Second Dragoons, with whom Governor
Cumming was making the trip, had a harrowing experience. There was
much confusion in organizing his regiment of six companies at Fort
Leavenworth, and he did not begin his march until September 17, with a
miserable lot of mules and insufficient supplies. He found little grass
for the animals, and after crossing the South Platte on October 15, they
began to die or to drop out. From that point snow and sleet storms were
encountered, and, when Fort Laramie was reached, so many of the animals
had been left behind or were unable to travel, that some of his men were
dismounted, the baggage supply was reduced, and even the ambulances
were used to carry grain. After passing Devil's Gate, they encountered
a snowstorm on November 5. The best shelter their guide could find was a
lofty natural wall at a point known as Three Crossings. Describing their
night there he says: "Only a part of the regiment could huddle behind
the rock in the deep snow; whilst, the long night through, the storm
continued, and in fearful eddies from above, before, behind, drove the
falling and drifting snow. Thus exposed, for the hope of grass the poor
animals were driven, with great devotion, by the men once more across
the stream and three-quarters of a mile beyond, to the base of a granite
ridge, which almost faced the storm. There the famished mules, crying
piteously, did not seek to eat, but desperately gathered in a mass,
and some horses, escaping guard, went back to the ford, where the lofty
precipice first gave us so pleasant relief and shelter."
The march westward was continued through deep snow and against a cold
wind. On November 8 twenty-three mules had given out, and five wagons
had to be abandoned. On the night of the 9th, when the mules were tied
to the wagons, "they gnawed and destroyed four wagon tongues, a number
of wagon covers, ate their ropes, and getting loose, ate the sage fuel
collected at the tents." On November 10 nine horses were left dying on
the road, and the thermometer was estimated to have marked twenty-five
degrees below zero. Their thermometers were all broken, but the freezing
of a bottle of sherry in a trunk gave them a basis of calculation.
The command reached a camp three miles below Fort Bridger on November
19. Of one hundred and forty-four horses with which they started, only
ten reached that camp.