CHAPTER XII.
The Mormon "War"
What the Federal Authorities had learned about Mormonism--Declaration of the Republican National Convention of 1856--Striking Speech by Stephen A. Douglas-- Alfred Cumming appointed Governor with a New Set of Judges-- Statement in the President's Message--Employment of a Military Force--The Kimball Mail Contract--Organization of the Troops-- General Harney's Letter of Instruction--Threats against the Advancing Foe--Mobilization of the Nauvoo Legion--Captain Van Vliet's Mission to Salt Lake City--Young's Defiance of the Government--His Proclamation to the Citizens of Utah--"General" Wells's Order to his Officers--Capture and Burning of a Government Train--Colonel Alexander's Futile March--Colonel Johnston's Advance from Fort Laramie--Harrowing Experience of Lieutenant Colonel Cooke's Command
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."1
1 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 co
nception 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 mag istrate, 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, an d 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."2 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.3
2 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 admissi on to the
House. Brigham therefore sent Cannon instead of returning Hooper."
3 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 Contrac tor 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."4 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.
4 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 oft he 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 t
hat, 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."5 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."
5 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."6
6 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."7 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."
7 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.
'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.8
In the same way they received Colonel Alexander's reply.
8 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 canons 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 degrees, 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.