Van Vliet continued on to Washington, D.C. in company with Dr. John M. Bernhisel, Utah Territory's delegate to Congress. Young had generally adopted a policy of conversion and conciliation towards native tribes. By the end of the day, the 4th Infantry Division had pushed about 6 miles inland within a mile of the 82nd Airborne Division’s perimeter. The high desert of southwestern Wyoming held little cover for either the U.S. army or the Nauvoo Legion. Daniel H. Wells, lieutenant-general of the Nauvoo legion, instructed Major Joseph Taylor: The Mormons blocked the army's entrance into the Salt Lake Valley, and weakened the U.S. Army by hindering them from receiving provisions.[6]. It was the start of the campaign to liberate Europe and defeat Germany. The federal government maintained significant control over territories such as Utah, and the President chose federal officers for the territories with the advice and consent of the Senate. Representative Stephen Handy, sponsor of H.C.R. On July 28, 1857, U.S. Army Captain Stewart Van Vliet, an assistant quartermaster, and a small escort were ordered to proceed directly from Kansas to Salt Lake City, ahead of the main body of troops. Still, it was a relocation that dwarfed the earlier flights from Missouri and Illinois; approximately 30,000 people moved fifty miles or more to Provo and the other towns in central and southern Utah. “Utah is winning the war on homelessness with ‘Housing First’ program”, said the Los Angeles Times . A year's worth of work improving their living conditions had essentially been lost. The lives of all who took part in the war were changed deeply, for better or worse--and so were the lives of many who did not actually go to war but were affected indirectly. 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. In October 1857, Mormons arrested six Californians traveling through Utah and charged them with being spies for the U.S. Army. Share with: Link: Copy link. Firearms were manufactured or repaired by the Mormons, scythes were turned into bayonets, and long-unused sabres were burnished and sharpened. Young ordered the Legion to take delaying actions, essentially harassing federal troops. Under massive popular and political pressure, President Buchanan decided to take decisive action against the Mormons soon after his inauguration on March 4, 1857. Largely due to their evacuation, the settlers' livelihoods and economic well-being were seriously impacted for at least that year and perhaps longer. Despite this, complete federal dominance was slow in coming. By 1860 sectional strife split the Democratic Party into northern and southern wings, indirectly leading to the election of Republican Abraham Lincoln in 1860. The government never reimbursed the outfitters for these losses, and in 1860 they formed the Pony Express to earn a government mail contract to keep them from falling into bankruptcy. One consequence of the Utah War was the creation of the famous Pony Express. William P. McKinnon, Causes of the Utah War, Fort Douglas Vedette (2007). During this winter season Lt. Joseph Christmas Ives was embarking on an assigned task of exploring and surveying the Colorado River by steamship to determine the extent of the river's navigability. Wilford Woodruff, Journal of Wilford Woodruff, 5:96. Mormons state of mind was further alarmed when they learned in late June 1857 that LDS Apostle Parley P. Pratt had recently been murdered while serving a mission in Arkansas. [44], Meanwhile, George Alonzo Johnson, a merchant who had an established business transporting goods by steamship between the Colorado River Delta and Fort Yuma, was upset that he had not been awarded command of the expedition's original exploratory mission. Congress saw right through what President Buchanan was trying to do, and strongly opposed the Utah War. The U.S. Congress created the Utah Territory as part of the Compromise of 1850. Young and the Mormon community feared renewed persecution and possibly annihilation by a large body of federal troops. The Utah War. Governor Brigham Young was appointed to office by President Millard Fillmore in 1850. William P. MacKinnon, "Loose in the Stacks: A Half Century with the Utah War and Its Legacy". They were ordered not to take offensive action against the Mormons, but to enter the territory, enforce the laws under the direction of the new governor, and defend themselves if attacked. Tomorrow is the sesquicentennial of the start of the Civil War. Gen. Theodore Roosevelt, Jr., who led the 4th Infantry Division while relying on a cane to walk. Richard D. Poll He met with Brigham Young on September 1, 1857 along with other Native leaders. The war is significant to the settlement of the west as it allowed the government to pass two important acts. These letters reported that Mormons were already engaged in hostilities with United States Army forces who were attempting to enter Utah from the east, and Ives's expedition took on a new meaning. The U.S. government abandons the Utah Territory. It is uncertain if Kane was able to convince Young at this time to allow the army into Utah. The commission offered a free pardon to the Mormons for any acts incident to the conflict if they would submit to government authority. [29] On his journey, reports reached Van Vliet that his company might be in danger from Mormon raiders on the trail. The Cold War started soon after World War II. It was also rumored in Washington that Mormons might try to retreat down the Colorado River and into Sonora. On August 30 and September 1, Young met with Native American delegations and "gave" them permission to take all of the livestock then on the northern and southern trails into California (the Fancher Party was at that time on the southern trail). Johnston awaited resupply and reinforcement and prepared to attack the Mormon positions after the spring thaw. With the nearby civilian town of Fairfield, Camp Floyd represented the first sizable non-Mormon resident population in Utah, and it ended forever the Mormon dream of a Zion geographically separate from the world of unbelievers. Before the war, the southern states and northern states disagreed over how the American West should be settled. 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