When the United States Army Invaded Utah: Brigham Young, James Buchanan and the Story of the "Mormon War" of 1857

  Fifteenth President of the United States James Buchanan is determined to look tough.  As a Democrat, just elected to the White House in November of 1856, Buchanan wants to prove that Democrats like himself are, in fact, not in favor of, “the twin relics of barbarism-polygamy and slavery,” that their Republican detractors in Congress and the press are accusing them of supporting.

Over two-thousand miles away from Washington D.C. in Salt Lake City, Brigham Young, as both spiritual and titular leader of the self-styled Church of Latter Day Saints, or the Mormon Church to almost everyone else, has installed himself as the all but de facto dictator of the Utah Territory.

President Buchanan is determined to act tough on polygamy and replace acting Governor of the Utah Territory, Brigham Young, with a hand-picked representative from Washington.  

President James Buchanan

By 1857 Buchanan is fearful of Brigham Young’s power in the Utah Territory among the followers of the Church of Latter Day Saints and he warns Congress about the dangers of the establishment of what he calls a “Theodemocracy” or state within the United States governed by a seperatist church under an influential spiritual leader.

Brigham Young, through a combination of intelligence, luck, determination and, to his followers anyway, divine intervention, has over the last decade and a half made his Church into a thriving self-sustaining, nearly self-governing and ever expanding organization that many back in Washington perceive as threatening to the laws and institutions of the government of the United States of America.

But things definitely hadn’t always been that way.

Brigham Young

In 1844, while Brigham Young was being held in jail in Missouri on charges of treason for his overzealous evangelizing, Joseph Smith, founder of the Church of Latter Day Saints by supposed divine revelation was killed by an armed mob near the town of Nauvoo, Illinois.

Mormonism had taken root primarily in Indiana, Ohio, Missouri and Illinois during the 1840’s.  Led by their charismatic leader Joseph Smith who claimed to speak with authority from on High, the message of the Church of Latter Day Saints resonated with many poor and independent-minded farmers in the American Midwest who sought a freer and more wholesome life with a closer connection to God and were therefore attracted by Smith’s grassroots teaching regarding a “chosen” Christian people.

However, the vast majority of traditional Christians living in the Midwest did not take kindly to Smith’s pretensions to divine revelation.  They were especially appalled by Smith’s claim that the “Book of Mormon” which he asserted had been written by ancient prophets who had lived on the North American Continent over 2,0000 years ago, the location of which  had been revealed only to him by an angel in a dream, was equal in value to the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments of the Bible.

But had Joseph Smith and his followers chosen simply to add to the Bible with their own apocryphal scripture, perhaps, the Church of Latter Day Saints could have lived in a state of tenuous peace with other like minded conservative Protestant Christians in the American Midwest during the 1840’s, but the fact that the early Mormon Church endorsed and encouraged the practice of polygamy or “plural marriage” and also evangelized aggressively and openly to all who would listen, and even to those who didn’t necessarily even want to listen, caused tensions to reach a boiling point and explode into violence.

Mormon Church founder Joseph Smith

In 1844 Joseph Smith, at the head of the Mormon Church, was acting Mayor of the town of Nauvoo, Illinois.  In June of that year, Smith ordered the destruction of a printing press that published a non-Mormon newspaper called  The Expositor, which had been openly critical of Smith and his practice of polygamy.

For destroying the printing press, Smith and his brother Hyrum, were charged by the State of Illinois with the crime of inciting a riot.  For a time Smith fled Illinois, but eventually decided, for the sake of the Church that he had founded, to travel back to the state capital of Carthage to face the charges.

When word leaked out among the residents of Carthage, Illinois, that the famed polygamist heretic Joseph Smith and his brother Hyrum were being held at the local jail to await trial, an armed mob of over 200 men, their faces blackened with tar, descended upon the county jail in the dead of night and sought to kill the founder of the Church of Latter Day Saints.

The angry bloodthirsty mob soon overwhelmed the jail guards and burst into the cell where Joseph and his brother Hyrum Smith were being held.  Hyrum was killed after being shot in the face.  

“I’m a dead man Joseph!”  He screamed to his brother as he fell to the floor bleeding profusely from his wounds.  Joseph Smith scrambled frantically to escape through a window in the cell, firing back at the onrushing mob with a small revolver that he had smuggled into the jail for self-defense, but he too was riddled with bullets and died after he fell out the window.

Murder of Joseph Smith in Carthage, Illinois

Immediately upon word of Smith’s murder an assembly was hastily called by the elder members of the Mormon Church in nearby Nauvoo, Illinois, to determine a course of succession and an appropriate response to the murder of the Church’s leader and founder, Joseph Smith.  But, after their divine prophet was killed, a lengthy succession crisis set in among the top members of the Mormon Church.  It was impossible, it seemed, for the Church of Latter Day Saints to agree on anything, except for the need for self-defense against outsiders.

Into this power vacuum stepped Brigham Young, a distinguished Church leader, powerful orator, and brave soldier who was called by many, “The American Moses”.  Young immediately helped to create the military wing of the Mormon Church called the Nauvoo Legion, and he decided in light of what had happened to their founder and leader, that the Church of Latter Day Saints in order to prevent conflict with outsiders and to ensure its own survival, must head west to the promised land of God.

It was Brigham Young who led the Church of Latter Day Saints to Utah and established Salt Lake City as the Utah Territory’s capital.  He called the area around the Great Salt Lake in Utah a promised land of milk and honey for his people that had been chosen specifically for them by God.

A state of peace descended upon the Church of Latter Day Saints.  Brigham Young taught members of the Church of Latter Day Saints to live peacefully with all people, even Native Americans and to follow all the territorial laws and regulations as dictated by the government of the United States as long as those laws and regulations did not challenge or fly in the face of Mormon Scripture or Christian teaching.

But less than a decade later in 1857 the newly elected administration of James Buchanan had chosen not to recognize the legitimacy of Brigham Young’s governorship of the Utah Territory and  cut off mail service to Utah because Congress was up in arms over the Church of Latter Day Saints practice of polygamy.  Congressmen were demanding that Young instantly be replaced as acting governor of the Utah Territory.

Buchanan chose a man named Alfred Cummings to replace Young as Governor of the Utah Territory.  Fearing that the members of the Church of Latter Day Saints might react violently to having their leader replaced as Utah’s Governor, Buchanan dispatched a column of 2500 U.S. Army troops under the command of future Confederate General Albert Sidney Johnston to enforce the will of the federal government on the members of the Church of Latter Day Saints.

Albert Sidney Johnston

Standing against Johnston and his column of 2500 soldiers is the 3000 member strong Nauvoo Legion.  Well disciplined and fervent in their beliefs, but dressed in homespun clothing and armed with antiquated weaponry of a previous generation, the Nauvoo Legion is nonetheless prepared to defend its home territory and its right to freedom of religion against what it considers to be an invading army of any size.

The Mormon plan is not to defeat the United States Army in open battle, but rather to delay and harass the American troops as much as possible in the hopes that time can be bought to reach a more favorable negotiated settlement for the Church of Latter Day Saints.

Commanding General of the Nauvoo Legion Daniel H. Wells, orders his Mormon soldiers to, “On ascertaining the locality or route of the troops, proceed at once to annoy them in every possible way.”

It seems as if Brigham Young never had any plans to openly challenge the United States Army to begin with, but rather, hoped only to use his political connections back east to negotiate a more favorable settlement for the Church of Latter Day Saints with the Buchanan Administration.

However, in July of 1857, believing that his people may be massacred by the invading US troops, Brigham Young ordered his Church members to stockpile food, manufacture firearms and ammunition and prepare to burn their homes and crops should they fall into the hands of the United States Army.

All church of Latter Day Saints missionaries worldwide were ordered to return home and outlying Mormon settlements in northern California, Idaho and Washington were told to return to the relative safety of Salt Lake City.  Soon the area around the Great Salt Lake in the Utah Territory became an armed Mormon military encampment that stood ready for war with the United States.

Members of the Nauvoo Legion 

On 18 July of 1857 a small detachment of American soldiers under the command of Captain Stewart Van Vleet reached Salt Lake City after having marched overland from the Kansas Territory with the purpose of meeting with Brigham Young.

Van Vleet was known to the Mormons from his time stationed in the Iowa territory and many Mormon leaders, Young among them, trusted Van Vleet.  For that reason members of the Church of Latter Day Saints did not resist the American column when it first reached Salt Lake City and agreed to meet with Van Vleet to discuss a possible resolution to the conflict.

Despite his peaceful entry into Salt Lake City, Captain Van Vleet reported back to his superiors that the residents of Utah were most certainly prepared to defend themselves against what they considered to be an invasion by the government of the United States.

On Sunday Van Vleet attended church services with the Latter Day Saints and reported that he, “heard emotional speeches and saw the Saints raise their hands in a unanimous resolution to defend themselves against any invader.”

While in Salt Lake City Van Vleet bought time for the rest of the troops under Johnston’s command to reach Utah and he also entered into negotiations with Mormon leadership.  Van Vleet expressed concern that were the Mormons to resist the United States Army then Young might very well end up meeting the same fate as the founder of the Church of Latter Day Saints, Joseph Smith had thirteen years before.

Van Vleet reassured Mormon congregations by saying to Brigham Young that, “I do not think it is the intention of this government to arrest you, but to install a new governor in the territory.”

Brigham Young assured Captain Van Vleet that the Church of Latter Day Saints desired peace and did not seek war with the United States, but at the same time, Young stated that, “under threat from an approaching army, the Church would not allow a new governor to be installed in the territory.”

Captain Stewart Van Vleet

As summer turned to fall in 1857 it seemed as if the government of the United States and the Church of Latter Day Saints had reached a tenuous standoff and that Brigham Young was engaged with the United States Army in a dangerous game of brinkmanship.

On the 15th of September 1857 when Captain Van Vleet and his delegation left Salt Lake City to rejoin the main column of the army, Brigham Young declared a state of martial law throughout the Utah Territory.

Federal troops and members of the Nauvoo Legion made contact at a place called Fort Bridger in the Wyoming Territory and members of the Mormon militia burned the fort to the ground after a running gun battle with the United States Army lest the fortification fall into American hands.  The Nauvoo Legion then retreated back to the fortified passes that protected the entrances to Salt Lake City and fought skirmishes with American troops throughout October and November 1857 as the American army slowly began to encircle the city.

Fortunately, a lull in the fighting due to harsh winter weather as 1857 turned into 1858 led to a reopening of negotiations between the United States Army and Brigham Young.

As the fighting sporadically continued into February of 1858, the ever more unpopular President James Buchanan came under increasing pressure to end the War in Utah.

Senator Sam Houston of Texas called the United States invasion of Utah, “(O)ne of the most fearful calamities that has ever befallen this country.”

On April 1, 1858 Senator Simon Cameron of Pennsylvania declared, “This war is a war of this Administration...I have no faith in their ability to conduct it and I believe that before a year has passed over it will be evident to every citizen of this country that they have committed a great blunder.”

By June, facing ever increasing pressure in Washington to end the war and relieve that “Siege of Salt Lake City” President Buchanan dispatched an official peace mission to Utah to negotiate the terms of a peaceful settlement with Brigham Young and Mormon officials.

Representatives from Buchanan’s peace delegation agreed to grant Brigham Young and all followers of the Church of Latter Day Saints that had engaged in resistance to the United States Army complete pardons and to allow the Mormons continued free and unfettered practice of all their religious beliefs, though the practice of polygamy was never specifically mentioned by name, if Young and his followers agreed to the installation of Alfred Cumming as the Governor of the Utah Territory.

Fearing that Salt Lake City may become entirely cut off from the outside world, and no longer wishing to have the members of his church on the run like refugees in their own promised land, Brigham Young agreed to the terms proposed by the Buchanan Administration and the main column of Federal troops under the command of General Albert Sidney Johnston entered Salt Lake City proper on June 19, 1858.

U.S. Army on the March to Salt Lake City

Despite accepting Buchanan’s terms and his Presidential pardon, Brigham Young denied to his dying day that any citizen of Utah or any member of the Church of Latter Day Saints had ever rebelled against the United States of America.

At the end of June 1858, after the peace treaty between Young and Buchanan had been ratified, while riding atop his horse along the streets of Salt Lake City embittered General Johnston, stationed amidst a population of wary and apprehensive members of the Church of Latter Day Saints who were by no means friendly to the United States Army is said to have muttered, “I would give my whole plantation for a chance to bombard this city for fifteen minutes.”

As the New York Herald reported that same week, “Thus was peace made...thus was ended the “Mormon War” which may now be thus historicized.”

President James Buchanan shifted course midstream and appeased the Church of Latter Day Saints to ensure his own survival.  In just over a year Buchanan and his Administration would attempt to do much the same thing when dealing with our nation’s other barbaric twin evil--Slavery. At the start of the American Civil War federal troops would be withdrawn from the Utah Territory and Brigham Young and the Church of Latter Day Saints would once again consolidate their control over the region.

In 1860 appeasement and vacillation would this time blow up in President Buchanan’s face...