Utah War (1857-1858) was an armed conflict between the United States government and members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, whose members are commonly called Mormons . The conflict was not entirely bloodless. However, it did not include any major military confrontations. It was ended by peaceful mediation, and it firmly established U.S. government authority over the Utah Territory and the Mormons. The Utah War was the first major episode in a four-decade period of conflict between the Mormons and the federal government. This period ended in the 1890’s, after the Mormons abandoned the practice of polygyny and Utah became a U.S. state. Polygyny is a form of marriage in which a man has multiple wives.
Before Utah became a U.S. territory, the Mormons briefly had established a semi-independent kingdom there. When Utah became a territory in 1850, Brigham Young was appointed territorial governor. Throughout his governorship, Young quarreled with the U.S. government over the appointment and conduct of federal officials in the Utah Territory, as well as the Mormon practice of polygyny. Young also was president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and the Mormons considered him a prophet (person thought to speak for God or understand God’s wishes for people). In the early to mid-1850’s, Young and the Mormons alternately expressed loyalty to the United States and independence from federal laws and officials that displeased them. Several federal officials fled Utah in the 1850’s, and some claimed their lives were under threat.
The Utah War began in mid-1857, when U.S. President James Buchanan declared the Mormons to be in rebellion against the federal government. He then sent a large detachment of the U.S. Army to remove Young as governor of the Utah Territory. Colonel Albert Sidney Johnston led U.S. troops formally known as the Utah Expedition to Utah in late 1857. Mormon militias (citizen soldiers) disrupted the expedition’s supply lines; destroyed grasslands; and burned two Mormon forts, Bridger and Supply, to interfere with the federal troops’ progress. The troops failed to reach the Salt Lake Valley, where most Mormons had settled, before winter set in. Nevertheless, as a defensive maneuver, Brigham Young moved the valley’s Mormon population about 50 miles (80 kilometers) to the south. He threatened to burn Great Salt Lake City (now Salt Lake City) to the ground rather than let it be taken by force. The Utah Expedition finally reached the Salt Lake Valley in June 1858.
No significant military confrontation occurred between the U.S. troops and Mormons, and casualties in the conflict were relatively few. There were a handful of minor skirmishes and some individual killings. Also, in September 1857, Mormon settlers in southern Utah and some American Indians they had recruited slaughtered about 120 members of a wagon train bound for California . This event became known as the Mountain Meadows Massacre . Tensions caused by the coming invasion by the U.S. Army and Young’s declaration of martial law might have helped bring about the massacre.
A political compromise between the Mormons and the U.S. government resolved the war in June 1858. The agreement installed Alfred Cumming as the new territorial governor and allowed for the U.S. Army to be stationed in the territory. The government did not prosecute any members of the church. Following the war, newspapers in the eastern United States were filled with articles questioning the wisdom of the Utah Expedition and expressing rage at its enormous and seemingly unnecessary cost. The military campaign came to be viewed as a political blunder by President Buchanan and the Democratic Party .
The Utah War diminished the reach and resources of the Mormon church. In preparation for the invasion by U.S. troops, Brigham Young had recalled all Mormons from outlying settlements, including San Bernardino , California, and an area near present-day Carson City , Nevada . Mormons never resettled these outposts. After the conflict ended, Mormons who had moved south of the Salt Lake Valley began returning to their homes in northern Utah. However, they had used up a vast store of their resources during their earlier move south.
