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Camp in the Sagebrush: Camp Floyd, Utah 1858-1861
Camp in the Sagebrush: CAMP FLOYD, UTAH, 1858-1861
By Thomas G. Alexander and Leonard J. Arrington
On June 26, 1858, approximately 2,500 United States troops and another 1,000 civilian employees marched and rode down Emigration Canyon and into the peaceful Salt Lake Valley. As they tramped through Salt Lake City, though they had spent the preceding fall and winter opposing a band of determined guerillas, no surging crowds hailed them as defenders of Americanism. Instead, they were greeted by complete and stony silence — from a town supposedly inhabited by 15,000 people. They marched on down North Temple Street, across the Jordan River, and after following the river south for several miles, established camp at what is now Twenty-first South and Redwood Road.
Marching under orders of General Winfield Scott issued in May 1857, the soldiers came from various western posts by way of Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. They had originally served under General W. S. Harney, commanding officer of the Department of the West, but in August 1857, because General Harney w T as badly needed in "bleeding Kansas," Colonel (later General) Albert Sidney Johnston assumed command. When this formidable force had assembled, it included units from the 5th and 10th Infantry, the 2nd Dragoons, and the 4th Artillery.
Johnston's warriors moved west, not to fight renegade Indians, but to quell a reported insurrection among a group of white Americans. Reports from various federal officials and private citizens alleged that the Mormons had rebelled against the authority of the federal government, and President James Buchanan, after consulting with members of his cabinet, particularly Secretary of War John B. Floyd, had acted on the basis of these reports. Buchanan ordered the War Department to spare no expense in baring the long arm of federal authority against these obstreperous insurgents.
On July 24, 1857, as Harney's advance guard under Colonel E. B. Alexander marched across Kansas, Governor Brigham Young and a large number of Mormons had gathered to celebrate the tenth anniversary of their arrival in the Salt Lake Valley. Young had neither been informed of the charges against his people, nor allowed to give evidence in their behalf. Remembering the Illinois and Missouri persecutions, he determined that, at least this time, his people would not be slaughtered and driven against their will.
After declaring a state of martial law in Utah, Young, in conference with officials of the territorial militia, called the Nauvoo Legion, and the general authorities of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, determined upon a plan of action. Using properties of the Brigham Young Express and Carrying Company, a church transportation agency, and requisitioning supplies from the hundred or more Mormon communities, the church outfitted 1,100 men with revolvers, rifles, horses, and other equipment and sent them out to harass Johnston's Army. Before sending out this well-equipped force, small groups of "Mormon raiders" under Major Lot Smith advanced to stop the supply trains by burning grass and wagons and running off livestock.
Because of these delaying tactics, Johnston's Army could not enter the Salt Lake Valley until the spring of 1858 after arbitration had taken place between Mormon officials and federal authorities. The Army agreed to march through the city without stopping and to make a permanent camp some distance away. In spite of a proclamation of amnesty by President James Buchanan, Salt Lake City Mormons prepared to burn their homes if any indignities were perpetrated.
Originally Johnston planned to take his troops to the Rush Military Reserve (Rush Valley) which Colonel E. J. Steptoe had set apart in 1855. By July 1, though, he decided upon Cedar Valley, a small depression between the Lake Mountains and the Oquirrhs, almost directly west of Provo across Utah Lake, and to the east of Rush Valley. This site appeared to offer an ample supply of water, wood, and pasture, and had "a commanding position" so that "the force, if called for, [could] be promptly applied either in the direction of Salt Lake City or Provo."
Upon their arrival in Cedar Valley, the troops established temporary camp at Cedar Fort, or upper fort, about six miles north of Fairfield, a small town founded three years earlier by John Carson, his four brothers, and two other men — Mormon immigrants from Pennsylvania. (Two of the brothers were slain by Indians in 1857.) Since the water supply at the upper fort was found to be muddy and inadequate and the soil so pulverulent that the temporary camp was so enshrouded in dust that the men could not even drill, Johnston ordered the permanent post built at Fairfield. The reaction of one captain to locating in this "God forsaken spot" betrays his Yankee upbringing:
Under General Johnston's orders, Lieutenant Colonel D. Ruggles laid out the new post. Beginning at the source of a creek which formed the boundary between Fairfield and the installation, the Camp ran east and south making an approximate rectangle about 3,000 by 1,600 feet. From west to east Ruggles planned positions for the department and Camp headquarters, the infantry units, the artillery units, and the dragoons. To the south behind the Camp he mapped out storehouses, stables, corrals, and workshops; and on the extreme west end outside the perimeter, he provided for a powder magazine. In the center front of the Camp near the bridge which connected Camp Floyd with Fairfield, he located the theatre. To provide water for the Camp, an aqueduct was planned. At its largest, the base consisted of between 300 and 400 buildings.
After the completion of these plans, work on the warehouses, stables, and magazine began in July 1858. Most of the buildings were built of adobe, but some, including the barns, were of wood frame construction; and the magazine and several other buildings were made of stone quarried in the Oquirrh Mountains by Camp prisoners. Stone was also used to build a four-foot wall around the cemetery, which was 13 by 20 rods. The soldiers began to arrive at the site on September 4, and they, together with Mormons hired for the purpose, were immediately detailed to build their own quarters. These were cabin-like units of adobe, with dirt floors (except for some officers) and board roofs covered with four inches of adobe mud. The post quartermaster cleaned out and walled up a spring near the Camp, dammed the stream which flowed from it, and built a mill to grind corn. The lake formed by the dam was stocked with fish from Utah Lake, and the stream below was lined with bathhouses. On November 9, 1858, with a salvo from the artillery, the United States flag was raised and the post was officially opened.
A large part of the building materials, and part of the labor used in constructing the fort, were obtained from local sources. About 1.6 million adobes — made by pressing a mixture of clay, water, and straw into molds 8 by 4 inches and leaving them in the sun to dry — were baked by Mormon farmers and sold for one cent each. The lumber used in framing and roofing the buildings was purchased for about $70.00 per 1,000 board feet and came primarily from the church's Big Cottonwood Lumber Company and from Brigham Young's mill in Mill Creek Canyon. Horace Greeley, who visited Camp Floyd in 1859, stated that the Camp had cost $200,000, of which Brigham Young (i.e., the church "trustee-in-trust") received at least $50,000. Congress had previously made no appropriation for the work, and Johnston had been obliged to make the outlays of cash on his own responsibility. Carpenters, mechanics, and artisans who worked on the fort received from $3.00 to $7.00 per day plus board — a windfall which was of considerable assistance in supporting the local economy.
In addition to the revenue derived from the construction itself, the territorial economy was aided both during the march into the territory and the sojourn at Camp Floyd by the purchase of goods and services by the Army and the soldiers. Because the cost of the original Expedition had been so great and many contracts were awarded without competitive bids, there were many charges of fraud and corruption. Nevertheless, William Russell, of Russell, Majors, and Waddell, whose firm had to increase its equipment to 3,500 wagons and teams, over 40,000 oxen, 1,000 mules, and more than 4,000 men, believed that the government's call to ship so much would bankrupt his company. Russell's firm transported 16 million pounds of freight for the troops and later sold many of its wagons at low rates when the Army began selling its surplus supplies.
As the Army trudged into Salt Lake Valley, and particularly after the soldiers camped at Twenty-first South and Redwood Road, local citizens began to barter and sell produce for goods which they needed. The Mormons, some of whom claimed never to have seen United States coin, sold potatoes for $2.00 per bushel, new potatoes for $3.00 per bushel, beer for $2.00 per gallon, butter for $.50 per pound, and fish for $1.00 each. In addition they bartered their produce for wagon covers and for seamless sacks from which they made everyday wearing apparel. Merchants who moved in with the Army immediately took advantage of the situation and began to sell such items as cotton yarn, boots, shoes, hats, and hardware. Among the Mormons who went into business at this time were the Walker Brothers, who set up a general store at Camp Floyd in 1859, and who later became the territory's most powerful merchants and bankers.
Already settled and well-organized, the Mormons had a decided advantage over camp followers in supplying grain, fuel, hay, and produce. Moreover, the church did not hesitate to use its superior position in an attempt to fix prices which would assure a "fair return" to its membership. The base quartermaster advertised at various times for hay which sold for $37.00 per ton and flour which the Army purchased for $28.00 per hundred weight. One James Jackson of Toquerville, despite the taunts of his neighbors that his investment would be lost, planted a field of corn and sold the grain for gold, blankets, and other articles, much to the chagrin of his fearful brethren.
Gentiles as well made enormous profits from the operations. Sutlers poured into Camp with trainloads of goods. Men like Alexander Toponce herded horses and mules for the Army. Some like Richard T. Ackley toured Mormon settlements in Utah Valley purchasing grain which they could deliver at the Camp at a cost of $4.00 to $4.50 per hundred pounds. Ackley then sold it to the Army for approximately $30.00 per hundred. He also purchased a large boardinghouse and made a great deal of money by putting up the quartermaster's men. Even the Indians visited the Camp to trade and beg. The post quartermaster carried on a sort of poor relief program. Early in 1859 he employed at least 70 teamsters "merely to prevent their starving" because they had neither money nor prospects of employment in Utah.
Supplying goods to the Army stimulated not only the Utah economy, but aided California traders at the same time. Because the route from Los Angeles opened earlier and closed later than the St. Louis road, southern California businessmen began advertising their merchandise as early as April 19, whereas midwestern entrepreneurs had to wait until June 10. In early April of 1859, goods valued in excess of $180,000 had arrived at Camp Floyd from Los Angeles.
In addition to the merchants and traders who came with the Army, others came who, while not always a wholesome influence on Utah's morals, did their part in keeping the Army's wealth in circulation. Overnight, Fairfield and Camp Floyd became the third largest city in the territory (after Salt Lake and Provo), with a population said to exceed 7,000. Seventeen saloons, with their accouterment of gamblers, prostitutes, slickers, and thieves opened in "Frogtown" or "Dobieville" to accommodate the soldiers. One contemporary said that the main street "of Fairfield has the appearance of a California mining town of the palmy days of '50, the front street being lined with Drinking and Gambling Saloons." Shootings and murders were common occurrences in the town, and many soldiers must have experienced the same type of embarrassment as did one lieutenant who lost a month's pay and borrowed $20.00 from his commanding officer, which he promptly gambled away.
John Carson took advantage of his early location to build an inn, which replaced a stone fort enclosing log and adobe houses in which his family had lived. By refusing to cater to a rowdy clientele, Carson was able to fill the adobe and frame two-story structure with prominent visitors and actors and actresses en route to California. (It is said that Carson not only refused to serve liquor, but also proscribed "round dancing" in his place.) After Captain J. H. Simpson, senior engineer at Camp Floyd, laid out a route to California, Carson's inn became the first major stop outside Salt Lake City for stagecoaches and the Pony Express.
Simpson's explorations had other results as well. In 1858 Simpson opened a wagon road from Fort Bridger to Camp Floyd via Provo (then called Timpanogos) Canyon, and in 1859 he charted two wagon roads from the Camp to Carson Valley. The latter roads cut 283 and 254 miles from the distance formerly traveled by way of the Humboldt River. The Provo Canyon road was a much easier way to travel than the old Emigration Canyon route and was regularly used by immigrant trains except when flooding of the Provo River made it impassable.
Probably to take advantage of the new overland route, a group of officers at Camp Floyd planned a town named "Brown City" to be located at the mouth of Provo Canyon. Shares in the venture, which was named for Postmaster General Aaron V. Brown, cost $50.00 each, and it was hoped that the new metropolis would become the Gentile capital of Utah. As one observer pointed out, however, it presented
Various activities helped to fill the spare time of the soldiers. For those men who were interested in cultural activities, a German singing club erected a Social Hall, and the base opened its own dramatic association with female leads imported from Salt Lake City or performed by laundresses from the post. A soldiers' circus company with acrobatic and equestrian acts gave a number of performances. Military personnel from Camp Floyd organized Utah's first Masonic lodge, and post officers erected a billiard hall, held dances and balls, and enjoyed horse racing. The Camp operated a school for enlisted men. And one officer, Captain John W. Phelps, busied himself with observing desert whirlwinds, electric phenomena, and cloud formations; in studying the Bible in English and German ; and in learning the Shoshonean language. Another officer sketched and painted various scenes of Camp and Army life, copied photographs of his family in oils, and speculated on perpetual motion. If enough decent women could not be found to dance at the balls, officers on occasion waltzed and polkaed together, making believe that one was the lady. Some, on occasion, found diversion in a trip to Salt Lake City. Some spent time during 1858 and 1859 prospecting for silver, lead, and gold. Evidence shows that the first claims filed in Tooele County were not filed by Patrick Connor's California Volunteers, as is usually claimed, but by members of the Utah Expedition. Still others planted a 40-acre tract of farming land to garden stuffs and crops and took turns irrigating and hoeing.
For a long period of time, there was no chaplain in Camp, a situation which at least one observer deplored. Captain Simpson held religious services for the troops at times when he was in Camp, but it was not until the summer of 1859 that a permanent chaplain was selected. The fact that the new man of God was a Catholic did not please some of the more devout Protestants.
In spite of these diversions, life at this Great Basin outpost was anything but pleasant. Soldiers were far from families and loved ones, and mail required 22 days or more to come from the states. The diet of the soldiers was adequate and even somewhat varied, but diarrhea was common and some suffered discomforts brought on by a "vile sort of beer . . . vended by the Mormons . . . ." Pay was poor at $11.00 per month for privates and often overdue at that. Desertion among troops sent to the hills as herders or wood choppers was common, and some joined emigrant trains bound for California.
Physical conditions at the post contributed to the discomfort of the men. The chimneys in many of the cabins smoked as a result of improper construction. Water was scarce, and within Camp limits all was "dust, dust, dust." At times cloudbursts flooded the Camp, but dust storms, which some of the men called "Johnsoons" in honor of the post commander, were the usual bill of fare. Prisoners had an even worse life, as they were required to carry balls and chains and often forced to exercise with large sacks of sand or logs of wood strapped to their backs.
In addition to the duties which kept them near Camp, soldiers also ranged away from the post for various reasons. Troops were detached to escort immigrant trains underway for California or to capture horse thieves. Patrols encountered problems with the Indians, and battles took place at various points including Box Elder Creek and Spanish Fork Canyon.
At the time Camp Floyd formed the largest troop concentration of its kind in the United States. The troops operated 1,100 miles from their home base at Fort Leavenworth, and throughout 1858 and 1859 the number of soldiers on the post averaged more than 2,400, though the number rose at times to more than 3,000. In 1860 General Johnston was transferred back to the states, and Colonel Philip St. George Cooke assumed command of Camp Floyd. (Cooke had been leader of the "Mormon Battalion" as it marched from Santa Fe, New Mexico, to San Diego, California, in 1846-47. A monument cut from granite quarried in Big Cottonwood Canyon and originally intended for use in constructing the Mormon Temple in Salt Lake City, was erected at Camp Floyd in 1961.) Acting under orders from the War Department, Colonel Cooke cut the post complement down to 10 companies, or about 700 men.
As one might imagine, the personal relationships between Floyd's inhabitants and the Mormons, whom they had come to suppress, were not always friendly. One major area of friction centered on the herding of livestock. Because Cedar Valley offered too little forage, Johnston was forced to send stock not only into nearby Rush, Tintic, and Skull valleys, but into Juab and Sanpete counties to Sevier Bridge and Chicken Creek. Johnston declared the area around Cedar Valley a military reserve because, though much of it had been claimed by Mormons, their claims had no validity at law. This desire for rangeland precipitated conflicts, particularly in Rush Valley which the Mormons had used extensively.
Governor Alfred Cumming, with whom Johnston's relations were also strained, tried to take the Mormon side in several of these conflicts. He protested Johnston's use of Rush Valley in defiance of Mormon squatters, and Johnston, in an ill-tempered response, finally allowed that the Mormons might graze in the northern end of the valley. Cumming also remonstrated at the friction caused when Judge John Cradlebaugh persuaded Johnston to send troops to Provo during a particularly controversial session of court, an act which understandably frightened the local townspeople.
Some of the sources of friction resulted from personal contacts between soldiers and Mormons. Some prisoners, including a former L.D.S. bishop, were brought back from Provo; and, though they were eventually released, their incarceration served as a source of dispute. One of the other inmates, for instance, tried to drop his ball on the head of one of the Mormons. The Rush Valley problem precipitated an encounter between Howard Spencer, son of Orson Spencer, and Sergeant Ralph Pike. Pike fractured Spencer's head with his rifle, and, in return, when Pike was taken to Salt Lake for trial on charges of assault with intent to kill, Spencer shot and killed him. This led to the burning of outbuildings and haystacks at Cedar Fort by members of Pike's company.
If diary accounts are any indication, the opinion which the soldiers had of the Mormon people was extremely low, and several incidents which took place served to bolster these prejudices. On one occasion two youths came to Camp for protection after some people from a Mormon town had allegedly castrated them. A company of soldiers camped near Springville found that its members were followed every time any of them went into town. They determined to have some fun at their shadowers' expense, and men were sent in at 20-yard intervals, each one of whom was spied upon in turn by a local man. At a given signal, the soldiers from the rear began to dog trot forward until they bunched the followers together. At that point the Mormons saw what had happened, and began to scatter. The soldiers, of course, had a good laugh.
Other incidents of an even more serious nature took place. The troops saw the results of the Mountain Meadows massacre when skulls were brought in from the scene, a detachment was sent to the site to bury the remains of the victims, and children who had escaped the tragedy were taken by Dragoons from Utah to Fort Laramie and Fort Kearney. In addition a young Mormon named David McKenzie was found guilty of counterfeiting U.S. Quartermaster drafts, and he had, according to testimony, secured the paper from the tithing office in Salt Lake City where some of the counterfeit certificates were actually found.
On the other hand the troops and camp followers were responsible for the inauguration of problems which had adverse affects on the Mormon community. Some officers tried to induce women to go to Camp Floyd to engage in prostitution, and one officer actually sought to proposition the mistress of a household in which he was a guest. Camp followers and troops often made nuisances of themselves in Salt Lake City and other settlements, and some murders resulted from the activities of these men. The influence of the church in the moral lives of its members was undermined as some members, under the new temptations offered by Gentiles, threw off the restraints of their religious upbringing. The church leadership was so concerned that Wilford Woodruff of the Council of Twelve Apostles exhorted the church membership to restrain themselves and not to mingle with the wicked.
This is not to say that there were not some pleasant associations. Relations with some Army officers such as Colonel E. B. Alexander, Captain Randolph B. Marcy, and Colonel Philip St. George Cooke were quite agreeable. Associations with them were actually better than with most of the government officials. On at least one occasion, the chaplain from Fort Laramie, on the way to Camp Floyd, spoke to the Saints in the tabernacle.
Despite the sources of friction between the Army and the local citizenry and government, the Utah Expedition was undoubtedly a boon to Utah's economy. Not only could the Utahns sell goods and services for specie or trade for items which they otherwise would have obtained only at great cost and difficulty, but they were able to purchase back the same goods and many more at give-away prices during the first war-surplus sale in Utah history.
Disposal of surplus items began in July of 1859 and continued at various times until the final abandonment of the installation. Originally the Army sold 2,000 or more mules for prices ranging from $60.00 to $140.00 each, a price considerably below the original cost. Though most of them were purchased by Mormons, Ben Holladay purchased about 800. In November 1860 after the post had been cut back to 700 men, Colonel Cooke began auctioning off firearms and other goods to local citizens. He sold 45,700 pounds of bacon, and 100,000 pounds of flour at ridiculously low rates. Bacon, which originally cost $5.00 per hundred weight, sold at $1.34; and flour, purchased at $28.00 per hundred, went at the same price. At this particular sale, the Army realized $4,424 — a price which could not have paid the cost of freighting the merchandise from the states. At a later sale in the spring of 1861, wagons sold for $14.00 each, and mule and horseshoes were unloaded at one-quarter cent each.
These sales were not always conducted in the most upright manner. The quartermaster detailed Alexander Toponce to match up small mountain mules and scrubs into teams for one of the sales by placing numbers on their headstalls. He did this, but he noticed that every "time a team of these little mules were [sic] sold to Ben Halliday [sic], some one would take the numbers off their headstalls and change them for the numbers on two of the big Missouri mules." Toponce then decided to buy some scrubs for himself, but no one changed the numbers. So after awhile, he "just went in and changed them " No one dared to object because he "knew too much."
If these early sales looked like good bargains, the mass disposals from May through July 1861, made them look like Yankee-peddling operations. On May 17, 1861, the War Department ordered Colonel Cooke to take the rest of his troops and leave Fort Crittenden (as the post had been renamed when its namesake, John B. Floyd, defected to the South). Before leaving Cooke was ordered to dispose of everything on the post to the best advantage of the government. At the sales which followed this order, about $4 million worth of supplies sold for $100,000. One of the principal buyers was Brigham Young who, through his agent and son-in-law H. B. Clawson, paid about $40,000 for the things which he obtained. In this sale flour went for 52 cents per hundred and sugar for 12.5 cents a pound. The effect of this windfall may be gauged from the fact that the value of goods sold amounted to approximately $400.00 per Utah family. This meant that the government sold about twice Utah's annual income per family at a cost of about five per cent of the annual income. The Mormons might complain of their inequitable treatment in Rush Valley or the presence of troops in Provo, but the federal government was forced under the circumstances to make ample reparation.
Before the departure of the Expedition, Cooke disposed of everything which could not be sold. The Army took surplus munitions from the fort and blew them up, while they razed houses and buildings. When the last of the troops left Utah, on July 27, 1861, Colonel Cooke presented the camp flagpole to Brigham Young. By September 2, only 18 families remained at the once-roaring town of Fairfield. The adobe walls washed into little mounds of earth, and even the stone walls were carried away for use in constructing foundations for houses in Fairfield and Lehi.
NUMBER OF TROOPS AT CAMP FLOYD, UTAH, 1858—1861*
Since the abandonment of Camp Floyd, its residents have been the 84 officers and men who died at the post. The land itself remained on the War Department records until July 22, 1884, when the secretary of war turned it over to the Interior Department for disposal. The Army retained only the cemetery after December 1892, when the Interior Department opened the land for homesteading. The cemetery is now fenced by iron rather than stone.
After the post was abandoned, John Carson stayed on to operate his inn. After his death, his widow and children continued to run the hostelry until it became unprofitable; it was closed in 1947. In January 1958 John Carson's son, Warren Carson, of Orem, Utah, turned the inn over to the Utah State Park and Recreation Commission for preservation as a museum. Beginning in June 1959 the Commission began a program of development of the Camp Floyd historic park. The old cemetery was planted with sod, 84 veterans who are buried there were identified and markers placed, the old Army commissary was restored, and the Stagecoach Inn was rebuilt and decorated to the period of its founding. The inn was officially dedicated and opened to the public on May 16, 1964. Nineteen families now live in the quiet, peaceful village of Fairfield.
Of what significance could such a post have been to the people of Utah? It existed less than three years and, with the exception of the cemetery, its physical remains can scarcely be seen today amid the sagebrush of Cedar Valley. The importance of the installation, however, appears to lie in its contemporary impact in two areas of Utah life.
The first, and most obvious consequence was the economic effect of the installation. Edward Tullidge credits it together with its successor Fort Douglas with saving Utah "from the depths of her poverty," and other contemporaries such as Alexander Toponce saw a similar result from the post's existence. Though Tullidge's and Toponce's arguments are probably overdrawn, the installation served as both a market for goods and as a source of needed commodities at cut-rate prices, and the community undoubtedly prospered because of it.
This positive stimulation to Utah's economy must, however, be balanced against the second result which was cultural and social. Certainly immigrants, gold-rushers, and government office holders had been in Utah before this time, but Camp Floyd and Fairfield represented the first sizable community of resident Gentiles in the Mormon kingdom. The demise of this post was followed closely by the establishment of Fort Douglas, which, together with the later construction of the railroad and the subsequent creation of a number of other military posts in the territory continued to attract non-Mormons to Utah. It is significant that the only Gentile in the territorial legislature in 1859 was the sutler at Fort Bridger. The installation provided employment for hosts of teamsters and others whom even the Army officers found undesirable. Conflicts between the two ways of life were numerous, and defections from the faith occurred under the impact of these new temptations. If the diaries of the soldiers are any indication, the image which the Army took back of the people of Utah was extremely unfavorable and must have contributed to an already seething anti-Mormon sentiment in the country at large. It did not matter that the church leaders, themselves, were not responsible for the brutal events of the late 1850's because people outside the church tended to identify the actions of individuals with the policy of the church. The advent of Johnston's Army signaled the beginning of the end of isolation of the Mormon society from the rest of the United States.
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