The Daily Union Vendette: A Military Voice on the Mormon Frontier

Utah Historical Quarterly

Vol. 42, 1974, No. 1

The Daily Union Vedette: A Military Voice on the Mormon Frontier

BY LYMAN C. PEDF.RSEN. JR.

UNIQUE IN THE LITERATURE of the West from the 1860s to the turn of the century were the newspapers published at military posts. In many cases these camp newspapers reveal the best and most complete picture of garrison life and soldiering in the American West. Post returns and other official reports and documents list garrison strength, commanding officers, changes in personnel each month, and official activities, but often miss the color that made up the daily life of a western soldier.

Of unusual significance among the publications of military posts was the Daily Union Vedette published at Fort Douglas, Utah Territory, from 1863 to 1867, being the first daily newspaper published in Utah. For two months it was called the Union Vedette, not becoming a daily until January 5, 1864. It was then called the Daily Vedette until the title was changed to the Daily Union Vedette January 27, 1864.

The first editor and the father of the Vedette was Capt. Charles H. Hempstead who remained in the editor's chair until December 1864 when "pressing duties" forced him to step down. Other editors included Frederick Livingston, George F. Price, Capt. Stephen E. Jocelyn, O.J. Goldrick, Rev. Norman McLeod, Phil Shoaff, a Mr. Weston, Judge Daniel McLaughlin, and Adam Aulback. Patrick Edward Connor and the men of the Second and Third California Volunteers who founded Camp Douglas in 1862 welcomed the first edition of the Vedette on November 20, 1863. The opening editorial made fair promise in stating that "we have no ends to serve, save the public good, and our country's welfare; we have no enemies to punish; no prejudices to indulge; no private griefs to ventilate."

Three weeks later a romantic and noble sounding subtitle was added to the front page: "A champion brave, alert and strong. . . . To aid the right, oppose the wrong." On Christmas Day 1863 a proposal was made to print a daily newspaper completely separate from the weekly publication which had appeared thus far. This plan was implemented and was so widely accepted that on January 22, 1864, it was announced that the weekly publication would be discontinued because too many customers were switching to the daily.

Located only three miles from the Mormon capital of Salt Lake City, Fort Douglas, or Camp Douglas as it was called until 1878, was in an excellent position to reflect Mormon attitudes and problems during the troublesome decade of the 1860s. There is no doubt that Mormon leaders read the Vedette, just as military officials read the Deseret News, to see what new attacks were being made on them. On January 19, 1865, the Vedette mentioned that "it is evident from the sermon delivered by Elder John Taylor in the Tabernacle last Sunday that the polygamists are becoming constant readers of the Vedette."

Between 1863 and 1867, the period during which the Vedette was published, some reference to the Mormons appeared in almost every issue of the camp paper. It made good reading for both Mormons and non-Mormons, though for different reasons and from different points of view. The subjects most often attracting comment from the editor's pen were polygamy, the question of loyalty, and the future of the army in Utah, although a variety of other subjects appeared as well. On a personal basis the most frequent targets for the columns of the Vedette were Heber C. Kimball of the First Presidency, a certain Bishop Wooley of a local ward, and, of course, the Mormon leader Brigham Young. Mormon sermons, if they were particularly harsh against the military or if they had an unpatriotic ring to them, might well find room in the camp newspaper.

Typical of small complaints published by the newspaper was "One of Brother Kinney's Loyal Inhabitants" which panned the territorial delegate from Utah, John F. Kinney:

A patriotic cuss who keeps an ice house in the city, who claims to own a small bridge which crosses a slough near the Jordan, would not permit the Government teams engaged in hauling ice to Camp Douglas, to cross his institution, and actually commenced tearing up the bridge while some of the teams were on the opposite side.

A week later the "patriotic cuss," not named in the first article, answered in his own defense.

Tension was often high during the war years between the troops who did not wish to serve on the Utah frontier and the Saints who had no desire for them to remain in Utah Territory. In April 1864 Brigham Young was quoted as saying:

The boys can go up Parley's Canyon some fine morning and clean out the troops before breakfast. The troops are no better than members of Congress.

Naturally, a good deal was written about the Mormon militia, and even General Connor recognized the ability of that organization, if determined to do so, to destroy the command on the Wasatch front. Despite this knowledge, a considerable number of lines were written depreciating Mormon preparedness. Fortunately, Young and Connor recognized the strength as well as the weakness in each other. Both usually exercised caution and judgment, although neither hesitated to engage in verbal combat.

Editing and publishing a newspaper was not to interfere with parades and inspections required of all members of the garrison, and on February 29, 1864, it was announced that the camp paper would not appear on the first and last day of each month thereafter because of the requirements of the regular muster and review.

Some publications outside the territory expressed hostility toward the Vedette. Sometimes these criticisms appeared within its columns but usually with an accompanying retort. Just a few months before the last issue of the original Vedette appeared, the Lafayette Courier of Oregon charged that the Vedette had "gone under." The editor of the Camp Douglas newspaper replied that they were still very much alive. The opinion of the Oregon paper provides an interesting contrast to other articles praising the paper.

The Salt Lake Vedette, a Black Republican paper published at Government expense for the last three or four years at Salt Lake City, and which proved meanwhile particularly annoying to the Mormons, has finally surrendered. It has passed into Mormon hands, and it will probably be a long time ere another paper is maintained there at the expense of the taxridden, to spout radicalism and stir up unnecessary strife among the people inhabiting the Great Salt Lake Valley. It would have worked a saving to the people of this country of a vast amount of money had the Mormons destroyed the Vedette office as soon as it arrived among them.

The voice of Camp Douglas was usually quite loud and clear in dealing with any controversy between the Mormons and small splinter groups in the vicinity. Editorials concerning the Josephites and their conferences in contrast to the "Brighamites," as the paper chose to style them, continually recurred. The issue of April 11, 1864, commented on both conferences, although the paper frequently carried the full text of the Josephite meetings.

The paper also followed the Civil War, of course, giving in some detail running accounts of battles and military strategy. In September 1864 it noted:

A salute of eleven guns was fired at Camp Douglas, U.T., in honor of the severe blow inflicted on rebeldom by the taking of Atlanta. Great enthusiasm prevailed among the officers and men in camp.

During the following November the Vedette published a list of blockade runners destroyed or captured from August 1863 to September 1864. The course of the war need not be traced here. Suffice it to say that all military posts were given the order to render a 200-gun salute upon receipt of the news of Lee's surrender. This order was carried out at Camp Douglas April 12, 1865.

Two weeks before the election of 1864 the paper expressed sadness at having to say farewell to a large number of volunteers departing from the service. In addition to voicing regret, the following advice was given.

Let your motto be Union and Liberty, and let your vote be Lincoln and Johnson. That you may each and all be prosperous and happy, is the wish and prayer of the comrades you leave behind you.

In the election which followed in November, the Vedette recorded that of the 126 votes cast by the Nevada Volunteers at Camp Douglas, 121 were for Lincoln, with only 5 for McClellan.

The closing months of the war brought a variety of items to the columns of the Vedette besides battle reports and items of political interest. The following note entitled "The Young Ladies of Atlanta," came from a soldier in Atlanta who disclosed:

The young ladies don't seem at all afraid of the Yankees, for they may be seen promenading the streets, well dressed, and many of them very refined and pretty. I noticed a bevy of young misses dancing on the grass behind a very fine residence, to the lively airs played by General Slocum's band. They seemed to have quite forgotten the fearful carnage of the past month.

Although finding many complaints about the internal structure of Zion, the Vedette usually afforded space for favorable comments from visitors upon the physical beauty of Salt Lake City. Such an observation from a correspondent of the New York Independent was printed in January 1866. His description of Salt Lake Valley is reminiscent of W. H. Prescott's dazzling description of the Valley of Mexico and the Aztec capital.

It is impossible to conceive of any sight more beautiful and refreshing than when the traveler having trudged his weary way for more than a thousand miles, with only sage brush to relieve the scene from stark, savage desolation, emerges from the deep gorge in the mountains, and for the first time looks down upon Great Salt Lake City. To the right, twenty miles distant, the lake itself stretches far away to the north.

Twenty-five miles across the valley of the Jordan is a high range of mountains, for miles, north and south the valley is covered with splendid farms; while at your feet, with its broad streets, and houses embowered in trees, is the far famed city of the Saints. As you enter it, you observe a pure stream of water sparkling along each side of all the streets, from which each thrifty Mormon, as it babbles along, leads a little treat into his garden and around among his fruits and flowers forming a perfect paradise of beauty. Seen in June, as we saw it, Salt Lake is certainly one of the most delightful cities upon the continent.

The camp paper noted such visitors to Salt Lake City as Jefferson Hunt, John Bidwell, Artemus Ward, Samuel Bowles, Indian Chiefs W'ashakie and Pocatello, and A. D. Richardson. The latter was a correspondent for the New York Tribune and left an unforgettable impression of a Mormon meeting in the old bowery of 1865. His article entitled "Faces in the Bowery" recorded his experience:

In the afternoon we attended Mormon services at the Bowery — a great arbor with seats of rough pine boards and a low flat roof of branches with withered leaves, supported by upright poles. For the warm season it is far pleasanter than any building. . . . The congregation numbered fully 3,000 in which women largely predominated. They were neatly but very plainly dressed; kid gloves were few, silks and satins were far between. Hoops abounded in all their amplitude. At first, as I am told, the preachers denounced them very bitterly from the pulpit. But female persistency triumphed as it generally does, and crinoline proved more potent than the thunderbolts of the Church.

Among the apostles, elders and bishops on the platform were Heber C. Kimball, 64 years old, tall and stout, with bald, massive head and ruddy, sensuous face, and Dr. Bernheisel, former delegate to Congress, slender, venerable looking with mild countenance, bald crown and thin silvered locks. . . . Many infants at the breast were present, and all were permitted to quaff the water freely. The poor babies were thirsty enough, but it detracted a little from the solemnity of the ceremony.

Numerous issues of the Vedette recorded the progress of mining in Utah which the volunteers had helped to initiate, and articles bore such stirring titles as "Ho for the Mines." Among other historically noteworthy articles which found their way into the pages of the paper are several which pertain to the Rocky Mountain fur business and the men who first penetrated the Intermountain area. The July 17 issue of the Vedette described an old mountain man named Michel LeClare then residing halfway between Fort Bridger and Ham's Fork.

[He is] perhaps one of the oldest white inhabitants of these regions, having dwelt in the mountains for forty-three years. He left Saint Louis when a mere boy and when that place was but a French village, in consequence of ill health, since which time he has spent his life among the Indians and has acquired many of their habits which, with his sun-browned complexion, gives him the appearance of a half-breed. . . . He seems thoroughly acquainted with the country from Mexico to the British possessions, relating many interesting experiences attending his explorations of these vast regions during a period of over forty years, which if written, would make a volume quite as romantic and eventful as any that have come from the pens of Cooper or Irving.

Even more incredible is the quotation, or more than likely the misquotation, from the Fort Kearney Herald which described the old mountain man Jim Bridger who was then residing at the Overland House at Fort Kearney as "perhaps sixty years old, fully six feet eight, raw boned, blue eyes, auburn hair (now somewhat gray), and very active and communicative."

For the modern reader, among the most ludicrous aspects of a frontier newspaper is the almost infinite variety of advertisements. The Vedette was no exception. While one may smile at both the product and message of many such advertisements, the practical approach to problems of the day seems remarkable in its straightforward exaggeration. Readers searching for medicinal relief found glowing descriptions of Newell's Pulmonary Syrup; Dr. Townsley's Indian Vegetable Tooth Ache Anodyne, warranted to cure the toothache in one minute; and Dr. Miner's Wizard Oil for rheumatism, neuralgia, nervous and sick headache, sore throat, diphtheria, sprains, lame back, cuts, bruises, burns and scalds, spinal infections, and contracted cords and muscles.

Miscellaneous notices which are difficult to categorize include objections to the "vulgar use" of opera glasses at the Salt Lake Theatre, descriptions of scenery on the moon and vegetation along the Amazon, advance notices of the Young Men's Literary Association, and complaints that mail sent from Camp Douglas was not reaching Nevada. Titles of articles range from "A Singular Dream" to "Coffee in the Army."

The columns of the Vedette were rich with information regarding the arrival and departure of emigrants and freight to and from Salt Lake City. In June 1865 a dispatch from Julesburg, Colorado, noted that in the previous twenty days more than four thousand wagons had passed over the trail. On July 31 the Vedette mentioned the arrival of a mule train with thirteen wagon loads of freight for Ransohoff and Company of Salt Lake City. Another train of forty wagons with merchandize for the same company was expected to arrive several weeks later. On October 17, 1865, the voice of Camp Douglas described the old pioneer campground west of the city.

That lively place known as Immigration Square, or now, Corral, is thronged with trains and teams unnumerable. Forbes' train of thirty or more wagons, were preparing to roll out from there this morning to Montana. It is laden with flour and staples for the subsistence of Virginia and Helena folks. McCann's train of thirty-seven wagons, and Overton's train of twenty or thirty more, got in here yesterday from Nebraska City freighted with goods for several of our merchants.

Another transportation article excitedly listed a record stage time of "850 miles in 3 days, 12 hours, and 10 minutes" from San Francisco to Salt Lake City, including meals, delays, etc.

In all aspects of camp and post activity, from latrine duty to the ballroom floor, the Daily Union Vedette was truly the voice of the men and officers of Camp Douglas and served as a unifying agent ready to defend the camp against any protagonist, real or imagined. The last issue of the paper appeared on November 27, 1867, four years and one week after its commencement. The publishing of the Deseret News as a daily at that time was a factor in the Vedette closing. The departure of General Connor and his family for California may also have contributed to its demise. Financial problems were always present as well. Outside pressure for the discontinuance of the paper does not appear to have been an important factor. Less than two months before the last issue appeared, editor Daniel McLaughin denied rumors that he had been ordered to leave the city or that he had ever received any threat or personal affront. He made it clear that the title of "persecuted editor" would not apply to him.

Camp Douglas became Fort Douglas and lived on to maturity and old age. The Vedette was restored twice in the post's later history, once from 1942 to 1946, again from 1965 to 1966. But it is the original Vedette which is important to the student of history. With its color, variety, homespun idiom, and unblushing frankness, it represents not only an important source document but an entire genre of nineteenth-century frontier literature.

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