The Mormon Invasion of Russian America: Dynamics of a Potent Myth BY GENE A. S E S S I O N S AND S T E P H E N W . S T A T H I S
in the spring of 1857, President James Buchanan decided to send a new governor and some other officials to Utah Territory under military escort. Portentously, the president chose not to announce his move in the hope that he could enforce it before opposition could rise among Brigham Young and the Mormons. On July 18 advance elements of the escort left Fort Leavenworth for Salt Lake City; inevitably, frantic Mormon scouts had within a few days informed Young that an army was en route to Utah. The prophet and his followers assumed the worst. The Great Basin was the fourth place in which the Saints had sought to establish their gathering place, and they quickly decided that this army was coming as a mob to drive them away once again, or even to exterminate them. Young and his lieutenants consequently launched into a campaign of belligerent oratory accompanied by urgent preparations for the defense of their promised valley. This unfortunate chain of events set into motion one of the strangest incidents in American history, variously known as the Utah Expedition, the Mormon War, the Utah War, Johnston's Army, the Contractor's War, and Buchanan's Blunder. J H O R T L Y AFTER HIS INAUGURATION
Dr. Sessions teaches history at Weber State College. Mr. Stathis is analyst in American history. Congressional Research Service, Library of Congress.
