The Utah War: A Photographic Essay of Some of Its Important Historic Sites

The Utah War: A Photographic Essay of Some of Its Important Historic Sites

By JOHN ELDREDGE

Trouble between Brigham Young, Utah Territorial Governor and Mormon Church President, and other federal territorial officials began to brew in the early 1850s and by the spring of 1857 a resolution to the troubles was needed. Late in May 1857 Brevet Lieutenant General Winfield Scott, General-in-Charge of the United States Army, issued orders to organize a force of up to 2,500 soldiers to march to Utah, secure law and order, and to escort newly appointed territorial officials including the new territorial governor Alfred Cumming. Accompanying the army expedition were hundreds of supply wagons driven by civilian teamsters, livestock, and other camp followers, reminding Mormons of Moses and the Jews fleeing before the army of Pharaoh.

By July first elements of the military expedition had begun the long and difficult march from Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, to Utah.That same month as Brigham Young and several thousand Mormons had gathered in Big Cottonwood Canyon to celebrate their arrival to the Great Salt Lake Valley ten years earlier word was received and announced to those gathered that a military expedition was on the march to Utah on the well-used overland trail.

As the U. S. Army approached Utah Governor Brigham Young issued a proclamation forbidding all armed forces from entering the territory. The proclamation had no effect on the expedition’s commander, Colonel Albert Sidney Johnston. However, weather and Mormon resistance did.The expedition halted in November as winter snow and cold enveloped the mountains of southwest Wyoming, and because of the destruction of much of the expedition’s supplies by the Mormon militia.The expedition camped at the new Camp Scott near the destroyed forts of Bridger and Supply.

In June, following negotiations between Brigham Young and Thomas L. Kane, the Utah Peace Commission, and others, a pardon was issued by President James Buchanan. Brevet Brigadier General Albert Sidney Johnston led the Utah Expedition into the Great Salt Lake Valley and a nearly deserted Salt Lake City. Within a few days, the expedition was encamped at isolated Cedar Valley, located about forty miles southwest of Salt Lake City. There at the newly christened Camp Floyd the army, with the assistance of the Mormons, built a sizeable military post. There they would remain until the firing on Fort Sumter and the outbreak of the Civil War in April 1861.

The photographic essay which follows highlights some of the significant locations on the last segments of the overland trail used by the Utah Expedition from Devil’s Gate to the Great Salt Lake Valley.

Charles DeSilver's 1857 Map

Albert Browne, traveling with the Utah Expedition in 1857, wrote: “The route selected for the march was along the emigrant road across the Plains… It is, perhaps, the most remarkable natural road in the world. The hand of man could hardly add an improvement to the highway along which, from the Missouri to the Great Basin, Nature has presented not a single obstacle to the progress of the heaviest loaded teams.” — Atlantic Monthly (Boston) 3 (March 1859): 365.

UTAH MAP IN POSSESSION OF AUTHOR

UTAH MAP IN POSSESSION OF AUTHOR

From South Pass the U. S. Army followed the well-traveled overland road to the Great Salt Lake Valley, arriving the last week of June 1858.

HAFEN AND HAFEN

Devil’s Gate, Wyoming

Col. Robert T. Burton of the Nauvoo Legion (Utah Militia) was ordered east from Salt Lake City to offer “aid and protection to the incoming trains of emigrants and to act as a corps of observation to learn the strength and equipment of forces reported on the way to Utah….There was no movement of the enemy from the time Col. Burton approached them at Devil’s Gate, on the Sweetwater that our officers were not speedily apprised of. Scouts and spies were with them continually examining their camps, arms, equipment, etc., and reporting to headquarters.” — The Contributor 3 (March 1882): 179.

WILLIAM H. JACKSON PHOTOGRAPH, “SWEETWATER” (1870), JACKSON, W. H. # 288, USGS ARCHIVES

Pacific Springs

Looking west from Pacific Springs located a few miles west of South Pass, the Mormon militia during the night of September 25, 1857, encountered some of “Uncle’s troops.” Mormon militiaman Hosea Stout recorded: “I expect an attack will be made the first opportunity perhaps by stampeding their animals.” — On the Mormon Frontier: The Diary of Hosea Stout 2: 638. Capt. Jesse Gove of the 10th Infantry wrote of the Mormon harassment near Pacific Springs: “This morning about 2 o’clock several shots were fired immediately behind my tent, and immediately the whole herd of mules stampeded with a terrific rush…. One man in H Co. … died of fright. He had the heart disease, hence the sudden fright killed him….Their [Mormon militia] intention was to drive off the mules, nothing more.” — Jesse A. Gove, The Utah Expedition, 1857-1858, Letters of Capt Jesse A. Gove, 64. John I. Ginn, a civilian with the U. S. Army, recalled: “The mules ran about three miles, when their feet ceased to clatter on the hard, smooth road….Then Col. Alexander ordered the buglers to sound the ‘stable call’ as loud as they could…. Directly they [the army mules] came dashing into camp in a bunch, together with six additional animals wearing saddles and bridles—the whole Mormon mount.” — John I. Ginn, “Mormon and Indian Wars: The Mountain Meadows Massacre, and other tragedies and transactions incident to the Mormon Rebellion of 1857” — Typescript, Utah State Historical Society.

JOHN ELDREDGE

PHOTOS BY JOHN ELDREDGE

Simpson Hollow

Simpson Hollow located near Big Sandy and Wyoming Highway 28. Mormon militia under the command of Maj. Lot Smith set fire to a supply train. Upon hearing of the success of Smith, Gen. Daniel Wells wrote Smith: “I am glad to hear so good an account of your success on your mission… Furnish your men and as many others as you conveniently can with supplies of clothing and food from any of the [wagon] trains when you have a good chance… Remain in the rear of the enemy’s camp till you receive further orders, not neglecting every opportunity to burn their trains, stampede their stock, and keep them under arms by the night surprises, so that they will be worn out.” — Quoted in LeRoy R. and Ann W. Hafen, The Utah Expedition, 1857-1858, 231.Trail trace immediately to the left of the trail marker.

Green River Crossing at Mountaineer’s Fort

Located near Wyoming Highway 372 and on the banks of the Green River. It was here that Richard Yates, a trader who had sold powder and a quantity of lead to the U. S. Army and was thought to be spying for the army, was taken prisoner in late October 1857.Yates was also accused of trading liquor and other goods to the Indians on the Green River. Days later somewhere in Echo Canyon he was ordered killed. Bill Hickman later wrote of the deed: “I delivered General Wells some letters…and told him who I had along, and asked him what I should do with my prisoner. He said: `He ought to be killed; but take him on; you will probably get an order when you get to Col. Jones’ camp.’” — Bill Hickman, Brigham’s Destroying Angel, 124. It was near here that the Mormon militia burned fifty-one military supply wagons in early October.

PHOTOS BY JOHN ELDREDGE

Camp Winfield on Ham’s Fork of the Sweetwater River, Wyoming

Located on U. S. Highway 30 near the junction with Wyoming Highway 374, looking southwest. Captain Jesse A. Gove remembered how effective the Mormon spy and harassment campaign was. “It is astonishing to see how wonderfully the Mormons have their express and spy-system perfected.Their object is to stampede our animals and cripple our movement in that way.” — Jesse A. Gove, The Utah Expedition, 67. While encamped near Camp Winfield, then commanding officer Col. Edmund Brooke Alexander received a letter from Governor and Superintendent of Indian Affairs Utah Territory Brigham Young who wrote: “By virtue of the authority thus vested in me, I have issued, and forwarded you a copy of, my proclamation forbidding the entrance of armed forces into this Territory…I now further direct that you retire forthwith from the Territory, by the same route you entered.” — Quoted in Hafen and Hafen, The Utah Expedition, 1857-1858, 62.

Junction of Black’s and Ham’s Forks

Captain Stewart Van Vliet, assistant quartermaster, was ordered to Salt Lake City ahead of the army to locate a suitable location for a fort near Salt Lake City, to secure supplies and building material for a fort, and gather any useful information useful to the general command.Van Vliet was accompanied by military escort of thirty-one officers and soldiers as far as the junction of these two streams, where he left his escort and traveled with two Mormons to Salt Lake City.After spending time with Brigham Young, and visiting Rush Valley to locate a military post,Van Vliet returned to the forks of the two streams where he made his report in a letter to the Acting Assistant Adjutant General at Fort Leavenworth. He reported that the army would face resistance, that there would be a lack of forage and other needed supplies in the Salt Lake Valley.

Fort Supply

Located twelve miles southwest from Fort Bridger, the Utah Territorial legislature designated Fort Supply the county seat for Green River County, Utah Territory in 1852.When word was received that the army was on the march, Brigham Young ordered Fort Supply to be abandoned, burnt, and crops destroyed or cached. Mormon militiaman Jesse W. Crosby wrote: “I went to Fort Supply with a small company to help take care of the crops and to make ready to burn everything if found necessary… We took out our wagons, horses, etc. and at 12 o’clock noon set fire to the buildings at once, consisting of 100 or more good hewed houses, one saw mill, one grist mill, one threshing machine, and after going out of the fort, we did set fire to the stockade, grain stacks, etc.” — On the Mormon Frontier, 640, fn. 11. A reporter for the New York Times saw what was left of Camp Scott: “On arriving at the spot [Fort Supply] I realized for the first time in my life what I had imagined of the appearance of a sacked, burned and abandoned village… There was a sense of desolation about those ruins of a recently beautiful settlement which was, to say the least, unpleasant.” — New York Times, January 21, 1858.

Fort Bridger

Fort Bridger in 1857. Fur trapper and trader Jim Bridger established his trading post on Black’s Fork of the Green River in 1843.Along with his partner Louis Vasquez, the two developed an important trading post on the western emigrant trail. In 1855 Brigham Young purchased the fort from Vasquez and Bridger. In October of 1857 as the army was advancing John Pulsipher a former resident at Fort Bridger, reported that his brother Charles and other Mormon militiamen, “are whipping them [U. S.Army] without killing a man having taken their stock burned their freight trains — & now have burned Fort Supply & Bridger to save them from falling into their hands.” — In Hafen and Hafen, The Utah Expedition, 205. Unable to be used as a winter encampment because of its small size, Fort Bridger was used as a storage area. Col.Albert Sidney Johnston established his winter encampment at Camp Scott two miles from the burned out fort.

FORT BRIDGER STATE PARK

Eckelsville

Located a few miles south of Fort Bridger on the bend of Black’s Fork and near Camp Scott, Eckelsville, named for the newly appointed Utah Territory Chief Justice D. Eckels, was a temporary community of Sibley tents, dugouts, log cabins, and other makeshift structures. Here the new territorial governor, Alfred Cumming, and his wife, Elizabeth, and other newly appointed territorial officials and civilians resided from November 1857 to April 1858 when the town was abandoned. Elizabeth Cumming wrote to her sister, Anne, in December, describing her accommodations in Eckelsville: “We live in five tents—One a dining room. Second a store room of trunks, boxes & so forth… Third a kitchen… Fourth—a sleeping tent for the young girl. Fifth—a double wall tent divided into parlour & bed chamber—eight feet by 10 each….You can hardly imagine how cosy & comfortable it looks. I quite enjoy it.” Ray R. Canning and Beverly Beeton, eds., The Genteel Gentile: Letters of Elizabeth Cumming, 1857- 1858 (Salt Lake City: University of Utah Library, 1977), 23.

UTAH STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY

Camp Scott

Since the Mormon militia destroyed most of Fort Bridger, the army of 1,400 officers and men plus civilians established their winter quarters at Camp Scott, a short distance from Fort Bridger. Named for General-in- Chief of the entire U. S. Army, Major General Winfield Scott, Camp Scott served as the temporary seat of territorial government. On November 21, 1857, Governor Cumming issued his proclamation to the people of Utah: “…the President appointed me to preside over the executive department of this Territory… I will proceed at this point to make the preliminary arrangements for the temporary organization of the territorial government….” — Hafen and Hafen, The Utah Expedition, 297. By late May Governor Cumming prepared to abandon Camp Scott and Ecklesville and transfer the seat of territorial government back to Salt Lake City.

UTAH STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY

Bridger Butte (Outpost Butte)

Bridger Butte, located about four miles southwest of Fort Bridger, provided Mormon scouts an excellent location to spy on the activities of Johnston’s army at its winter encampment at Camp Scott and the nearby temporary civilian town of Eckelsville. Lot Smith later recalled that he was ordered “not to molest them if they wished to go into Winter Quarters.” — Hafen and Hafen, The Utah Expedition, 245.

PHOTOS BY JOHN ELDREDGE

Outpost Butte

View from the top of Outpost Butte looking toward Ft. Bridger

PHOTOS BY JOHN ELDREDGE

Pioneer Hollow Station

A number of temporary express stations or outposts were established by the Mormon militia between Fort Bridger and Salt Lake City on or near the emigrant trail where express riders delivering reports and orders to and from Salt Lake City could recruit their horses, rest, and eat. Pioneer Hollow Station located northwest of Piedmont, Wyoming, was such a station. Philo Dibble was under the command of Lot Smith in early October when Smith’s command set ablaze the army’s supply wagons. Utah militiaman Orson P. Arnold was wounded at one of these harassment raids and as Smith remembered years later, the “heavy ball passed through” Arnold’s thigh, breaking the bone, and then struck “Dibble in the side of the head, went through Samuel Bateman’s hat just missing his head…” — “The Utah War,” The Contributor 4 (1883): 28. A month later Dibble at nearby Pioneer Hollow Station, inscribed his name and date for all to see.

PHOTO BY JOHN ELDREDGE

Yellow Creek Lookout Station

From the Lookout Station situated near the head of Echo Canyon on Yellow Creek and near the overland trail, Lt. Gen. Daniel H. Wells of the Utah militia ordered Capt. John R. Winder in late November 1857 to take a ten man detail to “the heights of Yellow Creek” and there “watch the movements of the invaders…occasionally trail out towards Fort Bridger, and look at our enemies from the high butte near that place.” Wells’ instructions were to “Remember that to you is entrusted for the time being the duty of standing between Israel and their foes, and as you would like to repose in peace and safety while others are on the watchtower, so now while in the performance of this duty do you observe the same care, vigilance and activity, which you would desire of others when they come to take your place.” — Head Quarters Eastern Expedition, Camp Weber, December 4, 1857, in Edward W. Tullidge, History of Salt Lake City Part I (Salt Lake City: Star Printing Co., 1886), 197-98.

PHOTO BY JOHN ELDREDGE

Cache Cave

Cache Cave is located a few miles from the head of Echo Canyon and on the overland trail. For a few weeks in October 1857, Lt. Gen. Daniel H. Wells made Cache Cave his eastern command post. Later it served as an important express station for messengers and spies of the Utah Militia. Date of photograph is unknown.The individuals in the photograph are the Ball family.

COALVILLE HISTORY MUSEUM, NAVEE VERNON

Echo Canyon Narrows

Echo Canyon, the only feasible route through the Wasatch Mountains to the Great Salt Lake Valley. Following the Mormon acceptance of President Buchanan’s pardon, Johnston’s army followed the emigrant route to the valley by way of Echo Canyon.At various locations in Echo Canyon, the passage was very narrow between steep canyon walls as seen in this photograph. At various locations the Mormon militia constructed stone fortifications to prevent the advancement of Johnston’s army. In June 1858, Charles A. Scott, a soldier in the army recorded some of his observations about Echo Canyon: “[The] road very good, taken in consideration that the Cañon is not more than a hundred yards wide and in some places it is much narrower. [T]he rocks on the right hand side rise in perpendicular cliffs of six or seven hundred feet in height, and an enemy posted on them could soon obstruct the passage by tumbling down loose rocks…” — Robert E. Stowers and John M. Ellis, eds.“Charles A. Scott’s Diary of the Utah Expedition, 1857-1861,” Utah Historical Quarterly 28 (April 1960): 171.

A. J. RUSSELL, PHOTOGRAPHER

Rock fortifications

The Mormon militia constructed several stone fortifications atop Echo Canyon’s northern walls from which to fire upon Johnston’s army. Hosea Stout wrote of these “formidable [locations] high [on] perpendicular ledges of rock immediately over looking the road” where it was “decided to erect batteries on the summit of the rocky crags.” — On the Mormon Frontier, 639. At various strategic locations, Mormon militiamen constructed various types of fortifications including water filled ditches, one measuring six feet wide and ten feet deep. At another location the Mormon militia may have “mined” the road. — The Atlantic Monthly 3 (April 1859): 489.

PHOTO BY JOHN ELDREDGE

PHOTO BY JOHN ELDREDGE

Echo Station

A writer for The Atlantic Monthly in 1859 described Echo Station as “huts” the Mormon militia occupied and were “constructed by digging circular holes in the ground, over which were piled boughs in the same manner as the poles of an Indian lodge.” Many of the huts had chimneys built of sod and stones. Nearby was a protected glen to keep needed livestock.The reporter for the Atlantic Monthly estimated that there were as many as 150 huts that could accommodate as many as fifteen men each. — The Atlantic Monthly 3 (April 1859): 488. In April 1858 when Governor Alfred Cumming accompanied by a small Mormon escort made his first trip through Echo Canyon at night to the Salt Lake Valley to meet Brigham Young, numerous fires were lit along the trail at these posts to give the impression that hundreds of Mormon militia were in the canyon. Mormon militiaman Lorenzo Brown wrote: “In the evening [we] went up to the batteries to make fires & fire guns to salute the New Governor as he came past. The Camp was lighted conspicuously with a fire in each hut so that ever thing seemed alive with me. The Gov. seemed awe struck.” — Lorenzo Brown Journal, April 29, 1856 to February 9, 1859,Typescript, LDS Church History Library.

PHOTOS BY JOHN ELDREDGE

Weber Station

The Weber Station, located a “mile below the mouth of Echo [Canyon] and on the Weber bottom,” was one of several commissary posts established between Yellow Creek and Fort Wells at Big Mountain.At these posts members of the Mormon militia were re-supplied with food and equipment during the winter campaign. For a brief time Weber Station was headquarters for Lt. Gen. Daniel H.Wells, commander of the Mormon militia’s eastern campaign.

C. R. SAVAGE PHOTOGRAPHER, COPY IN POSSESSION OF JOHN ELDREDGE (ALSO BYU)

Lost Creek Fortification Site

Lost Creek, a branch of the Weber River, looking downstream (south). At the point of the small knoll (middle of photograph), a fortification was built to guard against the U. S.Army using Lost Creek to bypass Mormon fortifications in Echo Canyon.According to Henry Ballard, as many as “200 [men] moved 12 miles up Lost creek to gard [sic] the kanyon [sic] and build some Batteries.” — Henry Ballard Journal,April 15, 1858, Utah State Historical Society.

PHOTOS BY JOHN ELDREDGE

Spring Creek Station

The main emigrant trail turned south from Henefer Valley and followed Main Creek Canyon. Spring Creek Station was one of a string of Mormon militia stations where commissaries were established and where both men and animals could recruit.

PHOTOS BY JOHN ELDREDGE

Fort Wells and Eight Crossing Fortification in East Canyon

At Mormon Flat, located on East Canyon Creek and the east side of Big Mountain and Little Emigration Canyon, the Mormon militia constructed two stone breast works (left bottom) to guard the important overland trail up Little Emigration Canyon and Big Mountain. A private in Johnston’s army, Charles Scott wrote in June 1858: “Started at six, the road good [along East Canyon Creek] for the first four miles. Came to two breast works of stone dignified with title of Fort Wells…” — Robert E. Stowers and John M. Ellis, eds.,“Charles A. Scott’s Diary of the Utah Expedition, 1857-1861,” Utah Historical Quarterly 28 (April 1960): 172.

PHOTOS BY JOHN ELDREDGE

PHOTOS BY JOHN ELDREDGE

Big Mountain

Looking west from the summit of Big Mountain. In the far distance are the Great Salt Lake Valley and the Oquirrh Mountains. In the dead of winter snow depths at the summit frequently reaches more than three feet, making travel by any wheeled vehicle impossible. The U. S. Army found it extremely difficult to ascend and descent Big Mountain as did most who traveled by wagon. Captain Albert Tracy wrote on June 25, 1858: “We got off as early as five in the morning, and after a long and toilsome ascent in the course of which we pass additional fortifications of the Mormons, reach at last the bald and rock crest of ‘Big Mountain.’ The view from this point is little less than magnificent—opening out between rocky and snow-clad peaks and ridges, to the veritable valley of Salt Lake in the distance, with even a partial glimpse of the lake itself, at the right…. So steep, so smooth, and so rocky was this descent, that a mule or horse might scarcely keep his footing going down….” Capt Tracy and others faced additional hazard further along, “we found, going down the farther side of Big Mountain, such clouds and density of dust as well nigh brought us to an open suffocation. Neither was the condition of things improved by a drove of the Commissary’s cattle, which had preceded us, leaving in the air a mass of itself sufficient to our keenest fixation and misery.” — “Journal of Captain Albert Tracy, 1858-1860,” Utah Historical Quarterly 13 (1945): 25-26.

PHOTOS BY JOHN ELDREDGE

Mountain Dell

Looking northeast towards Little Dell Reservoir. Mountain Dell was the last camp for Johnston’s army before entering the Salt Lake Valley on June 26, 1858. Charles A. Scott wrote on June 25: “Orders were published to the Command for no man to leave the ranks in passing through the city to morrow and also the Articles of War, about injuring the property of Citizens [etc.] and a proclamation of the Governors congratulating the people on peace being established without bloodshed. June 26th Started at six, a long pull up for a commencement. At the top we found Ash Hollow No. 3, to descend, or Little Mountain as it is named—one of the lock chains of the forge (which I was driving) broke and if the other had done the same I would have gotten to the bottom in less than double quick time...” — Robert E. Stowers and John M. Ellis, eds.,“Charles A. Scott’s Diary of the Utah Expedition,1857-1861,” Utah Historical Quarterly 28 (April 1960): 172-73.

PHOTOS BY JOHN ELDREDGE

Salt Lake City, 1857

On June 26th, two weeks after peace commissioners L.W. Powell and Ben McCulloch met with Brigham Young, the U. S. Army under the command of Brevet Brigadier General Albert Sidney Johnston passed through Salt Lake City and encamped temporarily on the banks of the Jordan River before establishing Camp Floyd in Cedar Valley. Jesse A. Gove wrote of the city when he marched through: “we were particularly struck by its quietness…. The streets were deserted, the houses were deserted, the city was deserted…. The quietness of the grave prevailed….” — Otis G. Hammond, ed., The Utah Expedition, 1857-1858, 344. William Drown, chief bugler for the Second Dragoons, when first viewing the valley from the mouth of Emigration Canyon wrote: “When Brigham Young called this place a Paradise, I think he did not exaggerate at all; for it is truly the most lovely place I ever saw.” Then as he and the other soldiers marched down South Temple, he commented: “We saw about 100 men in passing through the city, but no women or children, they have gone with their leader, Brigham, to a place about thirty miles from here, called Provost….” — William Drown, “Personal Recollections—A Trumpeter’s Notes (’52-258),” in Theophilus F. Rodenbough, comp., From Everglade to Canyon with the Second United States Cavalry, 1836-1875 (1875; Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2000), 230. As several of the army units paraded in front of the Beehive and Lion Houses, one of military bands played a popular tune “One-Eye Riley.”

LONDON ILLUSTRATED NEWS, JANUARY 2, 1858