page_title: Utah War
section_title: Preparations
hierarchical_section_title: Utah War / Troop movements / July–November 1857: tactical standoff / Preparations
caption_attribution_description: Stewart Van Vliet. Library of Congress description: "Van Vliet, Gen Stewart".
context_page_description: The Utah War, also known as the Utah Expedition, Utah Campaign, Buchanan's Blunder, the Mormon War, or the Mormon Rebellion was an armed confrontation between Mormon settlers in the Utah Territory and the armed forces of the United States government. The confrontation lasted from May 1857 to July 1858. There were some casualties, mostly non-Mormon civilians. The war had no notable military battles.
context_section_description: Although the Utah Expedition had begun to gather as early as May under orders from General Winfield Scott, the first soldiers did not leave Fort Leavenworth, Kansas until 18 July 1857. The troops were originally to be led by Gen. William S. Harney. However, affairs in "Bleeding Kansas" forced Harney to remain behind to deal with skirmishes between pro-slavery and free-soiler militants. The Expedition's cavalry, the 2nd Dragoons, was kept in Kansas for the same reason. Because of Harney's unavailability, Col. Edmund Alexander was charged with the first detachment of troops headed for Utah. However, overall command was assigned to Col. Albert Sidney Johnston who did not leave Kansas until much later. As it was, July was already far into the campaigning season, and the army and their supply train were unprepared for winter in the Rocky Mountains. The army was not given instructions on how to react in case of resistance.
  The Mormons' lack of information on the army's mission created apprehension and led to their making defensive preparations. While rumors spread during the spring that an army was coming to Utah and that Brigham Young had been replaced as governor, this was not confirmed until late July. Mormon mail contractors, including Porter Rockwell and Abraham O. Smoot, received word in Missouri that their contract was canceled and that the Army was on the move. The men quickly returned to Salt Lake City and notified Brigham Young that U.S. Army units were marching on the Mormons. Young announced the approach of the army to a large group of Latter-day Saints gathered in Big Cottonwood Canyon for Pioneer Day celebrations on 24 July.
  Young disagreed with Buchanan's choices for governor of the territory. Although Young's secular position simplified his administration of the Territory, he believed his religious authority was more important among a nearly homogeneous population of Mormons. Young and the Mormon community feared renewed persecution and possibly annihilation by a large body of federal troops. Mormons remembered previous conflicts when they had lived near numerous non-Mormons. In 1838, they had been driven from Missouri into Illinois by direction of the Governor of Missouri who issued the infamous Extermination Order. Mormons' state of mind was further alarmed when they learned in late June 1857 that LDS Apostle Parley P. Pratt had recently been murdered while serving a mission in Arkansas.
  Fearing the worst, Young ordered residents throughout Utah territory to prepare for evacuation, making plans to burn their homes and property and to stockpile food and stock feed. Guns were manufactured and ammunition was cast. Mormon colonists in small outlying communities in the Carson Valley and San Bernardino, California were ordered to leave their homes to consolidate with the main body of Latter-day Saints in Northern and Central Utah. All LDS missionaries serving in the United States and Europe were recalled. Young also sent George A. Smith to the settlements of southern Utah to prepare them for action. Young's strategies to defend the Saints vacillated between all-out war, a more limited confrontation, and retreat.
  An alliance with the Indians was central to Young's strategy for war, although his relations with them had been strained since the settlers' arrival in 1847. Young had generally adopted a policy of conversion and conciliation towards native tribes. Some Mormon leaders encouraged intermarriage with the Indians so that the two peoples might "unite together" and their "interests become one".
  On 30 August-1 September, Young met with Indian delegations and gave them permission to take all of the livestock then on the northern and southern trails into California (the Fancher Party was at that time on the southern trail). This meeting may have been Young's attempt to win Indian support against the United States and refrain from raids against Mormon settlements. In sermons on 16 August, and again one month later, Young publicly urged the emigrant wagon trains to keep away from the Territory. Despite Young's efforts
caption: Major General Stewart Van Vliet of the U.S. Army.
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