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Relations With the U.S. Military

Audrey M. Godfrey

Unlike many frontier settlers who asked for military protection, Mormon settlers resisted the establishment of army forts in their territory, seeing such efforts as an encroachment upon their lands, government, and freedom. Through the years, Mormon-military relations have evolved from antagonism to accommodation.

Church leaders welcomed U.S. Army topographical engineers who came to Utah to chart roads for emigrants in 1849 and 1853. Capt. Howard Stansbury and Lt. John W. Gunnison received cordial treatment but carried back warnings from Mormon ecclesiastical authorities that further efforts involving military interference in the territory would be met with force.

The first large contingent of federal soldiers arrived in 1854, under Lt. Colossians Edward J. Steptoe, to investigate the possibility of constructing a road from Salt Lake City to California. Liaisons between soldiers and local women resulted in a charge by the Mormons that the men brought depravity into their Victorian communities, a charge revived three years later when U.S. troops returned.

With each attempt to extend federal influence into the territory, Mormons' stubborn adherence to sovereignty sent government appointees back to the East carrying tales about the debauchery of polygamists and about the unpatriotic climate. Finally, President James Buchanan, determined to seat a non Mormon governor by force if necessary, ordered an army to accompany his appointee, Alfred Cumming, precipitating the Utah War in 1857 and 1858.

A severe, early winter and Mormon resistance forced the army, under the leadership of Genesis Albert Sidney Johnston, into a winter bivouac, Camp Scott, near Fort Bridger. Before spring weather allowed movement, a peace commission had negotiated a pardon of the Mormons. The army then established Camp Floyd in Cedar Valley, 40 miles southwest of Salt Lake City. No battles ensued, but neither did agreement.

For three years the army remained in Utah, virtually confined to its barren valley except for forays to prevent Indian attacks, guard the immigrant road, make a show of force when a U.S. court was convened in Provo, or, most important, survey and build existing and new roads for travelers. As the Civil War threatened, regiments were withdrawn to service in other areas, and the fort was disbanded in 1861. When the military left, $4 million in stores and livestock was sold to local buyers for less than $100,000. Some businesses that had serviced Camp Floyd continued to operate, further boosting the local economy.