Utah War

Date

March 1857 – July 1858

Location

Utah Territory
present day Utah & Wyoming

Result

Resolution through negotiation;

Brigham Young replaced as Governor of Utah Territory
Full amnesty for charges of sedition and treason issued to the citizens of Utah Territory by President James Buchanan on the condition that they accept U.S. Federal authority

Belligerents

United States

Deseret / Utah Mormons (Nauvoo Legion)

Commanders and leaders

Pres. James Buchanan
Gen. Albert S. Johnston

Gov. Brigham Young
Gen. Daniel H. Wells
Cap. Lot Smith

Strength

2,500

unknown

Casualties and losses

Unknown

Civilians: 126 killed (120 in Mountain Meadows Massacre)

Resolution through negotiation;

The Utah War (1857–1858), 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.

In 1857-1858, President James Buchanan sent U.S. forces to the Utah Territory in what became known as the Utah Expedition. The Mormons, fearful that the large U.S. military force had been sent to annihilate them and having faced persecution in other areas, made preparations for defense. Though bloodshed was to be avoided, and the U.S. government also hoped that its purpose might be attained without the loss of life, both sides prepared for war. Firearms were manufactured or repaired by the Mormons, scythes were turned into bayonets, and long-unused sabres were burnished and sharpened.

Rather than engaging the enemy directly, Mormon strategy was one of hindering and weakening them. Daniel H. Wells, lieutenant-general of the Nauvoo Legion, instructed Major Joseph Taylor:

The Mormons blocked the army's entrance into the Salt Lake Valley, and weakened the U.S. Army by hindering them from receiving provisions.

The confrontation between the Mormon militia, called the Nauvoo Legion, and the U.S. Army involved some destruction of property and a few brief skirmishes in what is today southwestern Wyoming, but no battles occurred between the contending military forces.

At the height of the tensions, on September 11, 1857, more than 120 California-bound settlers from Arkansas, Missouri and other states, including unarmed men, women and children, were killed in remote southwestern Utah by a group of local Mormon militiamen. They first claimed that the migrants were killed by Indians, but it was proven otherwise. This event was later called the Mountain Meadows massacre, and the motives behind the incident remain unclear.

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Wikipedia