DevanJensen

On May 8, 1861, Henry Wells Jackson began a journey from Springville, Utah, to Washington, D.C., during the Civil War. He later volunteered for the Union as a lieutenant. How did a Utah Mormon get involved in the Civil War? This is a surprising story involving the Mormon Battalion, the gold rush, Indian attacks, the Utah War, Camp Floyd, the overland mail service, congressional budget battles, and a skinflint postmaster general. Twenty-year-old Henry Wells Jackson completed service in the Mormon Battalion and then the Mormon Volunteers and traveled north to Mormon Island. On July 16, 1847, Henry was mustered out of the Mormon Battalion in Los Angeles. He reenlisted in the Mormon Volunteers while many of his comrades headed northeast to the Great Salt Lake Valley and some headed north to Sacramento and began working for John Sutter. In 1848, two events ten days apart triggered an avalanche of immigration to California: the January 24 discovery of gold at Sutter’s sawmill an...

The Utah War and Mountain Meadows Massacre together form one of the darkest chapters in the history of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormons). To help readers understand these events, this blog post gathers historical perspectives from historians both outside and inside the faith. Like a tapestry woven of many threads, the various accounts show us the complex issues and individuals involved in the Utah War. A Non-Mormon Perspective on the Utah War “So what was the Utah War?” asks William P. MacKinnon, an independent historian who happens to be Presbyterian. He then answers his own question: “In one sense it was President James Buchanan’s effort to replace Brigham Young as governor of Utah Territory and to install his successor with an army escort of 2,500 troops, a change that Young resisted with guerrilla tactics until a settlement was reached a year later in 1858. Over the years I have come to define it more formally as the armed confrontation over power a...