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Posted on 12/22/2004 10:57:32 PM PST by SAMWolf
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 are acknowledged, affirmed and commemorated.
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| Our Mission: The FReeper Foxhole is dedicated to Veterans of our Nation's military forces and to others who are affected in their relationships with Veterans. In the FReeper Foxhole, Veterans or their family members should feel free to address their specific circumstances or whatever issues concern them in an atmosphere of peace, understanding, brotherhood and support. The FReeper Foxhole hopes to share with it's readers an open forum where we can learn about and discuss military history, military news and other topics of concern or interest to our readers be they Veteran's, Current Duty or anyone interested in what we have to offer. If the Foxhole makes someone appreciate, even a little, what others have sacrificed for us, then it has accomplished one of it's missions. We hope the Foxhole in some small way helps us to remember and honor those who came before us.
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The federal expedition into Utah Territory in 1857-58, which pitted President James Buchanan's U.S. Army against Brigham Young's Nauvoo Legion, was largely a bloodless affair, but misjudgments, embarrassments and expenses abounded.  President James Buchanan When Brigham Young, with the first Mormon pioneers, set foot on the spacious Salt Lake Valley floor on July 24, 1847, he boasted that if they could have just 10 years of peace, they would ask no odds of the devil or Uncle Sam. The young religion that taught continuing revelation had already experienced a turbulent 17-year history. By the time the Latter-day Saints sought refuge in the Rocky Mountain wilderness, some members had been driven from their homes as many as four times. It was, curiously, 10 years to the day--on July 24, 1857--that Young received word that an American army was on its way to Utah Territory. The news was not altogether unexpected. Utah was a difficult post for federal territorial appointees. Mormon polygamy and theocratic tendencies were viewed by much of the country as peculiar and un-American. On the other hand, the federally appointed judges and other agents chosen from outside their community were an annoyance to the Mormons, whose petition for statehood was repeatedly refused. President Millard Fillmore had made a small concession, appointing Brigham Young as Utah's territorial governor. Judge William W. Drummond was particularly obnoxious to Salt Lake society. He lectured polygamists for their immoral lifestyle while he was cohabitating with another man's wife. Of even greater irritation, Drummond, along with Judges George P. Stiles and John F. Kinney, all sought to recoup federal jurisdiction from Utah's probate courts, which the Mormons had been creatively using to circumvent federal authority. The stormy relationships climaxed when Utah lawyers broke into Stiles' office in protest and pretended to burn court documents and law books in the privy out back. One by one, Drummond, Stiles and Kinney each packed his bags and headed back to Washington, declaring in scathing letters that they had barely escaped Utah with their lives. President Buchanan thought he should do something. Appointing a new territorial governor and new federal judges, and sending in 2,500 troops seemed like a good solution.  Brigham Young Instructions from General-in-Chief Winfield Scott to General William S. Harney on June 29, 1857, stated that the troops under Harney's command were to be a posse comitatus, and that "in no case will you, your officers or men, attack any body of citizens whatever, except on such requisition or summons, or in sheer self-defense." The administration, however, whether unintentionally or deliberately, neglected to inform Utah Territorial Governor Brigham Young of its decision or directives. Utah's leaders learned of the approaching army from mail carriers, who had picked up word of the big government supply contracts in Independence, Mo. In this vacuum of information, and after 27 years of persecution, the Mormons assumed the worst. It had been only 13 years since they buried their first prophet, Joseph Smith, killed by a mob in Carthage, Ill., and only two months since Parley P. Pratt, one of their 12 apostles, had been murdered in Arkansas. Memories of mob violence and broken government promises were still fresh in their minds. Typifying Mormon reaction, Sanford Porter Sr. wrote, "[We are] weak in number, and weak in means, but with too much American blood in our veins to put ourselves up as a target for an army to shoot at without making any effort to protect ourselves." Popular Utah rhetoric cast the Mormons in the role of "Uncle Sam's nephews," walking in his footsteps against tyranny. Nor were Mormon women the oppressed victims waiting for liberation that many Americans, including some of the approaching soldiers, assumed. Salt Lake wives poured hot lead into molds to make bullets and sewed blankets into overcoats for militiamen. When an army quartermaster asked Mrs. Albert Carrington if she would cut down her carefully cultivated peach orchard to defend her faith, she replied in the affirmative, "And would sit up nights to do it."  General William S. Harney On August 1, 1857, Utah mustered its territorial militia, called the Nauvoo Legion after its Illinois antecedent. Drilling commenced throughout the territory. The government sought to gather guns and ammunition, and manufactured Colt revolvers. Grain and other food supplies were cached. Settlers were recalled from distant homesteads such as San Bernardino, Calif., and the Carson Valley (then part of Utah Territory but later part of Nevada), while traveling associates were sent for from the Eastern states and Europe. Councils were held with the native tribesmen with the aim of keeping them friendly, or at least neutral. On August 15, the Mormons sent Colonel Robert T. Burton and a reconnaissance unit of 125 men eastward from Salt Lake City with orders to observe the American regiments en route to the territory and protect the Mormon emigrants still on the overland road that season. Two of Burton's men, Charles Decker and Jesse Earl, went into the soldiers' camps posing as travelers from California. What they learned while mingling with the uninformed and boastful enlisted men and junior officers only fueled Mormon fears that the army was coming to hang their leaders and abuse their women. Initially, there was a belief that the invasion of Utah might be a two-pronged attack, with troops sent from both the east and also from California. Tooele Valley militiaman Thomas Atkin Jr. was a member of a unit assigned to watch the roads and passes on the western routes into the territory. Another likely access from the west coast was the southwestern road, leaving Los Angeles and reaching Utah by way of St. George. In southern Utah, Colonel William H. Dame of the Parowan Military District reported on August 23 that he could field 200 men, if necessary, and that all the roads south of Beaver were being guarded. Units were also sent to explore and guard the passes from the north. Forty-three men under Captain Andrew Cunningham were sent to the Snake River near Fort Hall, while 12 men from Weber County were sent to explore the country east of Ogden. Indeed, all of the passes into the territory were being watched and evaluated as potential routes of invasion or as avenues of escape for the Mormon people.  In Defense against the approach of Johnston's army, Brigham Young posted this proclamation throughout Utah Territory on August 5, 1857, declaring martial law and forbidding any person to pass in or through the territory without permission from an authorized officer. Courtesy Special Collections Department, University of Utah Libraries. Though preparing for war, Utah's leaders sought to keep their options open. Publicly, they spoke of defending their rights and reminded each other of past abuses. Privately however, Brigham Young expressed what would become his favored policy. In the communiqués that accompanied his proclamation of martial law on September 14, Young along with the Nauvoo Legion's commanding general, Daniel H. Wells, told the district commanders Philo Farnsworth and Colonel Dame: "Let there be no excitement....Save life always when it is possible. We do not wish to shed a drop of blood if it can be avoided. This course will give us great influence abroad." Envoys were sent east to Washington, D.C., and influential friends hoped to work out a negotiated solution. At the same time, plans were also discussed for a mass migration to distant mountain valleys where extended guerrilla war could be fought, as a last resort. During the months of October and November, between 1,200 and 2,000 militiamen were stationed in the narrow, high-walled Echo Canyon and the equally defensible East Canyon, on the main road into the Salt Lake Valley. Living on little more than baked flour and water and dealing with the numerous feet of snow that kept falling on the Wasatch Range, the Utah men built breastworks, dug rifle pits and dammed the streams and rivers in preparation for battle. Those who venture off today's interstate highway can still see the remnants of their efforts. Utah's first line of defense, however, were several hundred mounted men known as "scouts," "rangers," or "bandits" and "scoundrels," depending on your point of view. This unorthodox cavalry was sent eastward on the high mountain plains that are now southwestern Wyoming with orders to stampede the animals, burn the grass, stage nightly surprises to keep the soldiers from sleeping, block the road with fallen trees and destroy the fords; in other words, "to annoy [the army] in every possible way."
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Morning GailA.
Heard on the News that a lot of the Midwest ot hit pretty bad. :-(
That is an Ann Coulter reference.
Government is too big and too important to be left to the politicians.
Chester Bowles, US diplomat & economist (1901 - 1986)
I thought that was what annual training was all about. :-)
Good Morning Feather.
Morning PE.
Nice graphic today.
What made it worse yesterday is that it rained for much of the day and started freezing to surfaces..then it turned to sleet later in the day and finally to light snow after midnight.
I swept the porch, stairs and car windows off. I'm staying in where it is nice and warm and safe from DUMP inexperienced drivers who think they just have to go out and get a gallon of milk or loaf of bread.
The first year we had a 'threat' of snow they closed the schools. Now they actually wait until the weather gets here to do that. This time school was already out for the CHRISTmas holiday.
Great story!
It's been a little bit cold the last few days. We went down to the low teens last night.
Time magazine prints North Korean propaganda photos of the USS Pueblo crewmen, in which several of the captured servicemen discreetly brandish the middle finger.
Morning Mayor.
Sounds like Anne Coulter having fun at the Libs expense. :-)
Hi Sam
Very smart move. Enjoy the day off indoors and comfy.
Thanks, :-)
Morning society-by-contract
Thanks to Time they got a severe beating for that.
Consider yourself flagged
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