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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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-1C ? It's almost Siberia :)
Normally we should have between -5C and 0C, especially at night.
As I recall, the Mormons and the government really came to terms when Utah made a push for statehood after the Civil War and Congress required them to give up polygamy as a prerequisite.
LOL, it certainly feels like it. We're not expected to get above freezing until Christmas afternoon.
Today's classic warship, USS Sampson (DD-394)
Somers class destroyer
Displacement. 2,130 t.
Lenght. 381'0"
Beam. 36'2"
Draft. 10'4"
Speed. 32 k.
Complement. 287
Armament. 8 5", 8 1.1", 2 .50 cal. mg., 12 21"tt.
The USS Sampson (DD-394) was laid down on 8 April 1936 by the Bath Iron Works Corp., Bath, Maine; launched on 16 April 1938; sponsored by Mrs. Louisa Smith Thayer; and commissioned at the Boston Navy Yard on 19 August 1938, Comdr. W. Granat in command.
Following shakedown in European waters in October and November, Sampson returned to Boston where she was assigned to the Battle Force of the United States Fleet.
Sampson sailed from Boston on 8 March 1939 to take part in combined fleet maneuvers in waters off Cuba and Puerto Rico. She returned from this duty to Yorktown, Va., on 12 April and stood out from Hampton Roads on 20 April and headed for the United States west coast. She arrived at San Diego on 12 May 1939 and spent the next year in fleet tactics along the western seaboard from that base, taking part in the combined battle practice and maneuvers of the Battle Force off the Hawaiian Islands from 1 April to 20 June 1940. She cleared San Diego on 5 July to base her operations from Norfolk where she arrived on the 20th. She then cruised through the Caribbean Sea, from 14 November to 15 December, transporting a government mission which was compiling an economic survey of the British West Indies.
Sampson then continued operations out of Norfolk, engaged in Neutrality Patrol along the eastern seaboard to various ports of the Caribbean Sea, and steamed as far north as Placentia Bay, Newfoundland. On 3 September 1941, she got underway from Boston Harbor to escort convoys and to search for enemy submarines in shipping lanes running from Newfoundland to Iceland. She arrived at HvalfJordur Fjord Iceland, on 16 September and cleared that port on 28 October in the escort screen of a merchant convoy which reached Boston on 4 November.
With the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and the United States declaration of war, Sampson patrolled, with Warrington (DD-383) off Newport from 23 December 1941 to 12 January 1942 when the two destroyers set course for the Canal Zone. Sampson arrived at Balboa on 17 January to join the Southeast Pacific Forces based there. She took part in the search from 25 to 29 January, to locate submarine S-26 (SS-131) which had been sunk in 290 feet of water the night of 24 January by a surface collision with PC-460, 12 miles west of San Jose Island in Panama Bay.
On 1 February, she sailed from Balboa in the escort for twelve troopships. On 12 February, she broke off from the convoy to inspect Marquesa Island. She arrived at Bora Bora, Society Islands, on 18 February and patrolled a station off Teavanui Harbor until 9 March when she set course, in company with cruiser Trenton, for Panama, and reached Balboa on 23 March. Sampson spent the next year in a series of coastal patrol sweeps from Balboa to waters off South America, making calls at such ports as Guayaquil, Ecuador; Valparaiso, Chile, and Callao, Peru. She varied this service with infrequent escort voyages from Balboa to the Society and Galapagos Islands
Sampson returned from her last cruise along the South American coast to Balboa, on 7 May 1943, and cleared port on 23 May as one of the escorts for a troopship convoy which reached Great Roads, Noumea, New Caledonia, on 13 June. The next day, she sailed for Bora Bora, Society Islands, and returned to Noumea with a convoy of troopships on 8 July. Two days later, she set course for a point of rendezvous off Pago Pago, American Samoa; met destroyer Warrington; thence proceeded to Pearl Harbor where she arrived on the 20th.
On 27 July, the two destroyers cleared Pearl Harbor escorting four Army troopships bound for Australia and reached Sydney on 8 August. She got underway the next day and arrived at Noumea, New Caledonia on 12 August 1943. During the following months, Sampson alternately based her operations at Noumea and Espiritu Santo, New Hebrides Islands, and made frequent escort voyages to Guadalcanal, or Purvis Bay Florida, Solomon Islands. On the night of 2 and 3 October, while escorting a convoy from Noumea to Espiritu Santo, she fired at an enemy submarine and after that vessel submerged, dropped depth charges that produced a heavy oil slick.
On 15 March 1944, Sampson cleared Espiritu Santo as one of four destroyers screening the escort carriers Natoma Bay (CVE-62) and Manila Bay (CVE-61). Later that day, four battleships and more destroyers joined the formation. This force struck Kavieng, New Ireland, and nearby airfields in an air-sea bombardment on 20 March while the 4th Marine Regiment made an unopposed landing to occupy Emirau Island, a base from which the north coast of New Ireland could be kept under surveillance. After guarding the escort carriers while they launched strikes against Kavieng and providing air cover for reinforcement convoys to Emirau, Sampson joined a convoy at Port Purvis Florida Island, and escorted it to Espiritu Santo. On 11 April, she received the armed guard crew from the merchant ship, Titan, stranded on Cook Reef and transferred them to Celtic in Havannah Harbor, Efate, New Hebrides.
Sampson cleared Havannah Harbor on 17 April and, after escorting Atascosa to Kukum Beach, arrived off Tenaru Beach of Guadalcanal on the 20th, joining troopships which reached Borgen Bay, New Britain Island, on 25 April. After guarding one more convoy shuttling troops between Guadalcanal and Borgen Bay she touched at Purvis Bay; then steamed to Milne Bay, New Guinea, where she arrived on 11 May.
There she joined the 7th Fleet; and, while at Cape Sudest, New Guinea, on 20 May became the flagship of Rear Admiral W. M. Fechteler, Commander, Task Force 77. She shifted to Humboldt Bay, Hollandia, New Guinea, on 22 May. Three days later, Major General Horace H. Fuller, the commander of the 41st United States Army Division, came on board Sampson with his staff. Rear Admiral Fechteler commanded the naval elements and the amphibious aspects of the landing to be made at Bosnik on Biak Island, Schouten Islands, while Major General Fuller directed the ground forces. The task force sailed that evening and Sampson arrived off Bosnik with her attack force before daybreak of 27 May.
Following naval bombardment, the first wave of troops landed. Three cruisers sent 6-inch shells onto a enemy airstrip to the west of the beachhead while the destroyers took on targets near the landing area.
In the late afternoon of 27 May, four twin-engined enemy planes came in and were taken under fire by antiaircraft guns, both afloat and ashore. Two burst into flames and crashed, and one flew off smoking badly. The pilot of a fourth enemy plane, which also trailed smoke, was attempting to crash into Sampson when antiaircraft fire knocked off a part of its wing. This raider passed over Sampson's bridge but hit the water with its wing tip and catapulted into SC-699. The submarine chaser was engulfed in flames, but soon had the fires under control. At 1707, Sampson departed Bosnik with eight LST's and several other ships and arrived in Humboldt Bay the next day.
Sampson got underway from Cape Sudest on 5 June and touched the Samoan and Society Islands, en route to Cristobal, Canal Zone, where she reported for duty to the United States Atlantic Fleet on 25 June. Three days later, she sailed as the escort for troopship, General Tasker H. Bliss, and arrived at the New York Navy Yard on 4 July. She became flagship of Capt. H. T. Read, Commander, Task Force 63, on 19 July, and shifted to Hampton Roads, Va., on 21 July in preparation for transatlantic, convoy-escort duty. Three days later, she sailed as flagship of the escort for Convoy UGS-49 which reached Bizerte, Tunisia, on 13 August. She returned to New York, guarding a westward convoy, on 8 September 1944, and made four subsequent round trips to the Mediterranean, finally arriving at Boston on 19 May 1945.
Sampson remained in the Boston Navy Yard until 1 July when she sailed for the Chesapeake. She arrived at Annapolis, Md., on 3 July to embark midshipmen for a training cruise, and put to sea on the 7th with a task group for battle practice off Cuba, Puerto Rico, and the Virginia Capes until 30 July when she arrived at Hampton Roads. She again sailed from Norfolk on 19 August for training operations out of Guantanamo Bay and returned from this cruise to the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard on 16 September for inactivation overhaul. She was decommissioned on 1 November 1945 her name was struck from the Navy list on 28 November, and she was sold for scrap on 29 March 1946.
Sampson earned one battle star for World War II service.
bttt
I've read some of the Pueblo people's stories. The North Koreans are very skilled at softening up prisoners. I learned a lot and all of it sad and unpleasant from those stories. The Liberals have a deeply insane view of human nature.
In their view, the Almighty had "put a hook in the mouths of their enemies," and had allowed their ragtag, undersupplied, and poorly armed militia to confound some of the best and the brightest of the U.S. Army.
Hmmm . . . the Almighty also forever cracked the Morman shell of isolationism and BY lost both his governorship and total domination he once enjoyed over all the Utah citizens. Truth be said the true advantage was gained by which ever side you asked . . . not the Almighty. IMHO.
Thank you Matthew. We've been busy in our store all day and had no time to post. This is a nice looking Santa you've posted.
LOL. We sure could use the help. I'll take some pictures tomorrow to show the progress. We tried to work with some of the fixtures today but we kept getting interupted by customers! ;-)
Hi you two. Sam and I have been busy with last minute shoppers and our new fixtures. Just thought I'd stop in and let you all know we are still kicking!
Thanks feather.
Ooooh. Get too much culture and we won't know how to treat you. ;-)
Good evening Victoria.
Thank you Grzegorz 246. Merry Christmas to you too.
Howdy Snippy. Enjoying the cold weather?
It's not cold here in Oregon, well...at least not as cold as it was/is back east.
Oh, you're lucky!
Won't happen . . . I think I upset K when I commented that the grounds of the museum were so well kept, I should have brought my pitching wedge and some golf balls. SEE!
BTW, ya'll will be happy to hear that some purple finches and Black Phoebe's are eating at the peanut feeder . . . they should be at the Nyjer but I think they don't like the Goldfinch color. The feeders are getting more and more activity, hope to have some pics soon! It's so cool how they just cling to the sides of the feeder and peck away.
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