Adventures in Mormon History

On 26 June 1858, COL Albert Sidney Johnston ordered his troops forward, marching them towards Salt Lake City. For over a year, they had endured cold, hunger, and grueling marches. Now, as they entered Salt Lake City, they found it abandoned -- other than a few Soldiers of the Nauvoo Legion, who stood ready to set the city ablaze if Johnston’s Soldiers began rampaging. How did Johnston’s Army feel about this ambiguous end to a year-long campaign? How did Latter-day Saints deal with uncer...

In March 1858, Thomas Kane’s efforts to end the Utah War had been fruitless. a week with COL Albert Sidney Johnston and the U.S. Army on the plains of Wyoming. President James Buchanan had sent the Army to Utah, to remove Brigham Young as Governor and replace him with Alfred Cumming. This had led to a months-long armed standoff between the US Army and the Latter-day Saint militia. Sensing that he alone could work out a peace between the two sides, Thomas Kane raced to the Wyoming Wilder...

On the night of 9 March 1858, Thomas L. Kane was trudging through a heavy snow storm on his self-appointed mission to End the Utah War. He had convinced Brigham Young and Church Leaders to extend an olive branch to the Army Expedition by offering them large quantities of food and supplies. But now, over 25 feet of snow buried the mountain roads. With temperatures plummeting and winds howling, Kane found himself growing weaker while the storm raged around him. Sensing that he might not s...

In February 1858, the Latter-day Saints and the U.S. Army were in an armed standoff on the frozen plains of Wyoming. The Army, under the command of COL Albert Sidney Johnston, were on half rations, and suffering from a lack of salt. The Latter-day Saints seemed to have the upper hand for the time being, though they faced growing threats from all sides. In the middle of this stalemate a strange letter arrived in Salt Lake City for Brigham Young. It had come express from the t...

This episode continues the adventures of Thomas L. Kane, who left his home in February 1858 and set out for Salt Lake City. His self-imposed mission was to stop the Utah War. His plan was, as his wife Elizabeth later wrote, was somewhat hazy: “Tom’s plan was to go in disguise to Utah by way of California, winter though it was, and make his unexpected appearance at Brigham Young’s very gates, relying upon his own mental force and Young’s knowledge of the sincerity of his good...

At the crisis of the Utah War -- Arguably the most dangerous moment in the history of the Latter-day Saints -- Colonel Thomas Kane set out on a bold plan: He would travel to Utah and Wyoming, in the dead of winter, throw himself between the U.S. Army and the Latter-day Saints, and hammer out a peace agreement. Nobody -- including President James Buchanan and his own father, Judge John Kane -- believed he would succeed. Yet Thomas Kane declared to Buchanan, "I am determined to go, with or with...

Before Lot Smith’s raid on the Wagon Supplies, conventional wisdom in the Government and the Nation seemed to be that talk of the Latter-day Saints actually resisting the Army was just that – Talk. But when news of the raid finally reached the states, it was shocking. Overnight, Johnston’s Army lost roughly half its supplies for the campaign. Johnston and his troops would spend a hungry, freezing winter on half-rations in the ashes of what had once been Fort Bridger – which also had be...

In the 1920s, an elderly and well-respected Oregon Rancher, Charlie Becker, prepared a sketch of his adventurous life, the places he had seen, the adventures he had lived, and the hardships he had overcome. He also disclosed that, as a young man, he had served as a Civilian Teamster accompanying Johnston’s Army during the Utah War. In an unguarded moment, he allowed himself to be captured by a Latter-day Saint Raiding party. He would spend the next months a prisoner in the Utah Territor...

In August of 1857, Brigham Young delivered a speech to the saints assembled in the Tabernacle. As he contemplated the Army force marching closer to the home of the Saints, he bitterly remembered how, over the last he and the Latter-day Saints, over the last 20 years, had been brutally victimized by armed bands, from Ohio to Missouri to Illinois. He saw the approach of federal troops as simply the latest armed force to set out to destroy them. But he decided that this time wo...

In 1857, the Buchanan Administration sent an Army Expedition to Utah. It was sure to be an arduous, difficulty journey, with many ways to suffer and few to win glory. But who were the Soldiers marching against the Latter-day Saints? On today’s episode, we explore the Soldiers and Teamsters, which included both selfless heroes and hopeless drunks, public servants and fugitive criminals, that made up Johnston’s Army. Discussions include: A letter from Robert E. Lee...