The Utah War
Utah
In the late eighteen fifties, the United States and the Mormon settlers of Utah nearly came to open war, and these canyons were the battlefield that almost was.
Federal officials and the Latter-day Saints had been clashing over who really governed the territory. President James Buchanan, alarmed by rumors of rebellion, sent some twenty-five hundred Army troops west to install a new governor. But he never told Brigham Young he was being replaced. Hearing only that an army was marching toward them, the Mormons assumed the worst.
Young called up the Nauvoo Legion and fortified Echo Canyon, the narrow choke point on the road into the valley. His men raided supply trains and burned wagons but spilled no blood. In eighteen fifty-eight a negotiator brokered peace. The army passed through quietly, and the so-called war ended without a battle.
