Private, Company A, 5th US Infantry Regiment.
In 1857, President James Buchanan decided to bring federal control to Utah Territory. The territory had been led by Mormon President Brigham Young, who acted as Territorial Governor. Responding to national outrage over the Mormon practice of plural marriage, President Buchanan replaced Brigham Young with Alfred Cumming, a notorious womanizer and drunkard, who quickly alienated the pious Mormons. The Mormons promptly ordered Governor Cumming out of the territory. In Sept 1857, a group of Mormons and Paiute Indians attacked a peaceful wagon train in southern Utah on its way to California and killed 140 persons, including women and small children (known today as the Mountain Meadows Massacre). Anti-Mormon politicians believed that the Mormons were out of control and seeking a separate nation, and eastern newspapers soon picked up this story, fanning public opinion against the Mormons.
President Buchanan then ordered the US Army to enter Utah, to restore peace and federal control. Under the command of Colonel Albert Sydney Johnston (later General, CSA) a force of 3,500 men (nearly half the US Army of the period) marched from Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, in 1858, and established Camp Floyd, Utah, near Fairfield (about 40 miles southwest of Salt Lake City). They remained there until July 1861, when the Civil War broke out and they were ordered back to Kansas. During this time, relations between the soldiers and the Mormons were strained at best. Eighty-four soldiers are buried in the local Camp Floyd cemetery.
In 1857, President James Buchanan decided to bring federal control to Utah Territory. The territory had been led by Mormon President Brigham Young, who acted as Territorial Governor. Responding to national outrage over the Mormon practice of plural marriage, President Buchanan replaced Brigham Young with Alfred Cumming, a notorious womanizer and drunkard, who quickly alienated the pious Mormons. The Mormons promptly ordered Governor Cumming out of the territory. In Sept 1857, a group of Mormons and Paiute Indians attacked a peaceful wagon train in southern Utah on its way to California and killed 140 persons, including women and small children (known today as the Mountain Meadows Massacre). Anti-Mormon politicians believed that the Mormons were out of control and seeking a separate nation, and eastern newspapers soon picked up this story, fanning public opinion against the Mormons.
President Buchanan then ordered the US Army to enter Utah, to restore peace and federal control. Under the command of Colonel Albert Sydney Johnston (later General, CSA) a force of 3,500 men (nearly half the US Army of the period) marched from Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, in 1858, and established Camp Floyd, Utah, near Fairfield (about 40 miles southwest of Salt Lake City). They remained there until July 1861, when the Civil War broke out and they were ordered back to Kansas. During this time, relations between the soldiers and the Mormons were strained at best. Eighty-four soldiers are buried in the local Camp Floyd cemetery.
Private, Company A, 5th US Infantry Regiment.
In 1857, President James Buchanan decided to bring federal control to Utah Territory. The territory had been led by Mormon President Brigham Young, who acted as Territorial Governor. Responding to national outrage over the Mormon practice of plural marriage, President Buchanan replaced Brigham Young with Alfred Cumming, a notorious womanizer and drunkard, who quickly alienated the pious Mormons. The Mormons promptly ordered Governor Cumming out of the territory. In Sept 1857, a group of Mormons and Paiute Indians attacked a peaceful wagon train in southern Utah on its way to California and killed 140 persons, including women and small children (known today as the Mountain Meadows Massacre). Anti-Mormon politicians believed that the Mormons were out of control and seeking a separate nation, and eastern newspapers soon picked up this story, fanning public opinion against the Mormons.
President Buchanan then ordered the US Army to enter Utah, to restore peace and federal control. Under the command of Colonel Albert Sydney Johnston (later General, CSA) a force of 3,500 men (nearly half the US Army of the period) marched from Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, in 1858, and established Camp Floyd, Utah, near Fairfield (about 40 miles southwest of Salt Lake City). They remained there until July 1861, when the Civil War broke out and they were ordered back to Kansas. During this time, relations between the soldiers and the Mormons were strained at best. Eighty-four soldiers are buried in the local Camp Floyd cemetery.
In 1857, President James Buchanan decided to bring federal control to Utah Territory. The territory had been led by Mormon President Brigham Young, who acted as Territorial Governor. Responding to national outrage over the Mormon practice of plural marriage, President Buchanan replaced Brigham Young with Alfred Cumming, a notorious womanizer and drunkard, who quickly alienated the pious Mormons. The Mormons promptly ordered Governor Cumming out of the territory. In Sept 1857, a group of Mormons and Paiute Indians attacked a peaceful wagon train in southern Utah on its way to California and killed 140 persons, including women and small children (known today as the Mountain Meadows Massacre). Anti-Mormon politicians believed that the Mormons were out of control and seeking a separate nation, and eastern newspapers soon picked up this story, fanning public opinion against the Mormons.
President Buchanan then ordered the US Army to enter Utah, to restore peace and federal control. Under the command of Colonel Albert Sydney Johnston (later General, CSA) a force of 3,500 men (nearly half the US Army of the period) marched from Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, in 1858, and established Camp Floyd, Utah, near Fairfield (about 40 miles southwest of Salt Lake City). They remained there until July 1861, when the Civil War broke out and they were ordered back to Kansas. During this time, relations between the soldiers and the Mormons were strained at best. Eighty-four soldiers are buried in the local Camp Floyd cemetery.
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