Mormon War II

Since the army was delayed through the winter, Colonel Thomas L. Kane, a long-time friend of the Mormons from the Missouri persecution, had time to get to Utah to help with the problem. He came, under a false name of Dr. Osborne, by way of the Isthmus of Panama to California and then on to Utah. In the spring Colonel Kane traveled to Wyoming to talk with Governor Cumming. He suggested that the governor come ahead of the United States Army to Salt Lake to meet the Church leaders.


When Governor Cumming met with Brigham, he found out that the charges against the Mormons were false. He wrote to President Buchanan immediately to let him know that the Mormons were law-abiding citizens. Governor Cumming and Brigham were both kind leaders and soon began to trust each other. They learned to work together by talking over their problems and listening to each other.

Brigham still did not want the army to come into Salt Lake. He was afraid they would persecute the pioneers like the mobs did in Ohio, Missouri, and Illinois. Since Brigham didn’t trust the army, he had all the Mormons leave Northern Utah and the Salt Lake Valley and go south to Provo and beyond. The pioneers were prepared to burn their homes rather than have the army take them over. Brigham left a few men in every city ready to destroy their property if the army did not keep to itself. The building of the Salt Lake temple stopped, and the entire temple lot was leveled and covered over so that it looked like plowed ground.

Johnston’s Army came into the Salt Lake Valley in June and passed through the city without disturbing anything. They settled forty miles to the south of the city, leaving the Mormons alone. When Brigham saw that the army was not going to harm the pioneers, he told the Mormons they could return to their homes.

People in the east were upset with Buchanan for sending an army to Utah because the Utah War cost the United States government forty million dollars, nearly emptying the U.S. Treasury. In 1861the troops were called back to fight in the Civil War. The Mormons were left to themselves again.