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In 1832 Joseph Smith, Jr., the Mormons' first prophet, foretold of
a great war beginning in South Carolina. In the combatants' mutual
destruction, God's purposes would be served, and Mormon men would
rise to form a geographical, political, and theocratic ""Kingdom of
God"" to encompass the earth. Three decades later, when Smith's
prophecy failed with the end of the American Civil War, the United
States left torn but intact, the Mormons' perspective on the
conflict - and their inactivity in it - required palliative
revision. In The Civil War Years in Utah, the first full account of
the events that occurred in Utah Territory during the Civil War,
John Gary Maxwell contradicts the patriotic mythology of Mormon
leaders' version of this dark chapter in Utah history. While the
Civil War spread death, tragedy, and sorrow across the continent,
Utah Territory remained virtually untouched. Although the Church of
Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints - and its faithful - proudly
praise the service of an 1862 Mormon cavalry company during the
Civil War, Maxwell's research exposes the relatively
inconsequential contribution of these Nauvoo Legion soldiers.
Active for a mere ninety days, they patrolled overland trails and
telegraph lines. Furthermore, Maxwell finds indisputable evidence
of Southern allegiance among Mormon leaders, despite their claim of
staunch, long-standing loyalty to the Union. Men at the highest
levels of Mormon hierarchy were in close personal contact with
Confederate operatives. In seeking sovereignty, Maxwell contends,
the Saints engaged in blatant and treasonous conflict with Union
authorities, the California and Nevada Volunteers, and federal
policies, repeatedly skirting open warfare with the U.S.
government. Collective memory of this consequential period in
American history, Maxwell argues, has been ill-served by a
one-sided perspective. This engaging and long-overdue reappraisal
finally fills in the gaps, telling the full story of the Civil War
years in Utah Territory.
In 1832 Joseph Smith, Jr., the Mormons' first prophet, foretold of
a great war beginning in South Carolina. In the combatants' mutual
destruction, God's purposes would be served, and Mormon men would
rise to form a geographical, political, and theocratic ""Kingdom of
God"" to encompass the earth. Three decades later, when Smith's
prophecy failed with the end of the American Civil War, the United
States left torn but intact, the Mormons' perspective on the
conflict - and their inactivity in it - required palliative
revision. In The Civil War Years in Utah, the first full account of
the events that occurred in Utah Territory during the Civil War,
John Gary Maxwell contradicts the patriotic mythology of Mormon
leaders' version of this dark chapter in Utah history. While the
Civil War spread death, tragedy, and sorrow across the continent,
Utah Territory remained virtually untouched. Although the Church of
Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints - and its faithful - proudly
praise the service of an 1862 Mormon cavalry company during the
Civil War, Maxwell's research exposes the relatively
inconsequential contribution of these Nauvoo Legion soldiers.
Active for a mere ninety days, they patrolled overland trails and
telegraph lines. Furthermore, Maxwell finds indisputable evidence
of Southern allegiance among Mormon leaders, despite their claim of
staunch, long-standing loyalty to the Union. Men at the highest
levels of Mormon hierarchy were in close personal contact with
Confederate operatives. In seeking sovereignty, Maxwell contends,
the Saints engaged in blatant and treasonous conflict with Union
authorities, the California and Nevada Volunteers, and federal
policies, repeatedly skirting open warfare with the U.S.
government. Collective memory of this consequential period in
American history, Maxwell argues, has been ill-served by a
one-sided perspective. This engaging and long-overdue reappraisal
finally fills in the gaps, telling the full story of the Civil War
years in Utah Territory.
More than three hundred Latter-day Saint settlements were founded
by LDS Church President Brigham Young. Colonization—often outside
of Utah—continued under the next three LDS Church presidents,
fueled by Utah’s overpopulation relative to its arable,
productive land. In this book, John Gary Maxwell takes a
detailed look at the Bighorn Basin colonization of
1900–1901, placing it in the political and socioeconomic
climate of the time while examining whether the move to this
out-of-the-way frontier was motivated in part by the desire
to practice polygamy unnoticed. The LDS Church officially abandoned
polygamy in 1890, but evidence that the practice was still
tolerated (if not officially sanctioned) by the church
circulated widely, resulting in intense investigations by the
U.S. Senate. In 1896 Abraham Owen Woodruff, a rising star
in LDS leadership and an ardent believer in polygamy,
was appointed to head the LDS Colonization Company.
Maxwell explores whether under Woodruff’s leadership the
Bighorn Basin colony was intended as a means to insure the
secret survival of polygamy and if his untimely death in
1904, together with the excommunication of two equally
dedicated proponents of polygamy—Apostles John
Whitaker Taylor and Matthias Foss Cowley—led to its
collapse. Maxwell also details how Mormon settlers in
Wyoming struggled with finance, irrigation, and farming and
how they brought the same violence to indigenous
peoples over land and other rights as did non-Mormons. The
1900 Bighorn Basin colonization provides an
early twentieth-century example of a Mormon syndicate
operating at the intersection of religious conformity,
polygamy, nepotism, kinship, corporate business ventures,
wealth, and high priesthood status. Maxwell offers evidence
that although in many ways the Bighorn Basin colonization
failed, Owen Woodruff’s prophecy remains unbroken: “No
year will ever pass, from now until the coming of the Savior,
when children will not be born in plural marriage.”
More than three hundred Latter-day Saint settlements were founded
by LDS Church President Brigham Young. Colonization-often outside
of Utah-continued under the next three LDS Church presidents,
fueled by Utah's overpopulation relative to its arable, productive
land. In this book, John Gary Maxwell takes a detailed look at the
Bighorn Basin colonization of 1900-1901, placing it in the
political and socioeconomic climate of the time while examining
whether the move to this out-of-the-way frontier was motivated in
part by the desire to practice polygamy unnoticed. The LDS Church
officially abandoned polygamy in 1890, but evidence that the
practice was still tolerated (if not officially sanctioned) by the
church circulated widely, resulting in intense investigations by
the U.S. Senate. In 1896 Abraham Owen Woodruff, a rising star in
LDS leadership and an ardent believer in polygamy, was appointed to
head the LDS Colonization Company. Maxwell explores whether under
Woodruff's leadership the Bighorn Basin colony was intended as a
means to insure the secret survival of polygamy and if his untimely
death in 1904, together with the excommunication of two equally
dedicated proponents of polygamy-Apostles John Whitaker Taylor and
Matthias Foss Cowley-led to its collapse. Maxwell also details how
Mormon settlers in Wyoming struggled with finance, irrigation, and
farming and how they brought the same violence to indigenous
peoples over land and other rights as did non-Mormons. The 1900
Bighorn Basin colonization provides an early twentieth-century
example of a Mormon syndicate operating at the intersection of
religious conformity, polygamy, nepotism, kinship, corporate
business ventures, wealth, and high priesthood status. Maxwell
offers evidence that although in many ways the Bighorn Basin
colonization failed, Owen Woodruff's prophecy remains unbroken: "No
year will ever pass, from now until the coming of the Savior, when
children will not be born in plural marriage.
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