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Show CHAPTER I THE GATHERING STORM The White Mountain Expedition was unlike any previous attempt to probe the Great Basin. It was, in fact, a direct result of a federal military expedition marching on Utah to depose Governor Brigham Young and suppress an alleged rebellion in the Territory. But to Brigham Young and the Mormon people, the White Mountain Expedition was, for a time, their last hope for survival as a people. The condition of affairs that led to the so-called "Utah War" and ultimately to the White Mountain Expedition was unique in American history. The Territory of Utah was inhabited almost exclusively by members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints-or Mormons--who, by 1857, numbered about 40,000 souls.1 These persecution-weary Saints were devout followers of Brigham Young, the Governor of Utah, but more importantly, a "prophet of God." The peculiar religious and theocratic institutions of the Mormons had brought tragedy and persecution in New York, Ohio, Missouri, and Illinois. Now, on the edge of the Great Basin wilderness, they were preparing to defend themselves from what was considered the most serious threat to their existence yet. This time their foe was the Army of the United States. A look into the institutions of the Latter-day Saints as they existed in the 1850s offers valuable insights into Mormon perceptions of the Utah Ward and the White Mountain Expedition. In many respects, the White Mountain Expedition was not so much a result of actual conditions as it was a result of the way conditions 31 |