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Show 109 make your sweet unmolested. I would cache window and door frames and casings, etc., and thus save all that we can; we may come back here.... Brigham Young's decision to remove to the desert was coupled with the earlier threats of laying waste to all they left behind. No doubt, Young had been influenced in this decision by the siege of Sebastopol during the Crimean War in l855« More than one reference was made to Sebastopol in this speech. In this famous battle, Lord Raglan had laid seige to the city of Sebastopol for more than a year. When its beleaguered Russian defenders realized the hopelessness of their situation, they burned the city and left it for the British. The Russian general who commanded the city recalled: "It is not Sebastopol which we have left them, but the burning ruins of the town.. .having maintained the honor of defense is such a manner that our grandchildren may recall with pride the rememberance of it." Now Brigham Young was about to turn Salt Lake into another Sebastopol. Buchanan "has given orders to the soldiery to build a station 'at or near Salt Lake City' in Utah Territory," declared Young: Those orders must be fulfilled, or both political parties of the nation are disgraced, so I am for letting them come and take 'Sebastopol.'... No doubt some of the brethren will be a little surprised at this move, and think it hard.... You may ask whether I am willing to burn up my houses? Yes, and to be the first man that will put the torch to my own dwellings.... (Italics mine.) During this speech, the problem of how to deal with the army, now hovering on their border, was also addressed: Some of you may think I am imprudent in making these statements here, lest our enemies hear of them and start to come here before we are ready for them. If they do that, while we are doing all we can to get away, we |
