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Show 276 Talk of separation from the United States was not the cause of the Utah War; rather the reverse was t r u e . The Utah War produced the call for independence- not because the Mormons were rebels, but because they believed i t was the fulfillment of prophecy. Independence for the kingdom of God was seen as inevitable. The Mormons f i r s t decreed t o fight the invasion force to the l a s t man, if necessary, to save the kingdom. Historically, they had always moved away in the face of intense opposition, but t h i s time the embattled Saints had few places to retreat. Besides, the time was at hand for the kingdom t o r i s e to power and claim i t s rightful position in the world. When the woeful news of invasions from California, the Colorado River, and other localities reached Salt Lake City, Brigham Young became as deluded with the idea that his enemies had surrounded him as he had with the notion that the impending c r i s i s was the commencement of the great upheavals to preceed the millennium. Increasingly apprehensive about engaging in h o s t i l i t i e s with the U.S. troops, he began t o consider alternative solutions. Inspired by the heroic defense of Sebasopol in the recent Crimean War, and then by a prophetic dream he saw in March, President Young f i n a l ly determined on a new policy of defense. Young unveiled his plan at a "special conference" held in the Tabernacle on March 21, 1858, claiming that the Saints were not sufficiently righteous to decisively defeat the enemy. Rather than defeat the army by military force, the Mormons were to lay waste t o t h e i r settlements and commence a t a c t i c a l retreat into the interior deserts of the Great Basin. In t h i s way Young hoped t o preserve the gathering and defeat the army in a single stroke. Brigham Young bad conceived the idea that somewhere in the unexplored southwestern deserts of Utah Territory lay a series of oases capable of swallowing up the entire population of Utah, while surrounding them with the protection of a harsh desert, impenetrable by a large force. And so, as in the past, |