War Hysteria Preceding The Mountain Meadows Massacre - Utah War

Utah War

In July 1857, while the Baker-Fancher party was en route to Utah Territory, Mormons began hearing rumors that the United States had launched an expedition to invade the territory and depose its theocratic government. For almost a decade, relations between Utah and the federal government had deteriorated over the issue of polygamy and the role of Mormon institutions versus that of federal ones in the territory. By July 1857, Young's replacement, Alfred Cumming, was appointed, and a fourth of the entire U.S. army, some 2,500 dragoons, were already on the march.

As news of the approaching army spread, the coming invasion took on apocalyptic significance. Mormons saw it as a threat to their existence. Members of the First Presidency framed the confrontation as a battle between the Kingdom of God and minions of the Devil. Some Mormons in southern Utah taught that the invasion was the beginning of the Millennium, and the prevailing understanding there was that the U.S. Army intended to wipe out the Mormons as a people. In preparation for a seven-year siege predicted by Brigham Young, Mormon leaders began accelerating an existing program for stockpiling grain. Mormons were told to sell their clothing to buy as much grain as possible, and not to use grain as animal feed nor sell it to emigrants for this purpose.

Defiant against the United States, Brigham Young warned "mobocrats", particularly past Mormon persecutors and the "priests, editors, and politicians who have howled so long about us", to stay away from the territory, or "we will attend to their cases". He stated that if such persons entered the territory, "they will find a 'Vigilance Committee'" and they will "find the Danites". But Young denounced plans by Mormons to rob "innocent" emigrant trains, saying that such robbers themselves would "be overtaken by a 'Vigilance Committee'". He wanted to ensure that "the good and honest may be able to pass from the Eastern States to California...in peace".

Young ordered pioneer settlements furthest afield to pull up stakes–evacuating colonies in San Bernardino (now southern California), Las Vegas (southern Nevada), Carson Valley (western Nevada), and Fort Bridger (western Wyoming). Thereafter, the farthest remaining outpost of Mormonism were the outlying Mormon colonies at Cedar City (led by Stake President-Major Isaac C. Haight) and Parowan (led by Stake President-Colonel William H. Dame), two infant fortress-villages near Mountain Meadows where the massacre took place. These settlements were nearly 300 miles from the Salt Lake City headquarters, and only reachable by a three days' journey on horseback, the messenger's changing mounts at various settlements along the way. Mormons in the area were to be the first defense against a feared "southern invasion" The word from Mormon headquarters was that the approaching U.S. Army had orders to murder every believing Mormon, and that the troops were coming directly from Missouri,

On August 5, 1857, Brigham Young declared martial law. All borders were to be sealed to further travel through Utah by emigrants. Young also made it illegal to travel through Utah without a permit, but no safe conduct pass was made available to the Baker-Fancher train by Territorial or local officials. The party would not have been aware of Young's decree as it was only made public on September 15, 1857.

Emigrant trains arriving from the east presented an opportunity for Mormons to trade or sell foodstuffs and other supplies, and until the Utah War, most were friendly and willing to help travelers pass through the Utah Territory. The Baker-Fancher train encountered residents along the way who were obeying Young's recent order to stockpile supplies in expectations of all-out war with approaching U.S. troops. The Mormons were directed not to sell any food to the enemy, as the emigrant train was labeled.