James Henry Carleton - Mountain Meadows Massacre

Mountain Meadows Massacre

In May 1859, Brevet Major J.H Carleton leading K Company of the First Dragoons Fort Tejon CA escorted Major Henry Prince, paymaster U.S.A. with government funds to the Southern Utah Territory. Arriving at Mountain Meadows, the command rendezvoused with the Santa Clara Expedition of the Department of Utah from Camp Floyd under the command of Captain Ruben Campbell who had arrived in the area the previous week. With orders from General Clarke, commander of the Department of California, to bury the victims of the massacre that occurred in September 1857, the dragoons gathered the remains of 34 found scattered on the plain and buried them in one mass grave. A crude monument was constructed of rocks with a cross of cedar and an engraved marker. Assistant Surgeon Charles Brewer of the Santa Clara Expedition was in charge of a burial detail that had interred the remains of 39 in three mass graves a few days before the arrival of K Company. After an investigation of the incident, Major Carleton felt his findings were of such merit to warrant the issuance of a Special Report to Major W. W. Mackall, Assistant Adjutant-General, U.S.A., San Francisco, California. Major Carleton concluded that Mormons, some dressed as Indians, had murdered and plundered the possessions of 120 men, women, and children of a California bound emigrant train with the assistance of Paiute Tribesmen. In 1860, Major Carleton, attacked suspected Paiute raiders along the Mojave Road with a reinforced 1st Dragoons, Company K.