Civil
War was felt in Utah
The sound of cannons thundering across the green fields of
Getty-burg never reached the Salt Lake Valley. No shouts for secession rallied
men to war. No blood was spilled in battles pitting brother against brother. UT
wasn’t a state when the War Between the States engulfed the nation in 1861.
Over the next four years relations between
church leader Brigham Young and President Lincoln:
1.Camp Floyd
closes. The first shots of the Civil War fired at Fort Sumter on April 12 1861 spell
theDemise of this federal garrison southwest of Lehi. The Arm outpost was
closed so that soldiers stationed there could return east to fight in the war.
Camp Floyd opened in 1858 when 2,500 troops were sent to the territory to
suppress a rumored rebellion of pioneer settlers of The Mormon church against
the United States government. The rebellion never occurred, but the soldiers
remained guarding wagon train routs to California and conducting surveys of the
territory. The camp adjacent town of Fairfield had 7,000 residents and was Utah’s
third largest city. As the Civil War broke out, all of the camps equipment was
either taken away by the army, sold off, or the remaining building and property
destroyed. Camp Floyds soldiers went on to fight for both North and South.
2. Nauvoo Legion
protects lines of communication. Once the Civil War started President Lincoln
was concerned about preserving telegraph lines and
the Overland Trail stage coach and mail line in the West. In the spring of 1862
Lincoln wired Utah Leader Brigham Young and asked for volunteer soldiers to
protect these paths of communication. As a result a volunteer unit of the
Nauvoo Legion led by Lot Smith a Farmington livestock owner was assigned to
safeguard the trail and telegraph lines for 90 days. Utah did boast a contingence of Civil War
soldiers once the 3rd California Volunteer Infantry arrive in Salt
Lake City in 1862. Although some companies that belonged to this Union regiment
served in California, others were dispatched to Utah territory to replaced Lot
Smith’s unit. And locate on the foothills overlooking the Salt Lake Valley. Led
by Colonel Patrick Connor, the army’s mission was to protect mail and shipping
routes during the war. Gold that was being mined and shipped out of California
was important for helping to finance the Union cause. Also, some Californians
were sympathetic to the South so Lincoln viewed mail and telegraphic as
necessary.
