Camp Floyd and the Mormons, The Utah War

Moorman, Donald R. With Gene A. Sessions

ISBN 10: 0874803942 / ISBN 13: 9780874803945

Published by Univ. Of Utah Pr., Salt Lake City, 1992

About this Item

xvi + 332 pp., maps, b/w photos & illus., notes, index. Vol. 7 in the Utah Centennial Series. An event in the Utah War between the Mormons and the U.S. just preceeding the Civil War. Book in fine cond., blue cloth, no d/w.

Seller Inventory # 6960

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Camp Floyd and the Mormons, The Utah War
• Publisher: Univ. Of Utah Pr., Salt Lake City
• Publication Date: 1992
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0874803942
• ISBN 13: 9780874803945
• Binding: Cloth
• Edition: First Edition
• Condition: Fine
• Dust Jacket Condition: No Jacket
• Seller catalogs:
  • American West

About this title

Synopsis

Camp Floyd and the Mormons traces the history of the sojourn of “Johnston’s Army” in Utah Territory from the beginning of the Utah War in 1857 through the abandonment of Camp Floyd in Cedar Valley west of Utah Lake at the outbreak of the Civil War. The book describes the relationship between the invading army and the local Mormon population, gives an account of Indian affairs in Utah, and describes the activities of federal officials in Utah during that volatile period.

Completed posthumously by Gene Sessions, Moorman’s colleague at Weber State University, Camp Floyd and the Mormons is a comprehensive analysis of the history of frontier Utah as a decade of isolation ended and confrontations with the United States government began. Moorman had unprecedented access to materials in the LDS Church Archives on subjects ranging from the Mountain Meadows Massacre to the Mormon responses to the presence of the army in Utah from 1858 through 1861.

First published by the University of Utah Press in 1992, this reprint edition includes a new introduction by Gene Sessions in which he recounts Moorman’s research adventures during the 1960s "in the bowels of the old Church Administration Building, where Joseph Fielding Smith and A. Will Lund watched over the contents of the archives like wide-eyed mother hens."

Reviews

Published posthumously, the final draft of Moorman's very specialized contribution to the "Utah Centennial" series has been edited by Sessions. Focusing on the years 1857-61, Moorman quotes liberally from original documents in the LDS Church Archives, letting no detail escape his attention. He does not discuss his topic in isolation but examines the larger issue of slavery, which had a dramatic impact on the Mormons' history. The newly formed Republican Party supported the abolition of slavery and polygamy, bringing national attention to the Mormons. President James Buchanan sent troops to the area in 1857. This volume recounts the history of their settlement at Camp Floyd from its construction until its demise at the beginning of the Civil War. Only libraries whose patrons have a strong interest in Utah history would want to purchase this specialized text.
- Dorothy Lilly, Grosse Pointe North High Sch. Lib., Grosse Pointe Woods, Mich.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.