Ogden FamilySearch Center 2017 Conference Class Descriptions: Difference between revisions

== The Utah War: The Coming of "Johnston's Army" ==

Among benchmarks in nineteenth-century Latter-day Saint history are such events as the arrival of the first pioneers in the Valley in 1847, crossing the Plains, and the 1890 Manifesto. As people do family history, they often use these happenings as watershed moments and points of reference. Another common event that appears often in family histories is “the coming of Johnston’s Army.” Some ancestors resisted this army during the Echo Canyon War as members of heroic guerrillas under legendary Latter-day Saint leaders such as Porter Rockwell and Lot Smith. Others participated in the “Move South” to evacuate the northern settlements in case the army breached the mountain defenses and the resistance of the Nauvoo Legion. In spite of this, few understand what actually happened during this frightening confrontation with the U.S. government in 1857-58 that historians call the Utah War. This workshop will reveal the basic details and meanings of the arrival in the West of the Utah Expedition under orders from President James Buchanan to quell a so-called “Mormon Rebellion.” It will outline the dangerous potential of this episode and discuss how it ended with the army establishment of Camp Floyd in Cedar Valley west of Utah Lake.