Author takes on 'Utah War'

He was a vice president of General Motors. He's a Presbyterian from upstate New York. But for 50 years, he's been on a long, strange trip that made him an authority on the 1857-58 "Utah War" between Mormons and the federal government.

Now at the war's 150th anniversary, William P. MacKinnon has the first of his new two-volume history of that war, "At Sword's Point," appearing in bookstores this month. He said documents discovered regarding the conflict will challenge some long-held views.

"It was not the stainless, righteous federal government putting down rebellion of nasty Mormons, as some think, and not the heroic Nauvoo Legion outwitting an Army sent by a doddering old man in the White House, as others think," he said. "It was not a one-dimensional, cartoonish, good guys vs. bad guys story."

For example, he says he found that Brigham Young ordered his troops to kill approaching U.S. Army officers and guides in some circumstances, contrary to tradition that he sought and achieved a largely bloodless war. MacKinnon said those orders, though never carried out specifically, apparently contributed to some murders.

And the Army, filled with future Civil War generals and heroes, may not have been very heroic or smart. Its one-time ranking commander on the trail even admitted in writing he had no idea what his mission was or what he was doing.

To examine MacKinnon's credibility and findings, it helps to understand his long journey into studying the Utah War. It began in 1958, when he was a sophomore majoring in history at Yale.

"I chose to write a senior essay that would approach the character of a Ph.D. dissertation," he said. In fact, it would exempt him from attending classes his last two years. "About 10 percent of the senior class graduated that way back then."

With much at stake, including graduation, he sought advice from his unofficial Yale mentor, Howard R. Lamar, whose class on Western Americana had thrilled him. Lamar was an authority on Utah's territorial period.

"He suggested the Utah War. I had never heard of it," MacKinnon said, adding that most people still know little or nothing about the "war."

The war occurred when President James Buchanan sent an Army to Utah amid reports that Mormons were in rebellion. From their perspective, Mormons believed old persecution had renewed and the Army would murder its leaders. Mormon raids helped strand the Army in Wyoming until negotiations could forestall major bloodshed.