Witness to Massacre during the American Civil War
A Mormon Elder’s account of the 1863 Bear River Massacre and it’s aftermath
Histories of the Civil War in the West tend to play up tensions between the California Volunteers sent there in 1862 and local Mormon settlers, and there’s ample evidence to suggest relations between Saints and soldiers were less than cordial. LDS Church leaders railed from the pulpit against the soldiers and Colonel Patrick Edward Connor — the Californians’ commander and foremost anti-Mormon bigot. Local Mormons also accused the soldiers of stealing their wives, and soldiers suspected church members of price-gauging supplies. The relationship between the men stationed at Camp Douglas and the settlers of the Great Salt Lake was largely defined by mutual distrust and disgust.
Despite the strong civil-military divide between the California Volunteers and LDS Church Members during the American Civil War, there is evidence that they often found common cause. Some Mormons enlisted in the California regiments, while a few soldiers were baptized into the LDS Church. Nothing seems to have brought the Californians and Utahans closer together in common purpose than the cause of violently subjugating Native Americans.
During the 1850s, Mormon settlers largely followed a “better to feed than fight” approach to local Indian affairs. As incursions into Native lands increase, traffic along the California and Oregon trails devastated traditional Indian foodways. This lead to widespread spread starvation, social disruption, and raiding among Indians, who were often left to with nothing but grass and horse feed to survive on. By 1861, most Mormons in the region had grown tired of giving so much food away, and many believed the “Indian question” required a more permanent and violent solution. The California Volunteers who arrived the following year were seasoned Indian killers, and they were all to willing to oblige.
Local histories of what happened when the Volunteers marched to Chief Bear Hunter’s village in January 1863 usually portray local Mormons as neutral observers to the Bear River Massacre near Franklin, Idaho. They admit that the settlers had grown tired of the Indians increasingly burdensome demands and “sauciness,” but they lead readers to believe they played no part in the massacre. In fact, the truth is much more complicated. Mormon scouts led by the notorious Porter Rockwell guided the Californians to Bear Hunter’s village, while the Saints of the Cache Valley welcomed the “heavier hand” Colonel Connor promised to wield against the Indians.
William Goforth Nelson, a LDS Church Elder who settled in Franklin, Idaho, in 1860, left two accounts of what he experienced during the 1863 Bear River Massacre of Northwestern Shoshones. Although he did not witness the massacre, he did participate in its aftermath. His recollections illustrate the tenuous alliance between the volunteers and settlers, as well as the extent and limits of Mormon complicity — for example, Nelson help transport wounded Californians to safety, but he refused to render aid to Lieutenant Darwin Chase because because the soldier was an excommunicated Mormon apostate.
Nelson’s accounts paints a more complicated image of events than the one local histories favor. While it’s true that Mormons were shocked by the savagery of the California Volunteers, they also welcomed the event as the inevitable will of God. In this battle between ungodly soldiers and ungodly Indians, LDS Church members could rationally claim spiritual neutrality. And yet, in truth, they were much more than passive recipients of the goodwill of heavenly providence.
“On January 29, 1863, a battle was fought between 500 U.S. soldiers lead by Col Connor and a band of Indians at Beaver Creek (afterwards called Battle Creek). The circumstances leading up to the trouble are as follows: Four Indian Chiefs Pocatello, Bearhunter, Segguish, and Lehi agreed between themselves that they would not allow white men to go north of Bear River. After several men had been killed in the vicinity of Beaver Creek and most of an emigrant train on the California route north of Cache Valley, the government took the matter in hand and sent soldiers, as stated. The soldiers came into Franklin in the evening and had supper. They calculated on starting from there in time to reach the battle ground at daylight the next morning. By request of the Colonel my brothers Edmund and Joseph went with them to lead the way across the river and up the creek to the Indian camp and were then released. The fight lasted from daylight until eleven o’clock a.m. The soldiers then crossed back on the south side of the river and camped until the next morning. During the night Porter Rockwell and a companion (they having been on the hill south of the river watching the fight) were sent by Col. Connor to engage horse teams to haul the crippled soldiers to Camp Floyd. Accordingly Samuel R. Parkingson, Wm Head, James Packer, Isaac Packer and I each took a team and sled to the top of the hill above where the soldiers were camped. Our sleds were taken down the hill by the soldiers and loaded with the cripples and pulled up the hill again with baggage mules. While our sleds were being loaded I asked Col. Connor if I could cross the river and look over the battle ground. “Yes,” he said, “but touch nothing.” I rode one of my horses across the river and up the creek to where the battle was fought. The wickiups that had not already been burned were then burning. I counted 76 dead Indians in the bottom of the creek hollow, and it is quite likely that a great many were killed while they were wading the river trying to get out of the way. The sleds were mostly loaded with three soldiers each but the first day I only had one on my sled, Lieut. Darwin Chase. This man was ordained an Elder while sitting on a corner stone of the Far West temple. He apostatized and came to Utah with Col. Connor. It was said at the time of their coming that their object was to exterminate the Mormons. Before we left the camp Philemon Merrill (one of the teamsters from Richmond) came to me and said that Chase was there in the tent shot through one shoulder and had a thigh broken and was begging to be administered to, and wanted to know what I thought about it. I said I thought it would be a wrong thing to do, so he was not administered to. The first day we went as far as Mendon and camped at private houses. The next day we went to Ogden, where we were met by doctors, who took the crippled soldiers in charge. We stayed there until afternoon the next day, at which time we started to Camp Douglas and reached there at midnight. We were each paid $42.00 and out expenses, and were also given provisions for our journey home.”
— Elder William Goforth Nelson in his diary, January 29, 1863
“The Franklin Bench was settled on April 14, 1860. My wagon was number six of the company which came there the first day. We set our wagon boxes on the ground which made our houses. We then we set out to Maple Creek canyon, where we got pine poles and built a corral twelve by thirteen pannels [sic], in which we guarded our cattle by night.”
“The description of the Battle Creek fight, given by Colonel Connor is in the main as I understood it to be. The impression, however, given out that the ‘Mormons’ charged exhorbident [sic] prices for all the supplies and help that the soldiers received is not correct. When the army came to Franklin on their way to the battle field, many of the soldiers accepted the invitations of the people to got into their homes and cook their suppers. The people furnished wood for those who remained outside to build large camp fires. We also furnished hay for their animals and I did nor hear of anyone charging the soldiers for such accomodations [sic]. Mr. Connor appeared to be a perfect gentleman, and I can hardly believe that he was responsible for that statement. The army came to Franklin in the evening and remained there until two or three o’clock [the] next morning. My two brothers, Joseph S. and Edmond Nelson were asked by the Colonel to pilot them to the river, which they did, crossing over where Preston now is.”
“The fight began about sunrise on a fearful[ly] cold morning. During the following night I received word from Colonel Connor to bring my team and sled over to the river and haul some wounded soldiers to Fort Douglas. He also said that others could bring teams if they cared to go. Accordingly William Head Sen., Jas. Packer Sen., and Isaac Packer went with me. We reached the river (the soldiers already having crossed over to the south bank) at sunrise, just 24 hours after the battle, while they were preparing to load our sleds. I asked Colonel Connor if he had any objection to my going over the battle ground; he said he did not, but asked me not to touch anything. Ephraim Ellsworth, who had come from Franklin on horseback went over the river with me. We say where 14 soldiers and 5 of their horses had fallen in the snow. The Indians had fortified themselves by building rifle pits, along the east bank of the creek and for a short distance along the bank of the river, which at the time ran northwest at the point where the creek came in. These pits completely protected the Indians on the east front and it was while attempting to come up on the front that the soldiers were killed, but when the soldiers separated and some went down the river and others down the creek, the Indians became confused and started to run. Most of them attempted to cross the channel of the river, to an island which was covered with willows, and many of them were shot in the attempt, and floated under the ice. We counted seventy-six dead on the creek bottom, but we understood that the greatest number were killed in the river. Some of the dead which were left on the creek bottom were afterwards thrown in the river by the Indians who escaped, the others were left untouched. Upon our return to the river we found our sleds were loaded with the wounded; the dead being loaded in military wagons. I hauled [Lt. Darwin] Chase and his attendants the first day. We reached Mendon at dark, having driven our teams all day without feed or water. The next day I hauled two soldiers and their attendants. We stopped at Ogden the second night and reached Fort Douglas the following night at 12 o’clock. Each teamster was paid $42.00 for the trip. This price was set by the officers; they also gave us provisions for our journey home.”
“The next year I was called to move to Oxford and preside over a flourishing settlement which was being established. During the twelve years that I presided over there, our stake headquarters were at Logan. Each month and sometimes oftener I would travel the road between these two settlements.”
“The road passed directly over this battle ground, and I know that many of these Indian bodies were never buried.”
— William Goforth Nelson quoted in “The Fight at Battle Creek” in The Franklin County Citizen, February 1, 1917.
