Item Detail
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31748
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0
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0
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English
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‘And a Bitter Experience It Was’ : The Utah War and the 1858 Move South
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Proceedings of the South Carolina Historical Association
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South Carolina State Library
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17-31
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"In March 1858, over two thousand American soldiers, encamped just one hundred miles northeast of Salt Lake City, were preparing to enter Utah Territory by force, if necessary, to quell a perceived rebellion. On March 21, in advance of the army’s arrival, Brigham Young, the charismatic and often controversial Mormon prophet who was also serving as territorial governor, called for the inhabitants of northern Utah to leave their homes and move south. Cities across northern Utah soon approached ghost town status as roughly 30,000 Mormons responded, with varying degrees of enthusiasm, to the request from their Prophet. This exodus—popularly called by participants “the Move South,” “the great move,” “the big move,” or simply “the move”—is an important chapter in the Utah War, the army’s last major military deployment prior to the Civil War. This article looks at the Move South through the eyes of the pioneers who abandoned their homes and relocated to central and southern Utah." [Author]