Mormons and the Civil War

5fish

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Aug 26, 2007
Location
Central Florida
I was looking into Mormons and the Civil War and found the following...


There is a Civil War Monument in Salt Lake City and there is a video about it at this link...

http://www.nothingwavering.org/post/27146/2011-03-07/mormons-and-the-civil-war.html

At this link it is assumed that 400 Mormons served in the Civil War but no details even in the question and answer section...

http://www.juvenileinstructor.org/an-introduction-to-the-mormon-particpation-in-the-civil-war/

This link is very critical of Lincoln and his relationship with the Mormon church ..

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Here is a compare and contrast between Lincoln and Joesph Smith. They were contemporaries....

http://richardkmiller.com/mormonism/joseph-smith-and-abraham-lincoln/

I would say that this man kept the Mormons inline during the Civil War...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patrick_Edward_Connor

I could not yet find any direct link with Mormons fighting in the union army in the east. I know there should be at least one company of Mormons that served in the union army form either Illinois, Missouri, or New York but none I could find..

Here is a Mormon Battalion that served in the Mexican American War,,,,,

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mormon_Battalion

The leader of the Mormon Battalion would become J.E.B. Stuart's father in law...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philip_St._George_Cooke

I found this interesting side note. We heard about him as a baby but here he is as an adult...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean_Baptiste_Charbonneau
 
Donna, Do you have a Mormon branch library anywhere near you in Kentucky? They should be able to get something for you from Salt Lake City? My wifes' sister and family live in a suburb. I spent about a 12 hour day there about 20 years ago. My wife was about to strangle me for taking so much time that she wanted to do something else but it was worth it to me. I imagine that they have much more now because a lot of the information is sent in by volunteers. So, it's good, but take it with a grain of salt as they sometimes have conflicting info. I cringe when people with good intentions send in misspelled names and wrong dates because I feel that future visitors will take it all as the gospel. Nevertheless, it's a great start. If you're looking for one particular cemetery out of six in northwestern MO. with a restless two year old, it would've been worth it to research ahead, because chances are the Mormons or someone may have already been there and found the names for you.
 
realevergreen, There is a center in Northern Ky. It is only open certain days for certain hours. I have been told you need to call to make arrangements about coming. I really need to check it out.

I found interesting article on Mormons and the Civil War on Brigham Young University site. It was by a professor Boone on "The Church and the Civil War". He wrote about two Mormons who fought in Civil War.

One was John Davis Evans who was born in Hirwain South Wales in 1843. His family came to America in 1850. They were Mormons in Wales before coming. In 1859 John Evans came to Salt Lake Valley. On June 1, 1861 he enlisted as a private in Company D of the Missouri Volunteer Infantry Regiment. In research by his daughter, it was found that "he (Evans) was the only man from Utah to return to his own state to enlist".

In May, 1862 he was at Pittsburg Landing Tn. at the Battle of Shiloh. After the war, he returned to Salt Lake Valley. He married and he and his wife started one of the first ice cream companies. Evans died in 1908.

Another Mormon who served in Civil War was William Rex. He was an English convert who came to America in 1850. They settled in St. Louis. At age 17, William joined the Union Army. He served in General Sherman's campaign and saw action in several Georgia battles. After the war, he came to Utah with his Mother and brother and settled in Randolph, Utah.
 
Interesting stuff. I have several Mormon ancestors from the Civil War era. To my knowledge they were all in Utah and Oregon at the time, and none of them served. I have ancestors who spent many, many hours in the genealogical library in Salt Lake City tracing the family roots back for centuries.
 
Any LDS center has microfilms and records. All have a direct connection to the primary archives in Salt Lake City. Best of all, though, is the individual attention you will get from the locals.

My wife was tracing her father's lineage and, through a center, got all she was looking for.
 
It seems Mormons did serve in the union army but trickled into the army. It seems there was on mass entrance of Mormons into the army. Utah does have Civil War pension records and had many GAR post so Mormons did serve in the union army but no historical work written about it. None I could find.

I bet if someone went through the pension records. They could find one union regiment that had enough Mormons to make up a company's worth. It also seems Mormons were not well thought of back in the 19th century for versus reasons...

I have heard their genealogical libraries are amazing and they are open to anyone it seems...
 
It seems Mormons did serve in the union army but trickled into the army. It seems there was on mass entrance of Mormons into the army. Utah does have Civil War pension records and had many GAR post so Mormons did serve in the union army but no historical work written about it. None I could find.

I bet if someone went through the pension records. They could find one union regiment that had enough Mormons to make up a company's worth. It also seems Mormons were not well thought of back in the 19th century for versus reasons...

I have heard their genealogical libraries are amazing and they are open to anyone it seems...

I suspect a lot of Mormons were like my ancestors. They were recruited from the coal mines of Scotland and Wales by Mormon missionaries in the 1840s and 1850s. Unlike many European immigrants who came to America seeking jobs in the cities of the East, they came here specifically to join the Mormon community in Utah. When the 1860s rolled around, I don't think they were too concerned with what was going on in the North and the South. Their hearts were in the West.

Even native-born Mormons were probably less inclined than most to serve. Mormonism was not popular in any part of the United States in those days, and many Mormons considered themselves persecuted by the "gentiles". That said, I'm sure there were Mormons who served and did so valiantly.
 
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