CIVIL WAR & the Mormons. Governor Alfred CUMMING left Utah quietly on 17 May 1861. Officially, CUMMING was on a leave of absence; but the citizens of Utah knew that his hasty departure meant that he did not intend to return. General Albert Sidney JOHNSTON, another leading figure in the territory, also left the area about the same time. Both men's actions were a result of events in South Carolina on 12
April 1861, when the Confederate Army attacked the Federal garrison at Fort
Sumter. This incident ignited one of the greatest tragedies in United States
history, the American Civil War (1861-65). Both CUMMING and JOHNSTON were
southerners and chose to return to the south as the nation began to divide.
President Abraham LINCOLN, it was reported, said that when he was a boy there
was a lot of timber to be cleared from his farm. Sometimes he came to a log that
was "too hard to split, too wet to burn, and too heavy to move," so he plowed
around it. That, Lincoln contended, was exactly what he planned to do about the
Mormons in Utah. "Tell Brigham Young that if he will let me
alone I will let him alone." The Mormons did not send men to the battlefields in the east to fight in the
war, nor were they invited to do so. Some Utahns did go, but on an individual
basis. The LDS Church
generally thrived during the Civil War period. Converts still gathered and
settlements continued to be established in the Great Basin. Brigham YOUNG remained the respected leader of the Saints, and the Church remained a viable power. See: E.B. Long, The Saints and The Union: Utah Territory during the Civil
War (1981), Richard Neitzel Holzapfel.
CHINN, Elizabeth P7 (Place Holder)
CLARK, Elizabeth P7 (Place Holder)
CLAYTON, William (1814-1879) converted LDS in 1837 & worked as a missionary in England before moving to America in 1840. He was city treasurer in Nauvoo, Illinois; clerk of the Nauvoo Temple; member of the Nauvoo Brass Band & composer of hymns, including the famous, "Come Come Ye Saints".
COOK, Mary P7 (Place Holder)
CROW, Benjamin. Stephen SHELTON (1809) married Abigail HARRIS, the daughter of John HARRIS and Abigail GRAGG. Abigail Gragg is the sister of Ann Gragg who married Benjamin Crow. Benjamin & Ann's son, Robert and his wife Elizabeth Brown Crow
converted LDS (Mormon) & were with the group called the Mississippi
Saints but were from Illinois. Robert's family joined the Brigham
YOUNG wagon train at Fort Laramie and came into the valley with the
Parley P. Pratt advance company. A biography of Benjamin Crow, written by Darlene Law, is located at Benjamin CROW Biography.As of August 1779, Ben CROW received his pay at Camp Ramapoo, and the very last pay slip dated December 9, 1779 shows he was stationed at a camp near Morriston, (?). His three-year enlistment ended on December 26, 1779. His request for a Revolutionary War Pension was denied because they could find no record of his service. He stated he was a Private in Capt. David Stinson's Co, 8th Regiment of the Virginia Line. Muster rolls and copies of payroll slips show him enlisting for 3 years on 26 Dec 1776, serving at Valley Forge, and his last pay the camp near Morriston ,
9 Dec 1779 . He was ill much of the time, and at one time some article , gun, etc., were stolen from him . He had given the receipts for the articles to his father, Walter, who had misplaced them . Either before his discharge from the Virginia Militia or shortly after, he married Ann Gragg, daughter of Robert Gragg and Lydia Harrison Gragg, neighbors to his family in Augusta County, Virginia.
