The conventional account: During the early 1850's, numerous U.S. Government surveying expeditions were made into the Rocky Mountain West. In the Spring of 1853, Captain John W. Gunnison, U.S. Army Topographical Engineer, took command of a party on the Survey of Pacific Road (railroad) route through the central Rockies. His command was made up of Lieutenant E. G. Beckwith, second in command; at least eight civilian topographers, geologists, and for security, thirty soldiers of the Regiment of Mounted Riflemen (U.S. Army Dragoons), Captain R. M. Morris, Commanding.

Days before, early in October, a wagon train of Missouri emigrants, en route to California, had passed through the Fillmore settlement and camped on Meadow Creek. A small band of Pahvant Ute Indians came into the camp, wanting to trade buckskins for tobacco. The Missourians attempted to disarm the Utes of their bows and arrows. In the fracas, war chief Moshoquop's father was killed by revolver fire. Moshoquop then took his band and moved to a site about twelve miles north east of Lake Sevier.

The singular tragic event of this ill-fated expedition then occurred. Captain John Gunnison had divided his command, sending the larger force to explore miles upriver, toward the Nephi settlement. Gunnison then proceeded down the river towards Lake Sevier, his small party consisting of four civilians and a corporal and six of the Mounted Riflemen.

At dawn the next morning, the 26th of October 1853, while eating breakfast, they were surprised in an attack by vengeful Pahvant Ute Chief Moshoquop and forty of his warriors. He was seething for vengeance against white men, any white men, an acceptable practice in his culture. Within minutes, Captain John W. Gunnison, his four civilians, and three soldiers died of gunshot and arrow wounds. Only Corporal Barton and three of his horse soldiers escaped to tell of the massacre. (footnoted)

In his official report of the Massacre, Governor Young said Gunnison had been warned of Indian dangers and that he had used bad judgment by dividing his party and by his choice of an indefensible campsite. He said that the officers had quarreled among themselves and for this reason Gunnison's body was deliberately left unburied. He believed the Indians should not be “unduly censured” for their conduct and took no action to punish the guilty parties. In this and subsequent reports, Governor Young suppressed the fact of the threat to Fillmore, of Huntington's mission to resolve the conflict, and of Huntington's bad advice to Gunnison.

Army Colonel Edward Steptoe had orders to stop in Great Salt Lake City to investigate the murder of Captain John Gunnison and his surveying party in 1853. One of Steptoe's officers noted, "the principal object in our wintering here" is to avenge Gunnison. Relations with the Army started off well enough after Steptoe arrived in September, but by December feelings were as frosty as the weather. As John Gunnison had noted earlier, Mormons dreaded the contaminating influence of idle soldiers, especially the possible effects of "the gallantry of epaulettes upon their peculiar institution of polygamy."

Several of Steptoe's young lieutenants used their epaulettes quite effectively, wooing Mormon girls and plural wives who were fed up with polygamy. Lt. Sylvester Mowry courted the wife of one of Brigham Young's sons and claimed the prophet's feisty fifteen-year-old daughter, Alice, told him: "Salt Lake needs only to be roofed in to be the biggest whorehouse in the world."

To keep the peace, local authorities tried to ban the sale of alcohol, but thirsty soldiers could always find a drink on "Whiskey Street." Matters came to a head on December 23 during a play at the social hall. Mormon lawyer Hosea Stout reported a "considerable melee" broke out when the police tried to arrest a soldier in the audience.

Apostle George A. Smith reported the "young growth" among the Mormons put up a stout fight: "Fists, sticks, clubs and stones were used freely." Officers and the police finally quelled the riot and Colonel Steptoe confined his men to barracks for the rest of the holiday. He threatened to move them far away from town, and the prospect of spending the winter in tents at Tooele helped keep the men under control.

Should Brigham Young Share the Blame for Utah War?

Lee Davidson, Deseret Morning News, Sept. 1, 2006

Historian Will Bagley, for example, said many Utah histories side too much with Mormons, and tell how "the United States sent an Army to persecute our long-suffering Mormon ancestors, and how we beat them in a fair fight ... (and) Brigham Young acted as a dedicated peacemaker throughout the entire affair."

"This history has one serious problem. It never happened," Bagley said.

Historian William MacKinnon also submitted a paper saying run-ins Young had with an earlier 1854-55 Army expedition led by Lt. Col. Edward Steptoe led Young to vow never to allow the military to camp within Salt Lake City again.

Mormons were outraged when several officers and enlisted men wintering in Salt Lake City cavorted with or seduced LDS females, some as young as 13 years old.

He said letters showed one soldier even claimed he had an affair with a daughter-in-law of Brigham Young while her husband was away on a mission. He said the affair ended when Young threatened to kill him.

To inform the public of the Mormon side of this confrontation, Brigham Young had many affidavits created, charging the soldiers and non-Mormon public officials with drunkenness, gambling, sexual abuses and other irregularities. These were sent to the War Department in Washington as evidence of renewed persecution of the Mormons.

Colonel Steptoe, the Judge, and the prosecuting attorneys were incensed by what they believed was a miscarriage of justice. They wrote angry letters to the several Federal agencies they represented, charging the Mormons with defiance of law and failure to discharge their obligations as citizens. It was claimed they did this in obedience to orders covertly given by Brigham Young. A report of the trial, prefaced with acrimonious charges against the Mormons, was sent to the New York Times. Another copy was sent to the San Francisco Daily Herald, adding the fact that the prisoners had been allowed to escape.