The Utah War is a subject of ongoing interest in the history of Utah and the years leading up to the American Civil War in the United States. As a Latter-day Saint who was raised in Utah, I’ve generally been introduced to the perspective of the Latter-day Saints rather than the rest of the nation. In University of Nebraska Press’s publication of On the Overland Trails with William Clark: A Teamster’s Utah War, 1857-1858, ed. William P. MacKinnon and Kenneth L. Alford, however, I gained a deeper understanding of the experiences and views of the other side of the conflict.

The book provides a high-quality publication of a late recollection by an individual who was among the camp followers working in the food supply chain for the U.S. Army as it marched towards Utah and who made a risky journey through Utah to California after the army stopped to overwinter. In addition, the editors offer historic commentary through well-written chapter headings, extensive notes, and appendixes discussing the biographies of notable individuals in the memoir and the meaning of the text itself. While William Clark’s recollections of the Utah War are considered among the best accounts of the trek towards Utah and conditions in Utah Territory at that time, they have been relatively inaccessible until now.

While the journey westward with the army was interesting, the most dramatic and interesting section of the account focused on Clark’s departure from the army and journey through Utah Territory to California. Shortly after leaving the army, Clark was captured by the Nauvoo Legion and taken to Salt Lake City by Bill Hickman. He then traveled through central and southern Utah in the midst of the same war hysteria that led to the Mountain Meadows Massacre a few weeks earlier. As I mentioned before, I’m used to hearing the Latter-day Saint version of the story, in which the Latter-day Saints are justified in their panicked reaction, raids on the U.S. Army, etc., while the federal government was foolish for sending a large contingent of the army west. So, reading statements from the editors explaining that the attacks of the Nauvoo Legion on the Army were incredibly shocking to U.S. citizens (“That such events were happening so brazenly and at the hands of fellow Americans created a shock wave with national impact not unlike that of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor eighty-four years later” (pp. 57-58)), was a new insight to me. Likewise, the description by Clark of constantly being afraid of being robbed and murdered (and his reasons for feeling that way) and of the vengeful prayers of the Latter-day Saints he heard while traveling through Utah revealed a more violent side to the environment of my ancestors at that point in history than I had understood before.

Thus, I learned from On the Overland Trails with William Clark: A Teamster’s Utah War, 1857-1858, and recommend it to anyone interested in early Utah history or the experience of the Utah War.