Maxwell, “The Civil War Years in Utah: The Kingdom of God and the Territory That Did Not Fight” (reviewed by Kris Wray)

Review
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Title: The Civil War Years in Utah: The Kingdom of God and the Territory That Did Not Fight
Author: John Gary Maxwell
Publisher: University of Oklahoma Press
Genre: Civil War; Utah Territory History; Mormons
Year Published: 2016
Number of Pages: 488
Binding: Hardback
ISBN: 978-0-8061-4911-0
Price: $29.95

Reviewed by Kris Wray for the Association for Mormon Letters

I’m a fan of just about every volume on Western History published by the University of Oklahoma, and John Gary Maxwell’s latest work on the Civil War years in Utah is no exception. This fascinating study on the head-butting that Saints and Gentiles engaged in while the Union fractured is an integral contribution to understanding the events in Utah during this chaotic period of America. He reveals the background of many of the relevant characters involved and their complex, often stormy, interactions with one another. Throughout his narrative, Maxwell keeps the reader up-to-date on battles and events occurring back East and in California, revealing how the Saints reacted, or as in most cases, did not react, to news on the war.

To the disgust of non-Mormon officials sent to Utah by Washington’s elite, Brigham Young and the leaders of the LDS Church did not feel the necessity to contribute money, soldiers or much sympathy to Abraham Lincoln’s war and the North’s response towards the rebellion of the South. While slavery was a very limited phenomenon in Utah, most Saints were not active abolitionists either, and frowned upon miscegenation with African Americans. I tend to think that had it not been for the ongoing struggle they had with the powers-that-be, a large number of LDS members would have fallen in with Lincoln’s publicly stated beliefs that while slavery was regrettable, African-Americans should not be assimilated into mainstream society and politics because they were not equal with whites on several levels, and it would be better if they were resettled in Africa.

Essentially declaring neutrality, with some harboring a degree of partiality towards the Southern state’s right to secede from the Union, the Mormon hierarchy and much of the Church membership felt the devastation prevailing in the East was due to the judgments of the Lord upon the Nation for their general wickedness, on top of their rejection of Joseph Smith Jr., founder of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Smith had predicted in 1832 that the Southern States would be divided against the Northern States and the chastising wrath of God would subsequently be poured out upon the nations of the world via war, famine, plagues and natural disasters. While political and military bureaucrats set their sights on domesticating the Saints, Young and the Mormons, who had pioneered the Western desert with sweat and blood to get away from such folks and create their own destiny, were determined to maintain their loyalty to the Kingdom of God.

Maybe it’s the Mormon in me speaking, but the author’s disapproval towards the attitude of the Saints during the Civil War is apparent numerous times throughout the book. I would have liked to see less bias towards what he calls a fanatical, radicalized, fundamentalist group who advocated violent domination over the earth, and more balance when it came to explaining their point of view. His description is extreme and narrow, and misrepresents what most LDS people sought after, namely peace and the free exercise of their religion. Circumstances altered cases, and friction mixed with defensiveness over religious freedom, sprinkled with a strong dose of apocalyptical seasoning for good measure, sometimes brought out the worst in a small percentage of the tens of thousands of Saints.

After having conflicts with their neighbors in the East-oftentimes due to their own behavior-the majority of the Church picked up and left Illinois for what was then Mexico territory. The hardship and sacrifice made to travel there and settle the Salt Lake Valley was immense, but worth it for a people determined to govern themselves without interference from non-Mormons, who often despised their peculiar lifestyle and utopian goals. To their frustration, the United States took over the Northern Territory of Mexico shortly thereafter. Still around one thousand miles from their former neighbors, members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints hoped the distance would give them the isolation they searched for to build the Kingdom of God on earth. Their privacy was dashed when gold was discovered in California and hordes of treasure seekers poured west, often traveling through the heart of Mormondom to get there.

Threats of attack by Native Americans and vengeful Mormons in cahoots, paired with the urge to conquer and control the Territory in the way they saw fit, moved U.S. government officials to send non-Mormons and a large military force to Utah to capture land, positions of power, and to break up the stronghold of Brigham Young and the political block of the Church. Disputes over limited resources, water soured by the animals and trash of Federal troops, and confrontations between soldiers and Latter-day Saints, such as the deadly brawl between Howard Spencer and Sergeant Ralph Pike, took place.

Years of haggling followed, sometimes turning violent, with Federal carpetbaggers complaining of LDS non-compliancy and disrespect, and the seditious Saints crying out against discrimination, and not being able to achieve statehood and thus represent themselves. When John Brown’s guerilla band seized the Federal armory at Harper’s Ferry in Virginia in 1859, causing Robert E. Lee and his marines to strike back, Latter-day Saints had little reason to take sides in the spark. To expect a population ripe with persecution-complex, who already felt invaded by a hostile military force, to come running to the aid of the Yankees as the flames of conflict accelerated in the East seems unrealistic, particularly when a significant segment of the Saints were converts from other countries.

Such wishful thinking is akin to wondering why Native Americans didn’t welcome pale faces attempting to forcefully transform their way of life into something closer to the general American public. Mormons were strict Constitutionalists when it fit into their grand design, and some of Lincoln’s war acts were not easily dismissed by the Saints-or Southerners for that matter-who questioned whether they qualified as unconstitutional abuses of Executive power. Just as President Lincoln at times felt justified in taking drastic measures to achieve his goal, so did Brigham Young in establishing God’s Kingdom, yet Young is often portrayed as the villain in *The Civil War Years in Utah,* who led a mass of unquestioning dupes; while most Federal politicians and appointees are presented as victims, unsuccessfully trying to fulfill their duty to disarm and wrestle the saucy Mormons into becoming upstanding citizens of the Republic (Northern-type of course).

While nearly everything Maxwell writes is true, it could have used a more balanced context; not always an easy thing to do in one book. It does make for interesting ‘us versus them’ reading though. At any rate, the play-by-play, mostly chronological style, with the occasional side road of personalities and events being explored which winds its way back into the narrative, proves to make a great book, full of new perspectives. Written in the style and tradition of Harold Schindler, Will Bagley, David L. Bigler, William P. MacKinnon and Polly Aird, this is a book that is hard to put down for someone interested in this time period.

The author presents a much fuller portrait of Walter Murray Gibson’s association with LDS Church officials than was previous known. Gibson was a chameleon, who Maxwell identifies as a Confederate agent. He joined the Mormon Church and tried to work himself into the arms of the LDS hierarchy, which he did, but when the chance arose for a position of leadership in the Hawaiian Islands, his true colors came out and he was excommunicated. I also enjoyed the story of how Mormon leaders tried to bring ammunition and arms into the Territory, while the Federal powers struggled to block them from doing so. There are so many points in which a major skirmish could have broken out during these incendiary years between the Saints and the Feds; it’s amazing a blow-up was avoided.

Maxwell investigates the beating of the third Governor of Utah, John W. Dawson, three weeks after he arrived in the Territory. One of the main perpetrators of the assault, Moroni Clawson, was my great-grandfather, and I have been consumed with getting to the bottom of this story and writing my own book on the subject for well over a decade. While there are many points in which I agree, there are also a number of disputes I have with the author’s interpretations about the assault and how it played out-not surprising considering anyone who obsesses over a topic is likely to have differences with other researchers when it comes to details and conclusions. I will include a short critique of Maxwell’s rendition of the Dawson escapade at the end of this review, so those not interested in all the gory details can finish without interruption.

Stephen Harding, Dawson’s abolitionist successor for Governor of Utah, is covered in *The Civil War Years in Utah,* giving the reader insight into his earlier brush-ins with Mormons in Palmyra, New York. The crushing of Joseph Morris and his followers receives attention, as does the adventures of Colonel P. Edward Connor. Besides the section on Dawson, the coverage of Connor’s defiant run-ins with Brigham Young and the Saints is my favorite part of the book. Unlike many of the non-Mormons who feared inciting the anger of a people who felt the Federal regime was hanging by a thread, Connor came smashing into Utah like a bull in a china shop. He was always ready and willing for a fight with the theocratic Kingdom. Conner’s battle with Shoshoni and Bannock Native Americans at Bear River is looked at with a fresh perspective, though it seems Maxwell goes a little easy on the soldiers, suggesting that maybe many of the indigenous women and children killed were mortally wounded and compassionately put down to end their suffering. He does effectively question the rumors of rape; it appears that was probably a tactic by several Mormons to demonize Connor’s troops and their presence in Utah.

The tug of war over mining in Utah between Church members and Gentiles is another great section of *The Civil War Years in Utah.* The shocking murder of Olive Coombs Higbee by George Wood, and his surprising pardon by Governor James Duane Doty, are touched upon. Many more captivating people, places and events are dissected within *The Civil War Years in Utah.*

When the Civil War came to a close, Latter-day Saints reluctantly came around to realizing the time was not yet for the United States to be brought to its knees. They began to join in the celebrations held by non-Mormons for the end of the war, though one might have noticed it wasn’t necessarily for the North and Lincoln, although a large funeral was held for the assassinated President in the Salt Lake City Tabernacle. At that very moment Brigham Young was planning to infiltrate Fort Douglas with a Mormon spy to learn the secrets of the Army, a risky endeavor which he succeeded in. Fears of a Mormon rebellion did not subside with the defeat of the South and preservation of the Union. If anything, the stranglehold between the Federal Government and the Saints persisted, with each side looking to capitalize on the weaknesses of the other.

The Mormons strengthened their militia units, worrying non-Mormon onlookers in the process, while Federal officials incessantly worked to bring Utah and its population closer to what the majority of American citizens considered a normal lifestyle.

John Gary Maxwell has authored a book that deserves to be on the shelf of any researcher of this period of Utah. Civil War buffs will also enjoy this lesser known piece of the terrible division of the Union. Members of the LDS Church who know their history will no doubt find themselves at odds with some of Maxwell’s conclusions, but I think debate between opposing ideas brings the cream to the top, and this work is definitely a worthy part of the debate.

*****

The Dawson Affair

As the author states, new evidence in the Governor Dawson controversy necessitates revision of the oft-repeated traditions, and I believe even more new evidence will necessitate even more revision on top of his. Maxwell adequately demonstrates that claims about Dawson’s immoral character have often been based more around defamation and repeated rumor than established fact, although I remain unconvinced that Dawson’s level of morality can be firmly determined based mainly on a few comments by his friends over the years.

As Maxwell states, it is well known that high-ranking Saints had previously commented that if Federal appointees did not toe the line, they would be impelled to return to where they had come from. The author is also correct that although Governor Dawson was more open to working with the Mormons than some who had come before him, he steadfastly adhered to several decisions which soiled his reputation among the citizens of the Territory. The first was expecting them, with a warning, to provide soldiers for the North, and pay thousands of dollars in war taxes to an administration they loathed; the second was telling them to set up public schools instead of allowing the Saints to choose for themselves how to educate their children. Thirdly, and most devastating, he vetoed their unanimous move to become a State, based on not meeting several legal statutes of the process, coupled with suspicions they were actually attempting to gain a level of sovereignty which would only empower Brigham Young’s theocratic reign.

As Dawson later opined to Lincoln, the whole purpose of the people was to gain admission into the Union so that the ulcer, as he called it, of polygamy would have sovereign protection. Mormon leaders were infuriated with his focus on legalities, no doubt, and blackened Dawson-who they were unaware hadn’t even been legally confirmed in his office by the U.S. Senate. The constituency of the Territory, who had ripened into a Convention for admission into the Union years ago, was irritated as well.

What I find wanting is Maxwell’s assessment of what followed, although I must admit I am happy he explored this avenue, because it raises important questions and posits alternative theories which must be weighed in the pursuit of truth. While it is not within the scope of a short book review to expound upon all his points I feel the evidence does not support, I will address several issues that are important to evaluating why Dawson quickly left the City of the Saints, and was severely beaten on his way out.

Almost two weeks after the Governor gave his address to the Territory Legislature, he supposedly visited the home of Albina Williams, a widowed seamstress who made a living by sewing, laundering, and pressing clothes. Mrs. Williams claimed that on December 21, 1861, the married Dawson visited her and after requesting her services, made an improper pass at her, which resulted in him being driven out of the house. The author surmises that Dawson never did such a thing because it would have been illogical in his position, as if adultery is ever really logical, and that instead, Brigham Young and a cluster of his cohorts, in collusion with Henry Martin, Frank Fuller, Judge John Fitch Kinney, and Dr. Robert Chambers, all conspired to set up the Governor, and enticed Albina Williams to play the part of false accuser.

While I would not put it past several of the named individuals to engage in such character assassination, available sources do not back up this theory very well. Some of the author’s presumptions seem strained, and rife with guesswork. As can be seen from his lack of proof, I believe this conjecture on Maxwell’s part is better untangled by following the stronger evidence that Dawson did indeed say something to the widow which offended her, and that as soon as they caught wind of it, Church leaders utilized the opportunity as a reason for disposing of the Governor. Martin, Fuller, Kinney, and Chambers simply jumped on the bandwagon of the brouhaha as a means for furthering their own political careers, but had nothing to do with setting Dawson up under false accusations.

All four men demonstrate an indifference towards Dawson’s plight which bespeaks more of their own selfish motives for personal gain, or that they entertained the possibility that the charges against him were true, or both, than it does a premeditated conspiracy against the Governor.

To begin with, while the author thinks Dawson’s character and position was such that he would not have propositioned Albina, there are no reasons to believe that she was the type of woman who would have participated in such a thing for anyone, let alone Brigham Young, whom she probably suspected was responsible for her husband’s fairly recent death. While she was later willing to mistakenly pin that crime on Young, she never said a word concerning lying about Dawson that we know of. The author surmises, with nothing to back it up, that doing the laundry of Mormon families encouraged zipped lips on the part of Albina about her husband’s death, suggesting her integrity and silence could be bought.

More important than any speculations concerning Albina’s character is the fact that none of the records left behind by those who would have been in the know even hint at the conspiracy described by Maxwell. Unlike a number of other crimes planned, committed, and covered up by Latter-day Saints, which have proven impossible to completely conceal from modern historians due to the extensive records, diaries and correspondence left behind by those involved, there is nothing from any Latter-day Saint or Federal official showing the Mormons and non-Mormons accused of such a crime against the Governor ever met together to hammer out such a scheme. On the other hand, every contemporary record, even secret conversations between friends, suggests that whatever Dawson’s haberdashery wove on December 21, it was a surprise to everyone, including Church leaders. Young did not even know that Dawson had rejected the Legislature’s bill for statehood yet, as can be seen from the meeting he held with LDS leaders the next day. Wilford Woodruff’s diary indicates it was not until December 23, 1861, when they were first informed of Dawson’s denial for statehood, two days after Albina was provoked, which significantly diminishes the motive for such a crime.

The first mention of rumors passing around concerning an impropriety by the Governor is in the December 25, 1861, edition of the Deseret News, and even then the editor was unsure of the full truth of the matter, so refrained from much comment. Albina Williams made out an affidavit the next day (December 26) detailing what had happened, which was shortly thereafter published, with a statement being added about an attempted bribe to keep her quiet.

Finally, on December 28, Brigham Young’s private Office Journal records that T.B.H. Stenhouse came in and brought President Young up to date on the details surrounding an immoral remark by Governor Dawson, and his subsequent exposure, including his mysterious onset of sickness and desire to make a will. The following day (December 29) the Journal History of the Church states the Governor threatened to shoot Stenhouse if he published anything concerning the matter, an accusation Maxwell doubts and describes as surreal.

No one will ever know if the threat was truly made, but keep in mind it was written in a private record, not shouted from the rooftop for effect. It’s not outside the realm of possibility, considering Dawson had assaulted a newspaper editor less than five years earlier. The Richmond Jeffersonian claimed in 1856 they had obtained a police record revealing Dawson had been convicted of public indecency in 1855, and the penalty had been a fine; a case which has never been located, and may well have been fabricated, for all we know. Whatever the case may be, the paper furthermore commented that people of all parties in Fort Wayne, Indiana-Dawson’s home town-would laugh at the idea of him having any moral character. If Dawson was known as the type of gentleman who exposed young men visiting bordellos, and preached against drunkenness, then it was risky for the Jeffersonian to print such ridiculous slander and ruin their credibility.

While Dawson may have been partial to a clean community, using Biblical passages for back up, apparently he was not above dishonesty, and at times rejected turning the other cheek. Perhaps bitter about the paper’s comments having an impact on his unsuccessful candidacy bid for Indiana Secretary of State, Dawson was soon after caught removing advertisements for the Richmond Jeffersonian outside the Post Office by R.D. Turner, its editor. Dawson was summoned before the Mayor, and while giving his defense, Turner interrupted him and refused to sit down before he finished his tirade. Dawson swung his cane at Turner’s head and struck him in the face, breaking his nose and cheekbone, and dislocating his jaw. Dawson was immediately arrested for the ‘murderous assault,’ as another local paper called it.

So to think he was above threats or violence on anyone who ruffled his feathers is a bit of a stretch. T.B.H. Stenhouse would later leave the LDS Church and pen an exposé wherein he alleged Dawson had fallen into a snare laid by his fellow Federal officials, an accusation I don’t believe Stenhouse was really in a position to be privy to. Nevertheless, the point is, Stenhouse failed to indict his former Church brethren in anything, and he probably would have, had he been let in on the gag.

Maxwell also relies on Catherine Waite’s anti-Mormon book on Brigham Young for his conspiracy thesis. Catherine, wife of Charles B. Waite, who served as an Associate Justice of the Utah Supreme Court shortly after Dawson departed, related what she most likely heard from her husband, a man detested by the Mormons. Unlike Stenhouse, who blamed Federal officials, she accused the Saints of planning and accomplishing a coup d’état on Dawson, without going into any details whatsoever. It’s understandable that she and her husband would blame the Mormons, considering the rocky relationship they had, but with zero substantive evidence provided by her, citing her propaganda and denigration of LDS leaders for alleged improper conduct is flimsy at best. Her lack of condemnation of any Federal officials in the matter, though, is telling.

Either on December 28 or 29, 1861, Albina Williams visited Brother Brigham for the first time and relayed in person what had happened to her, and confessed she had been offered hush money to shut up about it by Dr. Chambers, one of the very men Maxwell confusingly says was in on the plot to hang Dawson out to dry. By December 29, Brigham Young and Church officials knew Dawson was going to leave Utah. By December 30 the juicy tidbits of the affair were leaking out to the public, as can be seen from diaries of Saints who jotted down what they were hearing. Young wrote John Bernhisel on that day and reported what he had learned thus far concerning the Governor’s naughty behavior. Dawson promptly departed with Dr. Chambers for the carriage trip back to Indiana the next afternoon, December 31.

Of course that makes sense, because anyone barely feeling better after being bedridden for over a week would surely plunge out into the cold winter for a journey spanning over 1500 miles for their health’s sake, right? Yeah. Or maybe the five shots unloaded near him on Main Street by an unidentified assailant who no one cared to chase down were still ringing in his ears. The Deseret News noted the coincidental timing of it all and took it as proof that the Governor was guilty of the widow’s accusations. It is obvious from reading the journals and private correspondence of both high and low ranking Saints that they were all genuinely disgusted by the crude lapse of judgment by the appointee from Indiana. These many sources could not have been rigged; they present a chronologically fluid chain of events that account for why things dominoed the way they did. It makes little sense to suggest that despite all of this, and more evidence I don’t have space to convey here, we are to brush it aside, and instead entertain an unsound argument from silence, as far as contemporary sources are concerned, about a conspiracy hatched by multiple men-both Mormon and non-Mormon-to entrap Dawson.

A press in Bluffton, Indiana, published a letter to the editor reacting to the news by saying this was not the first time a community had been sickened and disgusted with the infamy of John W. Dawson. Apparently not everyone thought he was a standard of morality in Indiana either, though this too could have just been yet another one of those bizarre, one-sided allegations the author talks about, possibly penned by one of the Republicans troubled by Dawson’s political meddling, who William Linn mentions.

John Gary Maxwell believes Dawson’s letter to Frank Fuller establishes that it was his illness which impelled him to return to Indiana, and not the possible consequences of having propositioned Albina Williams. He also questions why Dawson would tell people he was going to return if he was guilty of soliciting her, implying that if he was leaving out of fear for his well-being, why would he shortly return? I should point out that Frank Fuller providing this letter and additional, uncondemning information to a snooping legislative committee, flies in the face of Maxwell’s theory that Fuller was behind the whole affair, and points to him not knowing about any such thing. I think the answer could just as easily be that Dawson, indeed nervous about what was coming, decided it was best to leave sooner than later, and provided Fuller, someone in whom he didn’t place much confidence, with a reason that sounded better than the truth.

What was he supposed to write? ‘This scandal may become such that my return to Indiana, for the time being, or until I see where this will all lead, is imperatively demanded. Hence I start this day.’ Of course not! Dawson gave Fuller an excuse which attempted to save face: His health was such that he needed to leave immediately, in the middle of winter, to take the 1500 mile, bumpy trip back home; but not to worry; he would be back at some point.

The author also says Dawson would never have tried to contract sexual services from Albina if he knew he was leaving so soon. But that’s the point, he wasn’t going to leave so soon initially, and even if he was, that doesn’t rule it out. Maxwell then quotes from another author who quotes Dawson’s own paper, giving a completely different reason on why he had to skedaddle so fast from Utah: his business in Indiana required his presence. Such circular reasoning, utilizing Dawson’s excuses to excuse Dawson from any wrongdoing, does little to bolster the author’s conspiracy theory, and avoids the probability that by the time he ran from Utah, the Governor had heard whispers, at least, of what was being said about him.

For several days the Saints had been recording the juicy details of what was publicly circulating in their diaries, and the Deseret News had hinted at knowledge of the dirty deed early on. Dawson chose not to answer for, or deny, any of it. Instead, after hiding in his room for over a week, he tucked his coat tails between his legs and scurried out of the Territory, supposedly sicker than a dog. His timing was impeccable, for had he waited any longer, facing Albina’s charges would have been absolutely unavoidable.

The author’s conjecture for why Dawson never responded to the allegations against him, even after he’d left Utah, is that he didn’t want to give credence to them by openly arguing against them. I find that unlikely, given how easily the outspoken Governor responded to anything else he disagreed with. He could have at least denied it privately, yet such rhetoric is never found in his correspondence once he learned the accusations had gone public. It’s as if he went out of his way to avoid letting the subject come up. If Dawson was innocent, what would have stopped him from plainly rebutting the false charge? By saying nothing about it, he fueled speculations over his culpability.

It seems to me there is a much more plausible answer for his deafening silence: he was guilty of something, and desperate to cover his tracks by making it appear as though the rebellious Mormons had done this with no provocation whatsoever. No attention to his peccadillos was better than the folly becoming known to his peers, and spreading through national news.

Maxwell thinks Dawson also kept quiet because he knew Frank Fuller, Judge Kinney and Dr. Chambers, whom the author includes in the supposed conspiracy against the Governor, would probably testify on the side of the Mormons. The weakness of the author’s argument is manifest in the fact there isn’t one footnote in that speculative paragraph. More likely, those men thought Dawson guilty, or didn’t care for him, as he was now a political paperweight, and they had bigger plans for their future in Utah or elsewhere. While he didn’t bother to plead innocent to the President of the United States either, he didn’t forget to suggest to Lincoln that the Saints needed to be brought into subjection, even if it meant sending another military force to do it. Luckily for the Mormons, Lincoln didn’t even know how Dawson had gained his position there, and declined to use an iron fist.

The author also asks why the Mormon legislative committee would have needed to officially inquire about the reasons for Dawson’s departure if the accusation of Mrs. Williams was true, suggesting it was to cover up their crime. The real reason, I believe, is that the leading Saints were unsure how the Federal Government would react to Dawson’s beating and harsh words about them, as they were still hopeful of gaining statehood. They spearheaded the inquiry to have control over it, gather evidence for their defense against the ex-Governor’s rants, and give the appearance they were more concerned about capturing his assailants than they probably actually were.

The January 1, 1862 edition of the Deseret News announced that some Mormons felt the Governor had committed an offense that might endanger his personal safety, especially if Albina had relatives, for he had done something which, under the common law of the country, if enforced, would cause him to bite the dust. Furthermore, the News noted, he was being guarded on his way out of the city to prevent him from being killed or castrated. This is the juncture where I believe the evidence shows a conspiracy-of-sorts began, none of which is covered in *The Civil War Years in Utah.* While there are a number of particulars of with which I tend to disagree with the author, I will deal with the entire eyebrow raising minutia of the assault, and who was really behind it, at a future time. The prediction by the Salt Lake City newspaper proved partially correct, for the Governor received a terrific beating by his guards-really a gang of rowdies-on his way out. Wood Reynolds, the main instigator of the brutal attack, was the vengeful fiancé of the daughter of Albina Williams, and boarded in her home. Several policemen recalled Reynolds made precisely that defense, namely that he was a relative of the insulted lady and justified his vindictive behavior on those grounds- further evidence that something offensive had occurred between the Governor and Wood’s future mother-in-law. There would have been no need for mountain justice from the family if the whole thing had been cooked up as a farce.

The author of *The Civil War Years in Utah,* like many historians before him who cite the same late reminiscences, maintains Governor Dawson was castrated during the attack upon him; but yet again, contemporary sources do not bear this out. It’s not that I doubt such a thing could happen; to the contrary, there were Mormons perfectly capable of wielding a blade for that purpose. But bowing to the best evidence and applying Occam’s razor should dictate historical revisionism. I have collected everything I can get my hands on concerning this incident, including books, newspaper reports, family recollections, diary entries, legal proceedings, interviews, excommunication trials, correspondence, and minutes of various meetings, both public and private.

Of course I am particularly interested in anything coming from the people who were actually there, or those whom they would have confided in. Although Maxwell assures the reader that his certainty of Dawson’s castration rests on the preponderance of evidence, none of it suggests Dawson was castrated, other than a few non-witnesses popular among those who see blood everywhere in this era of LDS history. Nowhere mentioned is the declaration of the eye witness unfavorable to the ruffians, who was there during and after the beating, and who, while describing the scene in court, said nothing about a castration. Nor does Maxwell deal with a dozen other primary sources connected to those intimately involved, including the trials of the perpetrators, all of which never even hint at such an occurrence.

What the contemporary evidence does demonstrate is that the Governor, as he himself testified, was repeatedly kicked and stomped in the groin by the violent gang, causing serious injury. The damage was bad enough that part of his sexual organs may have been nearly emasculated during the vengeful tap dance. The end result was some kind of operation being performed by a Doctor sometime after the beating. I have little doubt that had Dawson been castrated, embarrassment notwithstanding, he would have screamed for sharp justice to be served. The author says Dawson’s record after returning home with his wife was spotless, and unmarred by moral turpitude or infidelity. Of course it was; even if he had wanted to stray, following the mutilation and surgery, his family jewels never functioned quite the same way. Needless to say, while he may have intended to return to Utah Territory in the future if everything blew over, after the assault on him, the controversial gubernatorial reign of Honorable John W. Dawson was cut short.