Patrick Edward Connor, a fiery, ambitious Irishman of 42, was unhappy. He had served with a Texas regiment under the command of Colonel Albert Sidney Johnston in the Mexican War, but before the war ended he had resigned his commission and joined the gold hunters in California. Unsuccessful in finding gold, he became a California ranger, a surveyor and a businessman. Still, his interest in the military life never waned.

Subscribe Today

• Did you enjoy our article?
• Read more in Wild West magazine
• Subscribe online and save nearly 40%!!!
 

When the Civil War broke out, Connor, with 10 companies of troops, was called back to duty. Seven of the companies, along with Connor, were assigned to Utah. Since Connor and his men wanted desperately to fight in the ‘real war,’ he sent a letter to the secretary of war requesting reassignment. The request was denied, and Connor came to Utah with a burning desire to do something–anything–to gain the military recognition he felt he had been denied.

Connor arrived in Utah Territory in 1862 with about 750 volunteer troops from California and Nevada. Disgruntled when he did not get reassigned to lead Union forces in Civil War battles, the disconsolate Connor established a permanent U.S. Army post at Camp Douglas (later called Fort Douglas), at the foot of the Wasatch Range overlooking Salt Lake City. Connor liked the location because, to soothe his bruised feelings from his unwelcome assignment, he could keep an eye on the activities of the Mormons.

The primary objective of Connor’s troops was to relieve the Mormons of the task of guarding the Western mail routes and telegraph lines, a temporary assignment given the Mormons by President Abraham Lincoln. Policing the Indians was considered a legitimate secondary purpose, but Connor, it seems, fabricated an assignment of his own to watch the Mormons.

Connor’s recorded correspondence shows that he felt his ‘duty of assuring Mormon loyalty was…as important as preventing Indian raids along the…mail and telegraph routes.’ Although the feisty Connor respected Brigham Young, he had little use for the man personally. Young, in turn, was upset by the establishment of the camp above Salt Lake City and apparently let Connor know his concern. According to one historian, ‘from this point on [Connor] waged a cold war with Mormon authorities.’

Reporting to his superiors in Washington, Connor wrote that the Mormons were ‘a community of traitors, murderers, fanatics…and whores.’ He apparently held that opinion most of his life. Aligning himself with non-Mormon businessmen, Connor promoted extramilitary prospecting and mining in the area. He was involved in settling early-day Corinne, a non-Mormon settlement west of Brigham City, which for a time was called Connor City after the strong-willed Irishman. Connor and his cohorts were desirous of making Corinne the ‘Chicago of the West.’ When the railroad came and then left, Corinne’s future went with it.

As a soldier, Connor was brave, able and determined. He was quick to snuff out Indian uprisings. When the so-called Bear River trouble loomed, the ambitious Connor grabbed the chance to further build his reputation as a great military leader and gain an army promotion.

Miner William Bevins signed an affidavit on January 19, 1863, claiming that two days earlier he and seven others on their way to Salt Lake City from the Grasshopper gold mines at Bannack (in what would soon be Montana Territory) had been attacked by hostile Indians. One of the miners had been killed. Bevins also reported that another party of 10 miners en route to Salt Lake City had been murdered by the same Indians. Shoshone and Bannock raiders had been known to be operating in the area.

Bevins’ word was enough for Connor, who painted all Indians with the same brush and did not bother to investigate the attacks. Warrants for the arrest of three Shoshone Indian chiefs–Bear Hunter, Sandpitch and Sagwitch–were given to U.S. Marshal Isaac L. Gibbs, who promptly turned the matter back over to Colonel Connor.

Help HistoryNet by bookmarking to