Sedgwick's 1858 Map

At the opening reception for our Civil War exhibit, we were given a map from 1858 owned by Major General John Sedgwick. The map, produced by the War Department Office of Explorations and Surveys, is a sketch of the routes between Fort Laramie and the Great Salt Lake.

At the time, Sedgwick was stationed at Fort Leavenworth in Kansas. Fort Laramie was further west, in Wyoming. The Great Salt Lake area, even further west, was of great interest to the military: from 1857 to 1858, the U.S. army engaged in what they called the "Utah Expedition." It has also been called the Mormon War.

During the 1850s, the U.S. government considered the Mormons to be a lawless group of religion fanatics. In May, 1857, approximately 2,500 U.S. troops assembled at Fort Leavenworth and marched to Salt Lake to subdue the Mormons and reclaim control of the Utah territory. In response, the Mormons called up the Utah militia to defend them. Both sides spent months posturing, trying very hard to avoid actual combat.

The "bloodless war" continued until June, 1858, when Brigham Young accepted President Buchanan's offering of peace.

Sedgwick's map was made in January 1858, during the middle of the conflict between the U.S. military and the Mormon settlers.