Nauvoo Legion - in Utah

In Utah

Some legionnaires served in the 500-man Mormon Battalion for the U.S. government in 1846 as part of its campaign against Mexico. However, the Nauvoo Legion itself resurfaced to prominence soon after Brigham Young led the first band of Mormons to Utah, then called Deseret, in 1847. Under territorial law, the Nauvoo Legion became the territorial militia in 1852 although it retained its name.

1849 conflicts with Native Americans in Utah County, such as the attack at Battle Creek, Utah, foreshadowed the 1853-1854 Walker War between the Nauvoo Legion and Indians led by Chief Walkara ("Walker"). Twenty servicemen and many more Native Americans died in the Walker War.

The Legion was used again in the Utah War against Federal troops entering Utah in the "Utah Expedition" from 1857-1858. They employed tactics of supply destruction and avoided direct fighting. At this point Daniel H. Wells was the chief military commander of the militia. It was also under the auspices of the militia that the groups of men who were instructed to burn down Salt Lake City and other parts of northern Utah should the invading army try to take up residence were organized.

After this conflict, the Federal government appointed Utah's territorial governor, and the Nauvoo Legion was allowed to exist at the command of the governor. It however was not as cooperative in imposing the colonial regime as federal authorities would have liked.

During the American Civil War, federal troops either were withdrawn from Utah, or in many cases left to join the rebellion, Johnston who had led the invading federal army being among the later group. The Federal government made a reconciliatory approach to Brigham Young, requesting his help. With his permission, two units of the reorganized Nauvoo Legion were gainfully employed by the United States to protect western mail and telegraph lines from Indian attacks in what is today Utah and Wyoming, but saw no action. Neither the Legion nor any other Mormon troops participated in the main theaters of the war, and the Legion's involvement ended in 1862, after Congress had passed the Morrill Anti-Bigamy Act.

The Nauvoo Legion had sub-units organized in each of Utah's counties and functioned like most other state and territorial militias of the time.

The final use of the Legion was in Utah's Black Hawk War 1865-1868 when over 2,500 troops were dispatched against Indians led by Antonga Black Hawk. (Antonga Black Hawk was a Ute and has no connection to the Illinois Sauk chief Black Hawk of the 1830s.) In 1870 the Utah Territorial governor, J. Wilson Shaffer forced the Legion inactive unless he ordered otherwise. Federal troops dispatched in response to the 1870 Ghost Dance ensured Shaffer's order was enforced. The Nauvoo Legion never gathered again, and the 1887 Edmunds-Tucker Act permanently disbanded it. In 1894, in anticipation of statehood, the non-sectarian Utah National Guard was organized as Utah's official state militia.