Fight All Hell Rather Than Tamely Submit: The Saints Resist Johnston's Army

In August of 1857, Brigham Young delivered a speech to the saints assembled in the Tabernacle.  As he contemplated the Army force marching closer to the home of the Saints, he bitterly remembered how, over the last he and the Latter-day Saints, over the last 20 years, had been brutally victimized by armed bands, from Ohio to Missouri to Illinois.  He saw the approach of federal troops as simply the latest armed force to set out to destroy them.  But he decided that this time would be different.  He roared from the pulpit: "Let it be treason or not treason . . . .  The Lord God Almighty and the Elders of Israel being our helpers, they shall not come into this territory.  I will fight them and I will fight all hell rather than tamely submit to such outrageous wrong and oppression."  

This episode covers: 

• The strategy the Latter-day Saints adopted to resist Johnston's Army
• Daniel H. Well's Council of War on 3 October 1857
• The, uh, friendship between Captain Porter Rockwell and Major Lot Smith
• Lot Smith's daring raid on the Army's supply wagon train
• The single most memorable line of the Utah War - "For His sake, I'm going to burn them." 

Special thanks to Utah War historian William "Bill" MacKinnon - His two-volume set, "At Sword's Point: A Documentary History of the Utah War to 1858" is an extraordinary resource for anyone interested in learning more about the Utah War.   

Key Words: Brigham Young, Daniel H. Wells, Porter Rockwell, Lot Smith, N.V. Jones, James Parshall Terry, John Dawson, Utah War, Burning Supply Wagons, Raiders, Nauvoo Legion, Scorched Earth, Fort Supply, Fort Bridger.