Mormon Wisdom

The Mormons (or the Church of the Latter Day Saints) appears in Burnished Rows of Steel, largely in minor roles. As is now ISO standard, TFSmith heavily tweaks things to make everything appear better for the Union.




Historically speaking, the Mormons (term used for ease of reference) had a fractious relationship with the US in general and the Republican party in particular. The most recent examples of this friction as of the Civil War were as follows.
In 1856, the Republican Party platform called for the prohibition in the Territories (including Utah) of "those twin relics of barbarism - Polygamy, and Slavery" (a direct reference to the Mormons). The Republican party attacked Popular Sovereignty on the grounds that it would cause the perpetuation of polygamy.
In 1857-8, when the government effectively sent in an army to compel the removal of Brigham Young (head of the Mormon church) as the governor of Utah territory. The tensions killed roughly as many people as Bleeding Kansas, and eventually there was a full pardon enacted which narrowly averted full war.

There was considerable conflict between the Republican party and the Mormon church, based on the anti-polygamy agenda of the Republican party and the Mormon support for slavery; ultimately, the Mormons were essentially allowed to ignore the anti-polygamy laws passed in 1862, in return for not getting involved in the Civil War, a decision which suggests which side they might have taken if pushed. In the event, there was a lukewarm support on both sides in the first year of the war, but the US government did not trust the Mormons (only allowing them roughly a reinforced cavalry company) and the Mormons did not trust the Federal government much either; the job of policing the area was quickly turned over to the California Column, as soon as was practical.


In the light of this situation, TFSmith has the Mormons produce a full regiment of mixed infantry and cavalry for the US ("two battalions, one infantry and one cavalry"), and has Brigham Young become an enthusiastic supporter of the Union war effort essentially because that now means being opposed to the British; in this he brings the entire LDS church with him. At between five and ten times the historical contribution, this is definitely putting a thumb on the scales.

TFSmith's notes say he reached the number of 1,000 troops by taking the population of the area (40,000), and calculating thus: "I could posit 4,000 available for service; cut that by 75 percent considering the vagaries of the volunteer system, and one gets 1,000..."

Comparison to Canada (which is treated by TFSmith as a hotbed of anti-British sentiment based on unrest in 1837-8) is instructive.

To apply the same calculation for Canada (population approx. 2.5 million) one would get 250,000 available for service and 60,000 volunteers - far more than TFSmith permits Canada to produce, indeed he shows it struggling to produce 30,000 militia or so.
To instead apply the calculations for Canada to Utah (where the social unrest against the government is two decades more recent), the expected result would be a few hundred militia and a small-scale ongoing revolt against the Union.

The most sensible thing to have happen in Utah, meanwhile, would be the Mormons simply staying out of it (as per history).