Andrew F. Gammell of the Second Texas Infantry



NPS Photo
2d Texas Infantry Regimental Monument
Vicksburg National Military Park



The presidential election of 1860 caused quite a commotion in the state of Texas.  The new Republican Party had nominated abolitionist and former congressman from Illinois, Abraham Lincoln.  His very name became a curse word to Southerners.  So strong was the opposition in Texas that he was not allowed on the ballot. When Lincoln won the election with nothing but Northern electoral votes, Texans realized that their economy and their very way of life were in jeopardy.  They began hollering, “Immediate secession! Abe Lincoln is not our president!”(1)

The whole Southern economy was based on the belief that slaves were property and that the government had no right to confiscate personal property—and valuable property at that.  In Texas one adult male slave was worth nearly $1,000, and slaves were absolutely essential to running a cotton plantation.

Even non-slaveholders, like Andrew Gammell, felt the same way.  Only one person in ten owned a slave, but nine out of ten would support the war of secession.  Andrew told his sister, Jane,

I hope the day is not far distant when you all can welcome home the victorious soldiers of Texas.  How I look for that happy day when I once more can see my friends and know them free from Lincoln and his despotic rule.  Then I shall be satisfied…I do not care how soon [the Northern states] may fall out if they will let us alone.(2)

Andrew, along with his fellow Texans, was willing to risk his life in the defense of the South and its traditions, even though he had lived in Texas for less than five years.  Originally a Northerner, he was born in New York.  He was christened “Andrew Faulds Gammell”(3) at age twelve in Lowell, Massachusetts, while living there with his mother and his stepfather, James H. Wylie.  The family then moved to Hanover, Michigan, to be near his brother James Gammell after James had escaped from Van Diemen’s Land.  In Hanover, twenty-one-year old Andrew married Esther Van Patten, the sixteen-year-old daughter of his neighbor John Van Patten.(4)  Andrew and Esther had two daughters, Jennette and Esther, before leaving Michigan.

By 1860 most of the Gammell family, with the exception of James, had gathered in Harris County, Texas, where the oldest brother, William, a slave owner, had lived for more than twenty years.  William had been part of the contingent that won the original Republic of Texas from Mexico in eighteen minutes at San Jacinto.  Andrew and his sister, Jane, the wife of Captain James B. Andrews, settled in Harris County, along with their mother, Jane Wylie, and their stepsister, Mary Ann Wylie, who married a Texan, Darius Gregg.

Andrew and his brother William, both gunsmiths by trade, must have paid close attention to the heated arguments during the presidential campaign.  They realized that such animosity between the North and South was bound to end in war.

Just one month after Lincoln’s election, South Carolina seceded from the Union, citing the violation of its alleged rights to own slaves.  Texas followed suit a few weeks later on February 2, 1861.  On February 8, seven cotton states met in Montgomery, Alabama, to organize the Confederate States of America.  They named Jefferson Davis as President.  In April Davis ordered six thousand Confederate troops to take Fort Sumter. Shots fired at 4:30 in the morning on April 12, 1861, marked the beginning of the Civil War.  The sixty Union soldiers who manned the fort surrendered the next day, marching out of the fort bearing the tattered Union flag.

During the summer the Confederacy began organizing its defensive fortifications in Texas.  The Union battleships in the Gulf of Mexico now posed a threat to the shipment of Texas cotton to England.  Colonel John Creed Moore was sent to Galveston, where he organized and trained the Second Texas Infantry Regiment, known as the Second Texas Sharpshooters.  Andrew Gammell of Houston was one of the volunteers who enlisted.  By December the regiment, consisting of ten companies of volunteer militia, had moved to Camp Bee near Andrew’s home in Houston to complete their training.  By March 1862, Andrew had been transferred to Corinth, Mississippi, where his regiment became part of the Army of the Mississippi, commanded by none other than General Albert Sidney Johnston, former commander of Utah’s Camp Floyd.

With courage and youthful optimism Andrew bid a tearful farewell to his wife, “Het” (Esther), and his three daughters.  The youngest was three-year-old Kate.  He called her “Kitten.”(5)  Andrew took comfort in knowing that his sister, Jane, lived nearby and would be a great help and support to Het while he was gone.  (Andrew’s mother, Jane Wylie,  had met an untimely death just a few months earlier when she was struck by lightning.) After a festive ceremony in which the ladies of Houston presented the regiment with a silk battle flag, Andrew and his fellow soldiers departed Houston by train to Beaumont, Texas. From there they continued by steamboat and overland march to Corinth, Mississippi.(6)

As part of the greater Army of the Mississippi, Andrew and his fellow Texas Sharpshooters engaged in one of the bloodiest battles of the Civil War at Shiloh, Tennessee (April 6-7, 1862), the battle in which General Albert Sidney Johnston was killed.  Johnston was shot in the leg while leading the attack on the Union army.  Thinking that his wound was insignificant, he dismissed his personal surgeon to care for other wounded soldiers.  Within one hour he bled to death; his boot had filled with blood from a severed popliteal artery.  After the battle the Second Texas was cited for bravery, and Colonel Moore was promoted to brigadier general.

By the time the Second Texas, now under the command of Colonel Ashbel Smith,(7) fought the battle at Corinth, Mississippi, in October, they had already become a seasoned fighting unit.  They managed to take Fort Robinett, but held it for only a short time and were forced to retreat.  From Corinth the regiment retired to winter camp at Grenada, Mississippi.  On Christmas Eve, President Jefferson Davis and General J. E. Johnston came to review the troops.  The dignitaries watched the parade from the porches of the mansions along Margin Street, while the troops marched from the fairgrounds to the downtown square to Margin Street, and then back to the fairgrounds.(8)

Andrew, still in good spirits and steadfastly optimistic about the Confederate cause, reported the news to his family, “I had the pleasure of seeing Jeff [Jefferson] Davis at Grenada.  He and General [J.E.] Johnston reviewed the army at that place… The army was very much pleased with him and cheer after cheer was sent up for him.”  In his letter Andrew had very little to complain about, except maybe the food and his aches and pains from sleeping on the cold ground:

My health is very fair at the present time, all but the rheumatism, which has bothered me for these last six weeks.  But I have a good appetite, as you would find if you could set me down to one of your old-fashioned dinners.  Whew, what a treat that would be for the soldiers now Jane!  I think from what I can hear that this spring [1863] will fetch the war to a close…That was great news we heard the other day [concerning] the recapture of Galveston… Fight them to the last is my motto.  Or as the gallant Lawrence said, “Never give up the ship!”  We have them on the downhill so that now if we follow them up it is soon over.(9)


The victory at Galveston (January 1, 1963) gave most Texans reason to be optimistic about the outcome of the war.  Galveston was the largest city in Texas at the time and its major seaport.  Confederates took back Galveston from Union occupation and retained it for the rest of the war.  The Union never tried to retake the island, but it reinforced the blockade in an effort to limit commerce in and out of the harbor.

As the Civil War was nearing the end of its second year, Andrew wasn’t the only one who was predicting that it would end soon.  Even General Ulysses Grant supposed that one final battle would bring the war to a close.  Hopefully that final battle would not be as costly as Shiloh.  The two-day battle of Shiloh was the costliest battle in American history up to that time, resulting in the defeat of the Confederate army and 10,699 Confederate casualties (1,728 killed, 8,012 wounded, and 959 missing or captured).  Union casualties were 13,047 (1,754 killed, 8,408 wounded, and 2,885 missing).  The dead included Confederate general Albert Sidney Johnston and Union general W.H.L. Wallace.  Both sides were shocked at the carnage.  Little did they know that “three more years of such bloodshed remained in the war and that eight larger and bloodier battles were yet to come. The war would continue, at great cost in casualties and resources, until the Confederacy succumbed or the Union was divided.”(10)

__________________________

1. Michener, James A., Texas, 1985, p .617.
2. Andrew Gammell, Letter to his sister, Jane, 14 January 1863, Vicksburg. (Copy from the collections in the Center for American History, University of Texas at Austin.)
3. The middle initial F in Andrews name stands for "Faulds." Faulds is most likely a family name in Jane Dickie’s family. James mentions a cousin named Andrew Faulds in his letter to Mackenzie, January 1843.
4. Jackson County (Michigan) Marriages, 1833-1870, p. 135.
5. 1880 U. S. Census, Chicago, Illinois. Kate, known as Kitten, is living with her mother Esther Gammell.
6. http://www.corinthcivilwarrelics.com/wprogers/story.htm
7. Ashbel Smith was a prominent political figure and doctor from Harris County, Texas.
8. Joseph Eggleston Johnston, not to be confused with Albert Sidney Johnston. http://www.alabama37th.com/flag.htm  and http://www.angelfire.com/ms2/33Miss/chapter2.htm
9. Andrew Gammell, Letter to his sister, Jane, 14 January 1863, Vicksburg. (Copy from the collections in the Center for American History, University of Texas at Austin.)
10. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Shiloh

Visit to Sheridan, Montana - Bary Gammell

Liz, on Tuesday afternoon Jan and I had a nice visit in Sheridan with our cousin Sandra Baril. 

She showed us some locations related to Grandpa James that I wanted to share with you.  We first drove a short distance east of town to the likely area where James first settled and started the saw mill, Mill Creek.  The exact location is no longer identified.

After leaving the saw mill, James and wife Susan Maria Brown homesteaded west of town.  The land is now owned by 5L Ranch.

Going west and south is the Duncan property where it is believed James built this barn.

The cemetery where James is buried is 1.5 miles south of town.

After leaving I asked Sandra to go back so we could take a picture of two of us at the grave marker.

In backtracking we also came across the grave of Orlin Gammell, James’ first son.

When Jan was taking the picture of Sandra and me, I threw my cap on the ground. After getting back in the car I realized I forgot my hat. In going back to retrieve it I then noticed other grave markers next to James’ grave. Susan being Sandra’s great-great grandmother and I believe sister-in-law of our great-great grandmother Hannah Jane.

Photos by Bary and Jan Gammell

The End of the Utah Expedition and Camp Floyd

In the months preceding the Civil War, James and his family were still living in Fairfield, Utah, near Camp Floyd.(1)  Two new babies were born in 1859, Charles Harrison born to Maria on March 10, and Robert Mahlon born to Hannah Jane on October 21 at Cedar Fort.  As an excommunicated Mormon, James no longer demonstrated any allegiance to the Church or its leaders, although his wives and children were still members in good standing.

Early in 1859, when there was strong suspicion that Johnson’s Army might renege on the agreement that President Buchanan had made with Brigham Young, the Mormon militia began covert activities to spy on Camp Floyd.  They stood ready to send up a smoke signal should any federal troops advance towards Salt Lake City.  In March, James reported that a few Mormon militiamen intercepted him in the desert near Camp Floyd and attempted to purchase his complete stock of powder and lead.  He flatly refused them, and reported their activities to Judge Sinclair.(2)

During 1859 James was plagued with financial problems.  In June he was charged in a lawsuit brought by the county assessor for delinquent taxes on his property in Salt Lake City.(3)  On June 22, he was summoned again by the probate court for Salt Lake County, this time in a case brought by Silas Richards,(4) against fifteen individuals including James Gammell, W.A. (Bill) Hickman, and Orin Porter Rockwell.  James and several others, who had not been summoned as of June 22, appeared before the judge on July 2.(5)  Silas Richards, a businessman, had likely employed each of these men and was probably suing for breech of contract.

In August, James was summoned in the aftermath of a murder investigation. The victim was a man named Franklin E. McNeil,(6) who was shot on the night of August 4, at the California House (a hotel) in Salt Lake City.  Investigators believed that a man named Joseph Rhodes had shot McNeil.  The magistrate issued a warrant for Rhodes, but apparently he had escaped during the night.  The next morning (August 5) U.S. Attorney Andrew Wilson took McNeil’s dying statement at the California House.  McNeil didn't know who had shot him.  He said it happened about 11 o'clock at night.  “He had come from his room down to the outside of the hotel, to make water, and while there two men came up, one of whom said, ‘Frank, is that you?’ and the other man shot him with a pistol.”  The shooter ran, and McNeil fired his pistol at him, but did not hit him.  McNeil supposed it was Joseph Rhodes who had shot him.  There had been a quarrel between the two the night before in the bar room of the hotel, when Rhodes had fired a pistol at him, missing his head, but burning his hat.  McNeil thought the man who had spoken to him was Lot Huntington.  A warrant was issued for Huntington, who was questioned by the judge.  Since there was no evidence to implicate him, and since McNeil had stated before he died that he was mistaken about Huntington, he was discharged.  The case went before the grand jury, and they found “a true bill of indictment” against Joseph Rhodes.(7)

The argument between McNeil and Rhodes was apparently sparked by some violation of the ‘code’ that had been adopted by a gang of government stock thieves of which both men were presumed members.(8)  Clearly, Rhodes was charged with the murder of McNeil, but just a few weeks later James became involved in the proceedings.  He was summoned to 1st Judicial District Court on Thursday, August 25, at 9:00 am:  “Mr. Thompson moved for a rule against Mr. Gammell and another in the case of the murder of McNeil.(9)  (James was supposedly at Fort Bridger with the Simpson expedition on August 25.)  A few days later the Deseret News mentioned a pending civil action:  “Monday, August 29, 10 a.m…In the case of C. A. Perry & Co. vs. McNeal [sic] and Gammel [sic], Mr. Thompson moved that a scirefacias be issued to compel the heirs of McNeal to appear in cause.”(10)  C.A. Perry & Co. had filed a lawsuit against James back in May 1855, demanding payment for goods delivered.  In this 1859 case it appears that James may have had business dealings with Frank McNeil, and that Perry had sued Gammell and the murdered man’s heirs for the payment of debts.

Despite the increased number of ruffians and outlaws who invaded Utah along with the army, its occupation did have some unforeseen benefits.  As the conflict between Camp Floyd and the Mormon community became less of a threat, Utah citizens began to see that the camp had a positive influence on their economy.  Before the camp was established, the Mormons were desperately poor.  Since the start of the Utah War, or the Utah Expedition as it was called in Washington, all supplies from the east had been stopped:

Thus the community had become utterly destitute of almost everything necessary to their social comfort.  The people were poorly clad, and rarely ever saw anything on their tables but what was prepared from flour, corn, beet molasses, and the vegetables and fruits of their gardens.  They were alike destitute of implements of industry, and horses, mules, and wagons for their agricultural operations.  Utah was truly very poor at that period; indeed, never so poor since the Californian emigrants poured into Great Salt Lake City in 1849.(11)

The presence of the army soon changed all that.  Businessmen like James Gammell began to trade directly with the camp.  In the process he became acquainted with the Walker brothers, for whom Camp Floyd “laid the foundation of their fortunes.”  The mutual benefits of these commercial ventures “softened the feelings of hostility between the citizens and the soldiers, and the Utah Expedition became transformed into a great blessing to Utah, and especially to the Mormon community.”(12)  Living as close to Camp Floyd as he did, it is reasonable to assume that James profited from the occasional sales of army surplus merchandise:

Periodic auctions of condemned food and surplus animals and equipment offered bargains in such wanted items as mules, bacon, boots, and doubletrees.  One of the largest of these sales was the disposal of some 3,500 large freight wagons by Russell, Majors and Waddell, for $10 each.  The wagons had cost from $150 to $175 a piece in the Midwest…Large numbers of oxen and mules were also sold by the firm in the territory, for as little as $25 to $50 per yoke…The benefits of the unintentional helping hand of the potentially hostile forces of occupation continued until the summer of 1860.(13)

Another blessing directly related to the Utah War was the Pony Express.  The route, established in April 1860, extended from the Missouri River all the way to the Pacific Ocean.  Until that time Utahns were used to receiving news in three months.  Now communication from Sacramento arrived in six days, and from St. Joseph, Missouri in seven days.  However, the Pony Express enterprise lasted only nineteen months.  It ended after the completion of the Transcontinental Telegraph line in October 1861.  Great Salt Lake City was the junction of the eastern and western divisions of the line.  Brigham Young was honored to send the very first message over the wire, a note of congratulations to the president of the Pacific Telegraph Company.(14)

Camp Floyd, itself, was a short-term operation, lasting only three years.  The size of the army was diminished over time, beginning in the summer of 1860 when the garrison was reduced to ten companies (about 1,500 men).  In July 1861 Camp Floyd was completely dismantled and its soldiers sent to fight in the Civil War.  Today, very little is left of the once thriving camp.  The evacuation of Camp Floyd led to the largest government surplus sale held in the previous history of the United States—one final windfall for the Mormons:

At one large auction, which commenced on July 16, 1861, the army sold an estimated $4,000,000 worth of property for approximately $100,000…This included iron, tools, and equipment, livestock, stock feed, and a large supply of beans, flour, and other food… [the army also left the Mormons with improved transportation and communication services for their widely scattered settlements.]  Thus ended, wrote William Clayton, “the great Buchanan Utah Expedition, costing the Government millions, and accomplishing nothing, except making many of the Saints comparatively rich, and improving the circumstances of most of the people of Utah.”(15)

Among the auction items purchased by Brigham Young was the safe that had been used by the federal government to transport half a million dollars worth of gold to Camp Floyd.  After the auction came the destruction of army ordnance.  These arms and ammunition were piled up in pyramids at a safe distance away.  Long trains of powder were laid, and on signal the fuse was ignited.  In the early autumn of 1861 the troops marched eastward, and thus ended the famous Utah expedition.(16)  With the inauguration of President Abraham Lincoln in March, Utah Territory soon received a new set of more acceptable federal officials and settled into a fairly peaceful existence.  However, in April shots rang out over Fort Sumter, signifying the beginning of a long period of turmoil for the United States.

___________________________

1.  1860 US Census, Fairfield, Cedar, Utah Territory, taken October 9, 1860.
2. Moorman, Donald R., and Sessions, Gene A., Camp Floyd and the Mormons – The Utah War, University of Utah, 1992, p. 117.  Source footnote #63: James Garnmell to Charles E. Sinclair, March 29, 1859, Albert Sidney Johnston Papers, Barrett Collection, Tulane University. (In the book and the original source Gammell is spelled GARNMELL.)
3.  Salt Lake County Probate Court, civil and criminal case files, series 373, entry 1741 (June 6, 1859).
4. Silas Richards (1807-1884) is buried in Union Pioneer Cemetery, Sandy, Utah. The inscription on his gravestone reads, “First Bishop of Union.” He settled on Little Cottonwood Creek, and helped build a fort at Union for protection against the Indians: http://www.williampsmith.com/pcsilas.html
5. Deseret News, June 29 and July 6, 1859.
6. Franklin E. McNeil (1833-1859) was murdered by fellow outlaw Joe Rhodes, who also met a violent end the following January. Frank had come to the Salt Lake Valley to spy on the Mormons and cause them havoc at the request of Johnson's Army. Frank spent quite a bit of time in jail. http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=28048157
7. Deseret News, Wednesday, August 10, 1859; Message of the President of the United States: Condition of Affairs in Utah, United States Department of Justice, James Buchanan, p. 35. (Alexander Wilson [U.S. District Attorney for the Territory of Utah, 1858-1862] wrote the report of the McNeill case.)
8.  “Another Man Killed,” Deseret News, Wednesday, August 10, 1859.
9. Deseret News, August 31, 1859.
10. Deseret News, September 7, 1859.
11. Tullidge, Edward William, History of Salt Lake, 1886, p. 246.
12. Tullidge, p. 247.
13. Arrington, Leonard J., Great Basin Kingdom: An Economic History of the Latter-day Saints, 1830-1900, Harvard University Press, 1958, pp. 198-99.
14. Deseret News, October 23, 1861.
15. Arrington, pp. 198-99.
16. Tullidge, Edward William, History of Salt Lake, 1886, p. 247-251.  In February 1861, Colonel Philip St. George Cooke, who had replaced General Albert Sidney Johnston as commander of Camp Floyd, was ordered to change the name to Fort Crittenden.  The reason for the name change was to “disconnect the fort from the name of Secretary Floyd, whose plot for secession was exposed, and his Utah Expedition, sinking twenty millions of the nation’s money, considered to be a part of that secession plot.”

Scrimshaw Engraved by William Gammell

Kim Cox of Corpus Christi, Texas, sent these photos of a scrimshaw engraved by William Gammell, the brother of James Gammell.  (I had to refer to the dictionary for the definition of scrimshaw:  "any of various carved or engraved articles originally made by American whalers usually from baleen or whale ivory.")

This piece was handed down by Kim's grandfather James Bedford Sterns, a grandson of Margaret Jane Gammell (sister of James and William.)  William Gammell and his wife, Jane, had no children, so apparently William's possessions were handed down through his sister's family. 



Scrimshaw engraved by William Gammell
(circa 1848)
Photo by Kim Cox



Thanks to Kim for sending these photos.  The inscription on one side of the scrimshaw reads, "GAMMELL, BROWN, GERAD & FREEMAN."  The inscription on the other side, "TRIP UP THE YUBA CALIFORNIA,"  refers to William's journey to the California Gold Rush. 

Other side of scrimshaw engraved by William Gammell
(circa 1848)
Photo by Kim Cox

Kim's mother, who turns ninety-nine in July 2011, may be able to give us more information about William and the origin of  the scrimshaw.  To learn more about William Gammell, see previous posts dated May 19, May 29, and June 3, 2010.

The Simpson Expedition to Uinta Valley

James H. Simpson, 1857
(Wikimedia Commons)

Just two months after James Gammell returned home from an expedition to the site of the Mountain Meadows massacre, he joined James Simpson’s expedition to explore the Uinta Valley.  James H. Simpson, an officer in the U.S. Army, and a member of the Corps of Topographical Engineers, was ordered to Camp Floyd in 1858.  Under Captain Simpson’s direction the army made its most significant contribution of the Utah War by improving western immigrant roads, and mapping new routes to shorten the travel time between the states and California.  Simpson’s team of scientists and artists accompanied the troops, collecting specimens of flora and fauna, and sketching the scenery.  The published report inspired many emigrants to move to the western frontier.

In August 1859, Simpson returned to Camp Floyd after surveying a new route to Carson Valley, Nevada.  Four days later, on August 9, he and his team left Camp Floyd again for Fort Bridger, following a new route that they had opened the previous fall.  This time he took James Gammell along as his guide.  Under orders from General Albert Sidney Johnston, they were looking for the most practical wagon road between Camp Floyd and the Uinta Valley and then to the Green River.  From Camp Floyd, Simpson’s party traveled in a northeasterly direction, passing through the Utah settlements of Lehi, American Fork, and Mountainville (Alpine) to the Timpanogos River(1) road (now the Provo Canyon Road).  Simpson established his main camp on Torbert’s Creek, Round Prairie (now called Heber Valley):(2)

August 12 [1859], Camp on Torbert’s Creek(3), Round Prairie.  Elevation above the sea, 5,786 feet. Thermometer at 5.30 a. m., 43º.  Having established my main camp at this point, I leave this morning to examine pass over Uinta range into Green River Valley, agreeably to orders of General Johnston of August 5th.  Take with me one of my assistants, Mr. Henry Engelmann, (geologist and meteorologist,) ten dragoons, Mr. James Gammell, as guide, Ute Pete, Clark, and Dougherty, in all sixteen persons, with three pack-mules.(4)

The next day the party made its way up Coal Creek Canyon to the summit of the Uinta Mountain divide (9,680 feet) and then down the other side to the Duchesne and the Uinta River junction (near Roosevelt, Utah), a distance of seventy-five miles.(5)  Simpson described the route as “a most excellent one…however, [it] is at present far from being practicable for wagons, and not even is it practicable for pack-mules without the very greatest tax upon man and animals…rendered so by willow, aspen, and fir thickets, and by steep and rocky precipices and ridges.”  Nine of the ten dragoons’ horses became crippled and had to be left behind due to the “extraordinarily rough, steep, and stony character of the route.”  Gammell reported that on a previous trip via this same route he left behind a crippled horse and came close to losing another.(6)

In his written report Simpson recommended that a military work crew remove the fallen and standing timber along a thirty-six mile stretch of this route in order to accommodate the passage of wagons.  Lacking personal knowledge of the Uinta Valley, Simpson relied on Gammell’s experience to describe the area:

The valley of the Uinta, Mr. Gammell represents as also being very fine, all the way to Green River, being covered with groves of large cottonwood, beautiful grass, and so lying as to be easily irrigated.  It is, besides, accounted as one of the warmest valleys in the Territory.  He says it is from one to ten miles wide.  Both the Du Chesne Fork and the Uinta River, where they meet, are about 50 feet wide, and from one to three feet deep.  The former is said to contain trout and white-fish, the white-fish weighing from 10 to 25 pounds.  The valleys of these rivers are deeply seated between inclosing heights, varying from 200 to 500 feet.  The formation of the rocks is like that of White Clay Creek, whitish sandstones alternating with sandstone shales.(7)

Captain Simpson and his party returned to the main camp in Heber Valley, then broke camp and headed to Fort Bridger.  The main party, including Gammell, traveled the route that was opened the previous fall and arrived at Fort Bridger on August 25.  Simpson with a small group of seven, explored a new route via Kamas Prairie (now Utah route 150), and arrived a day later.  This completed Simpson’s assignment in the Great Basin.  From Fort Bridger he returned to his wife in Minnesota.  A few years later, as chief engineer of the Interior Department, he oversaw the construction of the first Transcontinental Railroad.

It seems appropriate to acknowledge the toughness, determination, and courage of not only Simpson, but also of men like James Gammell, who made such an important contribution to exploration and road building in the Great Basin.

___________________________

1. The Timpanogos River is now called the Provo River.
2. Round Prairie was the earliest name of a valley later called Provo Valley. It became known as Heber Valley after Heber City was named in honor of Heber C. Kimball. A small settlement of ten families called Heber City had sprung up since Simpson’s first exploration of this valley the previous fall.
3. The Torbert Creek campsite was east of Soldier Hollow, on the bend of the Provo River, and would now be under Jordanelle Reservoir.
4. Simpson, J. H., Report of Explorations Across the Great Basin of the Territory of Utah for a Direct Wagon Route from Camp Floyd, to Genoa, in Carson Valley, in 1859, Washington, 1876, p. 139.
5. This route may correspond to present-day Utah state road 35 and US 40. Click on this link for a map of the area: http://mapq.st/mr8Oyl
6. Simpson Report, p. 140.
7. Simpson Report, p. 141.

Mountain Meadows Massacre



Mountain Meadows, Utah
(from Wikimedia Commons)

  

The massacre at Mountain Meadows (1857) in southern Utah was the next criminal case Judge Cradlebaugh sought to investigate.  As part of his investigation, he visited the site of the massacre in May 1859 with a military escort and with James Gammell as his Indian interpreter.  The expedition with Cradlebaugh has forever linked James with the Mountain Meadows trials, at least in family lore.  Tradition has it that James presented evidence that Brigham Young had ordered the massacre, and because of what he revealed, he was excommunicated from the Mormon Church.  However, in the most recent (2008) and most thoroughly researched account of the massacre, James Gemmell is only a footnote.(1)  Researcher Richard Turley reported that  Gammell’s name did not appear in any of the surviving trial transcripts.(2)

The complete story of the massacre, its historical context, its victims, its perpetrators, and its aftermath, could fill several volumes.  Just a brief summary is given here as it relates to the life of James Gammell.

Mountain Meadows:  A monument to the victims
(from Wikimedia Commons)

The Mountain Meadows massacre could be called the perfect storm, given the number of coinciding events that preceded this horrific crime.  The Utah War, although it was settled peaceably, had several unfortunate consequences.  One indirect, but tragic, result was the massacre.  In 1857 streams of emigrant wagon trains, many of them from anti-Mormon states like Missouri and Arkansas (where Parley P. Pratt had just been murdered), were traveling through Utah Territory on their way to a better life in California.  About the same time that the small southern settlements got word of the approaching United States Army, the Fancher wagon train from Arkansas was passing through Utah.  Dark clouds of suspicion and fear hung over the Mormon settlements.  Had the Fancher group sensed the level of war hysteria among the locals when it set up its camp thirty-five miles southwest of Cedar City, some members of the party would not have chosen to antagonize the Mormons with their demands for supplies and their blatant anti-Mormon comments.  But hysteria prevailed, and the situation spiraled out of control.  Local militiamen decided to attack the Fancher train. They also enlisted the help of the Paiute Indians by promising them plunder.  Local Mormon leaders, including John D. Lee and Isaac Haight, brought the matter before the local council, who vetoed the whole idea.  Lee and Haight ignored the council’s decision and went ahead with a plan to have the Indians attack and then lay the blame completely on them.  Several of the emigrants were killed in the attack, but one man, returning to the camp on horseback, saw that there were white men involved.  Lee and the other conspirators were now in panic mode.  The rest of the bloody massacre was the result of the cover-up of their original deceit.

The Fancher party circled their wagons and held off their attackers for five days.  The Mormon militiamen who were involved finally drew them out of their fortress by waving a white flag of truce.  However, the truce was only a ploy.  They asked the party to march in single file, women and children first, followed at a distance by the men.  When the signal "Halt" was given, the militia fired at close range, killing all except the seventeen youngest children.  The final day of the siege was September 11, 1857.

On September 9, the local Mormon council had sent an express rider, James Haslam, to Salt Lake with a letter explaining the situation to Brigham Young and asking his advice.  President Young sent instructions to “let them go in peace,” but Haslam didn’t return with the reply until two days after the bloody deed was done.  When Isaac Haight, one of the leaders of the attack, read  Brigham’s message, he sobbed like a child, “Too late! Too late!”(3)

Note:  For further reading see the most recent and well-researched account of the Mountain Meadows massacre. Check out the Amazon.com link on the right-hand side of this page.

Judge Cradlebaugh convened a grand jury investigation of the massacre in March 1859 in Provo, but the jury declined any indictments.  The judge then decided to hold court in Cedar City, where he would have access to key witnesses.  He attempted to arrest John D. Lee and two others, but they had fled.  By overstepping his judicial authority, Cradlebaugh antagonized U.S. District Attorney Wilson:

Attorney General Black in Washington, D.C., said that it was not Cradlebaugh's job to determine whom to prosecute or when to call out the troops.  He instructed U.S. District Attorney Wilson to "oppose every effort which any judge may make to usurp your functions. . . . If the judges will confine themselves to the simple and plain duty imposed upon them by law of hearing and deciding the cases that are brought before them, I am sure that the business of the Territory will get along very well."…Cradlebaugh's grasping for prosecutorial power made prosecution nigh impossible.  Prosecutors must work with judges to obtain warrants and convene grand juries, but Cradlebaugh would not cooperate. (4)

The Civil War (1861) prevented any further trials, but the case was revisited in the 1870’s. A grand jury indicted nine men for their role in the massacre. Only John D. Lee, considered to be the leader and organizer of the murders, was tried and convicted. Lee was executed by firing squad in 1877 at the site of the massacre.

Concerning James Gammell’s role as a witness in the Mountain Meadows trials, there are two surviving accounts, both written at least twenty years after the incident, that seem to be the source of family legend.  Stories seem to get better with the telling, but now it is possible to compare them with facts from reliable sources.

In one account Joseph C. Walker, writing many years after James death (1881), recalled stories that James told around the campfire in the winter of 1863-64:  “Mr. Gemmell said that he was in Brigham Young’s office when a courier came to the office with the horrible news of the Mountain Meadow massacre.”  [Could this courier actually be James Haslam who brought a message to Brigham, not after, but before the massacre had occurred?]

Continuing, Walker wrote, “He [James] said he went with a party from Salt Lake City to Mountain Meadows and buried the dead.  He said it was the most gruesome, pitiful, heart rending and sickening sight he had ever beheld…” [James didn’t visit the site immediately after it happened.  He was there in May 1859 with Judge Cradlebaugh.  At that time some bodies had still not been buried.  It was still a gruesome site.]  “This massacre, the foul deed that it was, was enacted in the year 1853 [the actual year was 1857].  The people of this train were all from Arkansas…Evedently [sic], Mr. Gemmell could not go into court and testify to only such part of the above statement as he either witnessed or heard, but his opportunity to receive information was of the best, he having been in Utah before any Mormons were.”(5)

The second account comes from James Gammell’s obituary in The Dillon Tribune.  The article claims that James was in Brigham's office when Jacob Hamblin came in and reported the Arkansas train near Cedar City.  James allegedly heard Brigham tell Hamblin that if he [Brigham] were in command of the Legion "he would wipe them out.”  [A meeting at Brigham’s office on September 1, involved Jacob Hamblin and ten Indian chiefs.]

James' obituary continues:

About three weeks [actually only ten days] afterwards the Mountain Meadow massacre occurred which wiped out the Arkansas train, for which John D. Lee suffered the death penalty by being shot a few years ago [1877]… There were 125 bodies found afterwards and buried by the U.S. troops sent out for that purpose.  Gen. Albert Johnson was in command and Judge Cradlebaugh was sent along to ascertain whether any white men were engaged in the massacre.  The Indians said the Mormons incited them into it, and gave them the plunder...Bishop Jake Hamlin [Hamblin] lived within three miles of the battleground, and it was him that took the order from Brigham to John D. Lee.  [Jacob Hamblin, the Indian missionary and later Indian agent, could not have delivered orders from Brigham Young. Hamblin didn’t return to Mountain Meadows from Salt Lake City until September 18.](6)  The foregoing history came under Mr. Gemmell's immediate observation and was written down at his request and will no doubt be interesting to many.(7)

Perhaps the most reliable source of all is a letter written by James himself.  Questions about his personal knowledge related to the massacre came up again in 1872, while he was living in Montana.  Investigations were going on in Utah, and Montana officials were asked to question Gemmell.  Worried about being compelled to go to Utah, he wrote to his old and trusted friend Feramorz Little, who would later become the mayor of Salt Lake City.  As we know now, James was never summoned.  In his letter he actually seemed surprised that anyone would have knowledge of what he said “in some of our whisky sprees.”

Sheridan M.T.

October 14 1872

Mr. Feramore Little

Salt Lake City

Dear Sir

      I have been very much annoyed lately by the officials of Montana, as they say through the request of their Friends in Utah, to accertain [sic] of me what took place, and what was said in President Youngs office, on my arrival from Texas, between Jacob Hamlen President Young and others, in regard to the Arkansas Train then passing through the southern settlements of the trouble they had with the Inhabitants, and of their boasting, of Parley been [sic] killed in their neighbourhood before they left.  And of them threatening to Poison the springs and what Conversation took place between the President Hamlen and others at that time in the Presidents Office and if I knew what was the purpose of the Instructions sent South, and if I thought the massacre was in retaliation for the killing of Parley, and of what I remembered of the evidence gleaned from the Indians and others from Judge Cradlebaugh when I was his Interpreter, when he was holden [sic] Court in Cedar City.  Now where they got the Knowledge to interrogate me in this matter, is a mystery I think they must have got it from Bill Hickman, in some of our whiskey sprees when we was togeather [sic] in Echo Canyon, but thank God those sprees are at a end for I have not drank any whiskey for over two years.  Now, Ferry I expect to be put in restraint and compelled to go to Utah daily, and give evidence in that affair. I would much rather go to the end of the Earth, or Texas, than be compelled to go down there for that purpose, [but] go I must as that would be the only way I have of avoiding them, but I am dead broke as usual [and] have not the means of leaving a large family, please write as soon as you receive this.  And give me Council for the best.

From your old Friend

James Gemmell (8)

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1. Walker, Turley and Leonard, Massacre at Mountain Meadows: An American Tragedy, Oxford, 2008, p. 344, footnote #108.
2. Scott, Stuart D., “A Frontier Spirit: The Life of James Gemmell”, p. 92.
3. For a review of Massacre at Mountain Meadows, by a friend, Craig Matteson, one of Amazon’s top reviewers, click on this link:   http://www.amazon.com/review/R3R68CZXY063EQ/ref=cm_cr_rdp_perm    For a scholarly review by Robert H. Briggs, click on this link:   http://mimobile.byu.edu/?m=5&table=review&vol=20&num=2&id=726&q=parrish-potter
4. http://fairmormon.org/Mountain_Meadows_Massacre/Prosecution/Was_prosecution_blocked_by_the_Church
5. Joseph C. Walker Papers, pp.46-50.
6. Brooks, Juanita, The Mountain Meadows Massacre, 1950, p. 42.
7. James Gemmell obituary, The Dillon Tribune, April 9, 1881.  William Wheeler quoted the obituary in his account.  Wheeler conducted his interview shortly before James’ death (1881), but it was probably not published until 1896.
8. James Gemmell letter to Feramorz Little, Brigham Young Papers, MS 1234, LDS Archives.  Feramorz Little may never have received this letter.  He left Salt Lake City on a journey to Palestine on October 15, 1872, the day after James Gammell wrote it.  This may explain why the letter ended up in Brigham Young's papers. 

District Court Trials of 1858-59

Two incidents that occurred in 1858 may have had some bearing on James Gammell’s November 14 excommunication from the Mormon Church.  On June 3, 1858, just one day before General Johnston’s army began marching toward Salt Lake Valley, the Mormon militia was monitoring the army’s movements.  Lt. James Ferguson wrote to Daniel H. Wells concerning the activities of his militia.  He seemed to suspect that Jim Gammell was providing “aid and comfort to the enemy”:

Are you aware that in addition to the two teams that accompanied Ben Simons…five others heavily laden brought up his rear; three of which were under the charge of Jim Gammell, whom if McGraw(1) gets hold of, a little boot might be given in trade.  It may be that all the flour contained in those teams was intended for the Indians.  I am inclined to Thomasize [doubt] on that point.  And what material difference is there between flour and bacon when the enemy is equally in want of each?  I am afraid General Ben is but a tool.  At any rate I think somebody or other has wrung in a team or two that Lewis knew nothing about.  A guard of 8 foot [soldiers] and 2 horses will today be placed at the mouth of each of the two canyons you referred to.  I have requested Gen. West to take the necessary precautions against any parties going out from or by way of the Northern settlements.(2)

Another event that could have precipitated James’ excommunication took place in November 1858.  Judge Charles E. Sinclair convened the First Judicial District Court in Great Salt Lake City.  In his instructions to the grand jury he urged them to prosecute “the leading men of the Territory for treason, for intimidation of the courts, and for polygamy.”  As part of the peace negotiations that had settled the so-called Utah War, President Buchanan had pardoned any Mormon hostilities that had occurred during the conflict, but the three federal judges insisted that the hostile offenses be brought before the court.  Judge Sinclair wanted to summon ex-Governor Young, Lieutenant-General Daniel H. Wells, and other leading Mormons, particularly the Apostles:

…to make them admit that they had been guilty of treason, and make them humbly accept from him the President’s clemency…But it was something more radical and serious than a vainglorious effort to humble Utah to the footstool of a Federal Judge.  It was an attempt to reopen in the courts the entire conflict, which had so nearly come to the issue of war.  U. S. District Attorney Wilson, however, would not present to the jury bills of indictment for treason, pleading that the Commissioners had presented the pardon, and the people had accepted it, and the Governor had proclaimed that peace was restored to the Territory…Sinclair’s judicial service was a failure...(3)

No names of witnesses or jury members are cited in the Tullidge account of Sinclair’s November 1858 court, but James Gammell did sign an affidavit before Judge Sinclair in March 1859 condemning the authorities of the Mormon Church.(4)  (Further research could determine whether or not James was involved in the original trial in November.)

A few months after his excommunication James became involved in Judge Cradlebaugh’s trials, aimed at implicating “the leaders of the Mormon Church in all the criminal offenses and deeds of violence done within the Territory”(5) of Utah.  The first case that Cradlebaugh investigated from his District Court in Provo, Utah, focused on the Parrish-Potter murders of March 1857, which had taken place at Springville.

Two of the murder victims were William Parrish and his adult son, Beatson.  Both had apostatized from the Mormon Church.  They had planned to leave for California, against the wishes of local church authorities.  They acquired two good horses and hid them in a cane thicket on the edge of town.  Before dawn on the morning of the planned escape, William Parrish, his sons (Beatson and Orin), and a man named Duff Potter were attacked when they went to retrieve the horses.  Several men hiding in ambush fired at them and then engaged in a bloody hand-to-hand encounter.  Orin managed to escape into a cornfield.(6)

During the trial James gave testimony implicating Alfred Nethercot(7) and other “Prominent men” in the murders:

Testimony of James Gamble [sic] taken before the court of Chambers at Provo City March 23, 1859:

Last May [1858] riding over the ground with Alfred Nethercot coming from Palmyra,(8) Nethercot said Jim if you had seen what I saw here a year ago it would have surprised you—he stated that Parish and Potter – he tried to carry the idea that he [Nethercot] did it—he said the party that fired upon them were secreted in the locust in the corner of the fence—he pointed to the spot where the old man fell—where Beetson fell about 50 yards away and where Potter fell the place was about eight rods from the corner of the fence—we were in that grove—he said those men [Wm. & Beatson Parish] were calculating to leave the Territory and to steal horses and we headed them in it—the Prominent men spoke openly in regard to cutting the throats of Apostates.(9)

On Wednesday morning, March 23, James gave testimony and was examined by the attorneys.  It was concluded that he “knew nothing except hearsay.”  One attorney, Mr. Stout, "objected to the witness on the grounds that, from his own statement, he was not in this country at the time the murder was committed."(10)

One week later James, along with five other Springville residents, signed an affidavit accusing the leadership of the Mormon Church of sanctioning the murders, but more importantly, the document focused on the presence of federal troops at the court proceedings:

Territory of Utah, Utah County,

We, Albert Parrish, Henry Higgins, James O’Bannion, Leonard Phillips, Orlin Parrish and James Gammell, do solemnly swear…that we were summoned to appear as witnesses before the United States District Court for the 2nd Judicial District of said Territory, which convened at the city of Provo, on the 8th March, 1859; that we possessed certain knowledge of various crimes…on account of which said knowledge we had been so summoned; that on account of the participation in, or sanction afterwards of the said crimes, by the community…emanating as we believe from the authorities of the Mormon church; we considered our lives and property in imminent peril from the Mormon community, should we appear and testify to the facts within our knowledge, unless a portion of the United States troops should (as they have been) be stationed in the town of Provo, near enough the Court room to guarantee safety, and that from the Mormon community we have received threats of intimidation, in case we should divulge the facts concerning said crimes, which have come to our knowledge, and which threats we believe would have been carried into execution but for the timely aid afforded by the Commanding General in the stationing of troops, now in and near this city; and further, we believe our lives to be in danger henceforward without military protection from United States troops…

Subscribed and sworn to before me this 29th day of March 1859.
Charles E. Sinclair, Associate Justice Supreme Court, Utah Territory.(11)

The main objective of this court affidavit was to justify Cradlebaugh’s judicial order summoning the United States army to protect his court.  Much of the conflict in these District Court proceedings was not with the Mormons, but with other federal officials, a result of Cradlebaugh usurping the executive powers of Governor Cumming, and the prosecutorial role of U.S. District Attorney Wilson.  Governor Cumming asserted that the court had no authority to call for the aid of the military, except through him.  As Judge Sinclair had done the previous November, Cradlebaugh took a “most extraordinary judicial action,” extraordinary in that he assumed the roles of investigator, prosecutor, as well as judge.  In his summation of the evidence in the Springville murder trial, Judge Cradlebaugh concluded:

You are the tools, the dupes, the instruments of a tyrannical church despotism.  The heads of your church order and direct you.  You are taught to obey their orders and commit these horrid murders.  Deprived of your liberty you have lost your manhood, and become the willing instruments of bad men.  I say to you it will be my earnest effort, while with you, to knock off your ecclesiastical shackles and set you free.(12) 

In 1886, Edward Tullidge wrote his assessment of the Cradlebaugh trials.  He reasoned that “with such a grand jury, charged in this manner by such a judge, it was impossible to accomplish the ends of justice; equally impossible whether they had been ‘the willing instruments’ of a ‘tyrannical church,’ or a grand jury of honest, innocent men.”(13)

_________________________

1. McGraw and his Missouri mob attacked James the previous year.  (See post “Leaving Texas.”)  John Taylor wrote, “My private opinion, from the twinkle of his eye, when speaking on the subject is, that it would not be very good for McGraw’s health to meet him [James] on equal grounds.”
2. Letter from James Ferguson to Daniel H. Wells, June 3, 1858, Great Salt Lake City.
3. Tullidge, Edward William, History of Salt Lake City, pp. 226-231.
4. The affidavit was published in the newspaper Valley Tan on April 5, 1859.
5. Tullidge, Edward William, History of Salt Lake City, pp. 226-231.
6. Johnson, Don Carlos, A Brief History of Springville, 1900, pp. 40-41.
7. See Hosea Stout diary, March 22, 1859: “Alfred Nethercott was called as a witness today, and not testifying to suit T. S. Williams & the judge, was arrested by a bench warrant previously prepared for him. This makes 4 persons arrested for the murder of Parrishes & Potter against who there is not the shadow of evidence."     See http://robandsusanpages.com/rhistories/stout/Hosea_1859_03.html  
8. Palmyra, Utah County, Utah, is a small town located west of Springville and northwest of Spanish Fork.
9. Church History Library Archives, CR 100 397, Box 1, Fd. 1859 Feb- June.
10. "Court Doings at Provo", Deseret News, March 30, 1859, p. 8.
11. Published in Kirk Anderson’s Valley Tan, April 5, 1859.
12. Tullidge, Edward William, History of Salt Lake City, Salt Lake City, 1886, pp. 226-231.
13. Tullidge, pp. 226-231.