150 YEARS AGO IN THE UTAH WAR

CAPT. JESSE A. GOVE, 10th Infantry, letter to his wife, Maria, 11 Nov 1857 - "Man in Capt. Gardner's company accidentally killed today by a man shooting beef cattle. Ball missed the beef and glanced into a tent and passed directly through his head, killing him." [The man was pvt. James Curren, Company B. Gove mentions in the same letter that Curren was buried the next day. There is a marker in the Camp Floyd Cemetery for Curren, His is one of about forty markers for soldiers not buried in the cemetery. See cemetery link below for details of the cemetery and its markers, etc.]

GOVE, letter, 10 Nov 1857 - "The 5th [regiment] came up last night. very cold. I nearly froze in my tent last night. . . . Animals died last night by fifties."

GOVE, letter, 12 Nov 1857 - "Thermometer 14 [degrees F]. Horribly cold. [By this time, Col. Johnston had caught up with the troops at Ham's Fork and ordered them to Fort Bridger. This march was accompanied by constant blizzard and cold. It is amazing there were no deaths among the soldiers during this march except the one mentioned above. ]

ANDREW J. ALLEN, Nauvoo Legion, 13 Nov 1857 - "Clear and cold. Nov 14, ice on the river bare a horse our provisions runing low nothing but bread. The boys went out hunting killd too chickens."