Chapter 64 Walker VS Texas Ranger
Chapter 64 Walker VS Texas Ranger
"Walker is a damned fool if he thinks that the United States will save his ass from the Texans. The south already screwed up Cuba, I will not let our reputation be tarnished in Central America."- President Stephen Douglas 1855
"I will state for the record as I've said multiple times before that never in my life have I believed that the so-called Mormon rebellion was a righteous cause. While Joseph Smith is a great man who I am proud to bare the same name as, he was fundamentally wrong when it came to the issue of marriage. God's holy union is meant to be between a man and his wife. If I become President there will be absolutely no attempts to reinstate polygamy."- Presidential Candidate Joseph Romney 1910
"Hey Rob, we aren't related to that Bill character so it'd be totally okay if I blew his head off right?"- Doug Walker 1854
In the year 1855 Texas faced an enormous crises both foreign and domestically with the rise of the Mormon Rebellion and the start of what would become known as the Filibuster War. While Texas was perfectly capable of handling either of these crises individually it would become a huge strain on the growing nation to have to deal with both threats at the same time. What made the situation worse was that both wars combined resulted in what would become the largest military conflict for the Lone Star Republic to date, far surpassing both the Revolution and the Border Wars. Yet at the same time there was hope on the horizon. If Texas managed to overthrow Walker from Nicaragua then it could possibly become the dominant nation of the Gulf (excluding the United States) and gain central access and informal control of the trade routes between California and Texas. If the Mormon Rebellion was squashed in a quick enough victory then all future notions of secession from the Republic could hopefully be avoided with Deseret being a prime example. It would also teach a lesson to the Mormons not to spread their radical beliefs of polygamy and set an example to limit any possible attempts of a religion trying to assume the mantles of state. Most importantly that many Texans were unaware of at the time, the war would serve as good practice for the upcoming Mexican War, which would engulf the Southwest in a rain of Blood and Iron.
Deseret: The main problem that existed in dealing with the Mormon rebels was that of Geography. The modern Commonwealth of Deseret is a territory that is not one easily traveled without the modern comforts of a highspeed train or an automobile due to the area's rugged mountain terrain and scorching hot desert that would severely impede mobility for a nineteenth century armed force that was mostly on horseback. Add to that the Mormon's homefield advantage of defense and it could have possibly become a years long guerilla war. Luckily for the Texans while most soldiers and Rangers were seasoned fighters of the frontier, the Mormons were a pacifistic lot for the most part that only used weapons for hunting and self-defense. Leading to their knowledge of warfare and fighting being limited besides shooting straight and mob tactics. Therefore the Texan Army had to mobilize quickly in order to end the rebellion before they could receive any substantial training. Since the 1st Regiment and much of the Rangers stationed in Texas were too focused on either Nicaragua or the Rio Grande, that left the 2nd Regiment under the command of Colonel Albert Sidney Johnston to handle the crises. Johnston was considered by many within the Texan Army to be a rising star within the force as the man was one of the few West Point graduates that had served in Texas and was likened by many of his peers to be a natural at warfare due to his brilliant tactics and knack for organization. Johnston had served honorably in both the Revolution and the Border Wars with many in Austin hoping that he would one day come to replace Major General Travis when the man decided to retire from command. Johnston departed from Monterey on September 1st with all 2500 men of the 2nd Regiment, 250 Texas Rangers, 2000 men of the French garrison forces, and 750 volunteers from the California population. Bringing his total force to that of 5500 soldiers to face off against the 2000 Mormons. Still if there was one thing that the Texans learned after the Revolution was that size didn't matter in terms of armies, therefore they had to treat the rebels as the most serious threat to the Republic. The journey to Deseret took a full month through the scorching Deseret desert with many men collapsing along the way due to the temperatures, luckily for the Texan force there were no deaths of heat stroke. On October 5th the Texan Army had made their way to the western side of the Salt Lake, the capitol being on the eastern side. With some time left before winter Johnston ordered his men to make camp and prep their supplies while the Rangers went scouting on the other side to try and gain intelligence from what the Mormons were doing. The Rangers were gone for a week and reported back on the 12th to give some shocking news to Johnston. Apparently while the Mormons had done the right thing by taking the time to fortify their city they had done little else in the way of actual training or preparation for a full scale war. The four month interlude had taken its effect on the rebels byallowing them to relax due to their supposed arrogance that Austin had given up and had allowed them to remain free in their worship (news did not spread of the Filibuster War and there was little connection from Salt Lake to western Deseret to notify the men of the upcoming Texan march). Most men had instead directed their energies to gathering the harvest or joining in large prayer ceremonies for victory. The Church of Latter-Day Saints being confident that they were on the righteous side and would win. In reality these practices were a blessing for the Texan side as they were being given time and the element of surprise on their side to achieve victory. With winter coming in only the next month and the Rockies providing a harsh alternative to the warm conditions that most Texans were used to, Johnston quickly thought of a surefire plan that would end the rebels before Christmas.
After a few more days of planning and preparation Johnston began the first phase of his plan by sending a portion of the cavalry and Rangers out northeast to enact a limited scorch earth policy and cause a ruckus for the citizens of the region. The horsemen did just this by stealing ruining several crops and causing property damage for Mormon families (though no women were raped and zero were killed with the Texans having orders to cause damage to the land). The men then rode out into the the town of Ogden and caused a general ruckus by looting some stores and burning down a Mormon church in the town. What made these acts peculiar to the Mormons was that the horsemen were wearing Yankee blue and had Indian allies who appeared to bear the marks of the Comanche. This convinced Ezekiel King that the devil had sent the Americans and savage Indians to test the Church in their righteous struggle. On October 13th Ezekiel rallied the People's Army and gave them the order to march out North in order to defend the Holy Land. The People's Army marched on October 14th, though this would later be revealed to be all part of Johnston's plan. The man had decided to scavenge some French uniforms and decorate them to forge American ones while he had ordered the Indian men under his command to dress up as Comanche and play the role, with one actual Comanche playing the role as leader. The reason for the farce was two-fold, it disguised the Texan's advance and performed a Red Herring to make the Mormons think the Americans had come to finish the job, while at the same time the Mormons would free up their capitol with their leave. Two days after they left the people of Salt Lake City rose up in the morning at shock as artillery fire from the Texan's 20 canons came scorching down upon the city of Salt Lake. Buildings were destroyed while the population hurried about in panic due to this unexpected force. Then the infantry came in in droves to the town and took control of each street with squads performing search operations for any dissidents. What few people did rise up were gunned down by Texans and their avenues of escape being blocked off by the cavalry. Johnston declared marshal law over the city at the end of the day and let a lone Mormon escape to inform the People's Army that Texas had the Quorum, Brigham Young, and the entire townspeople as hostages. Word reached Ezekiel by dust and the man became furious with this sudden trickery. He set off the army in the other direction without making camp and declared that he would bring God's righteous wrath against the Infidels. Unfortunately for his men it meant no breaks in the night to sleep and the continued stress of marching dozens of miles across the mountainside. On the early morning of the 18th the rebels reached the outskirts of the city where several Texan men were gathered in lines Napoleonic style to meet the Mormons. As soon as Ezekiel saw the occupiers he ordered his men to send them to hell in the name of the Book of Mormon. Unfortunately for him, this was all another trap. During their initial march the Mormons had unknowingly had a squad of Rangers following their every moves, reporting back to Johnston on a semi-daily basis. With this information Johnston was able to set up traps along the desired path which the rebels would take with the French part of the force hiding in the trees. After a few minutes of the rebels running across the only road leading into Salt Lake, TNT exploded among the sand and sent much of the rebels flying in guts and body parts, the Texans having procured it from the local silver mine. This was que for the French to charge in while the Texans came in from the town. The following fight took a total of forty minutes to complete but by the end of it there were few Mormons left standing with most either being killed, wounded, or deserting from the field when met with the ferocity of the Texans. Ezekiel King himself was killed with a Bowie knife slitting his throat and his body was dragged back into town and held on display for the rest of the day in order to show Deseret that treason would not be tolerated.
The Battle of Salt Lake (the only battle of the entire war) was a costly event for the rebels as they had suffered 412 killed, 347 wounded, and the rest of the army having deserted immediately or being taken capture. To the Mormons credit they had caused some casualties for the Texans as they had suffered 41 dead, 144 wounded along with 18 French killed and 89 wounded. After the mass burial of men on both sides was conducted the Quorum and the remainder of the civilian population where led into the Texan camp where Johnston had given him his demands. The Mormons would turn over their firearms to the Texan forces as long as marshal law would stay in place. Deseret would include the polygamy ban in their new constitution and it would be written in a manner where the Church of the Latter-Day saints would be given no power in the Commonwealth government, the only upside being existing polygamous marriages could remain intact but once a woman divorced they could not reenter into a polygamous relationship. The Deseret commonwealth would pay a $50,000 Redback reparation to Austin. Salt Lake City would receive both a garrison and Ranger company in the future. While the entire commonwealth would only receive one senator and representative for the next ten years in Austin. Finally all surrendered rebels had to swear an oath to never take arms against the Republic again and would be ineligible to vote for the next ten years as well. These were all steep prices to pay but Johnston declared the terms to be non-negotiable and any rejection would result in harsher punishment. Reluctantly Young and the Quorum signed the document and for the next half year the army would remain in Deseret as marshal law until a civilian government was instated with the passing of the Constitution and a gentile governor, Abraham Hayes, elected as governor. When Johnston returned back to California he was hailed as a hero and savior of the Republic. Unlike the United States, Texas would not fight a civil war.
Battle of Salt Lake City
Tamaulipas: When dealing with Walker's takeover of Nicaragua half of the 1st Regiment was deployed to the Central American nation while the 4th battalion was deployed to reinforce McCulloch along with 1,000 French soldiers and hundreds of recruits from the Tejano population along the Rio grande border. All of these forces together made a 3,000 man army that while wasn't much was declared to be more than sufficient for dealing with whatever forces Walker had left in the state. While most of the Texas Navy was dealing with a blockade of Nicaragua seven ships remained under the command of Commodore Jeremiah Edwards to complete the blocakde so as to tighten reinforcements and supplies for the filibusters. A total of 10 ships tried to break the blockade during the Filibuster War but only one managed to break through with the rest either being captured or sunk by the Texas Navy. With his newly reinforced army Lieutenant Colonel McCulloch left Brownsville on June 20th and made his way down south into the Rio Grande to liberate the area from the filibusters. The overall army was split into two with the Rangers and a majority of the cavalry force under Henry McCulloch making their way across the Tamaulipas to liberate the frontier towns that were occupied by Walker's forces. Meanwhile the remainder of the force would march across the coast and capture each port town so as to retain total naval control and ever widen the tight noose that was left for Walker's Rio Grande. The campaign took a total of six weeks but by the end of it the majority of the state had been liberated from Walker's forces (though areas with Mexican filibusters were left alone) and all that remained was the port of Tampico. On August 4th McCulloch's forces combined and began a siege outside the city limits. At the exact same time the Texan Navy moved in towards the coast and began daily bombardments of the city. This method was highly effective as the filibusters had little knowledge and the way of siege warfare and the only canon in town was a 1 pound piece leftover from the days of Spanish occupation. While the Texan/French forces waited outside the entirety of the town was slowly getting leveled under the weight of the Texan firepower. On the fifth day of the siege was when the local populace had enough of the filibusters for bringing destruction into town and began a general revolt to drive the gringos from their country. While at first the filibusters had an advantage due to their stockpiling of the town's firearms the tide quickly turned when after a few hours of the uprising the Texan army began rolling into the town, the Texans having learned from civilians who had escaped the fighting and begged them to intervene. Already tired from the siege, lack of supplies, and fighting against the local populace, the filibusters capitulated by dusk with most wanting to return back to the United States and leave the southwest behind. The Battle of Tampico resulted in only minor casualties on the Texan side with 23 killed, 17 wounded and the French suffering 11 killed and 14 wounded. On the opposing side the casualties were much greater with the populace suffering over 4,000 casualties from either the uprising or the siege while the filibusters suffered 202 killed, 176 wounded, and the rest having fled or being captured by the Texans. For the rest of the year the port was occupied by Texan forces while the filibusters were either extradited to the United States or executed for crimes against the people. In 1856 the occupying Texans left back to the other side of the Rio Grande while a small force of 1500 from the Rio Grande French garrison stayed behind to protect French commerce entering into the Rio Grande. Unfortunately the Filibuster War did not improve the general life of the Rio Grande as their civil wars and filibusters continued, five more years of chaos until the Mexican War.
Nicaragua: As soon as Austin declared war on Nicaragua the Texan Navy was immediately mobilized and sent into action. The remaining 14 ships of the Gulf fleet under Rear Admiral Edwin Moore were deployed along the coastline and managed incoming trade to the Nicaragua route while also depriving the nation of any supplies in the general blockade. At the same time the Pacific Squadron under Commodore Phillipe Rodriguez sailed around Mexico and blockaded what few ports the country did have on the pacific. Luckily for Texas as soon as the blockade began the small Nicaraguan Navy defected to their side since they were made up of Nicaraguans with Walker paying little attention to them and their force not having been bought by the filibusters. Reinforcing the Central American coalition were the second half of the 1st regiment along with a company of Texas Rangers and hundreds of volunteers. This total force resulted in another 3,000 men and would once again be led by Major General Travis in the field. This time the French did not send any troops numbers due to the conflict taking place outside of the Southwest Union, though they managed to send a group of officers as observers to later negotiate with the liberated Nicaraguans. Joining the Texans were the Yucatan and a 10,000 men army along with 5,000 of Costa Rica and Honduras' limited 1,000. As soon as war was declared by both Texas and the Yucatan Costa Rica marched right across the border and coordinating with Honduras managed to secure it to prevent any outside aid coming in or Walker having any chances of escape. The operations truly began on July 25th when the entirety of the Yucatan/Texan force were organized along the Honduras border, starting the coalitions advances into the country. The campaign took a total of five months with the war lasting generally longer than the Mormon Rebellion and the Tamaulipas campaign due to the extensive difficulty of traveling in the Nicaraguan jungle and the trouble that the coalition received in guerilla warfare from some of Walker's filibusters and Nicaraguan loyalists. Still, the coalition was able to receive extensive support from the populace due to the fact that as soon as Walker took power he began an mandated Americanization system which forced Nicaraguans to learn English, reinstate slavery, recognize American dollars, and encourage American immigration. These limited efforts having failed in its entirety and only resulting in greater anti-American feelings throughout Central America. One key battle before the end of the war is the Battle of Rivas where Costa Rican forces repealed an attack in the southern town of Rivas by Walker's soldiers that could've had the possibility of retaking the southern half of the country. Unfortunately while this battle was won militarily it turned out to be a huge disaster for Costa Rica as mismanagement of the dead and efforts by Walker's filibusters resulted in a Cholera outbreak reaching Costa Rica, killing 10,000 people or 10% of the total population. The end of Walker's filibuster days happened in the Fall of Granada where coalition forces gathered outside the ancient city in order to force Walker's surrender and liberate the last remnant of Nicaragua still under foreign control. The assault for the city took place on December 14th with thousands of coalition troops rushing in to topple the regime. The coalition army with its superior numbers and higher morale managed to decimate Walker's army in only a matter of hours. Unfortunately for Nicaragua it would not escape Walker's wrath without paying the price. Just as the last pockets of resistance were being eliminated a fire broke out in the town center from some of Walker's men who were given orders to leave nothing behind. These men were shot but it was far too late as the fires spread, consuming much of the ancient city. Meanwhile Walker attempted to escape but was spotted by Texas Rangers in the outskirts and was shot in the leg while riding his horse, the Rangers bringing the man before Major General Travis by the end of the day. Whatever chances Walker had of being extradited to the United States were vanqueshed with what became known as the Great Grenada Fire due to the flames consuming 65% of the city and causing dozens of casualties for the coalition. Walker was sentenced to death from a military tribunal encompassing the various nations and was shot by firing squad on Christmas Eve. When New Years came around the Texan Army left with their mission completed and most of the troops contracts set to expire. The Yucatan army slowly began to return to their own nation with Honduran and Costa Rican troops staying to help Nicaragua. With the death of William Walker came the end of the Filibuster Wars and the First Age of American Imperialism.
Execution of William Walker (Left) Burning of Grenada (Right)
While the overall effects of both the Mormon Rebellion and the Filibuster War would seem limited in contemporary viewpoints they would have far-lasting consequences for the entire region. The end of the Mormon Rebellion brought about an era of distrust for the Mormons by the rest of Texas as many of their fears seemed to be confirmed true in the rebellion. Luckily there would not be another attempted rebellion in the rest of the Commonwealth's existence nor another violent secession movement in the rest of Texan history. Still the Deseret suffered for many years due to the increased centralized rule from Austin and the commonwealths virtual isolation within the Republic. It wasn't until the 1870's with the completion of the Transcontinental Railroad that Deseret began to truly prosper due to its greater connection and importance to the rest of the nation in mining and trade from the railroad. Gradually as the years went by the hate against Mormons died down but they many Texans were still wary of the group due to their unorthodox beliefs. The truly shining moment of Mormon progression in Texan society was the election of President Joseph Romney as the first Mormon Texan President in 1910, just three months after the start of the Great War. As for the actual practice of polygamy the ban of further marriages were enforced strongly and the number of official polygamous relationships began to die off. Many Mormons still found a loophole around this by taking a second women as a "spiritual wife" and not acting as a legal wife but as a mistress, unintentionally making all offspring outside the first wife bastards. Texas Rangers continued to crack down on these marriages for decades and it wasn't until 1890 when church president Wilford Woodrow issued a manifesto officially condemning polygamy and decrying it to be a sin in the Church of Latter Day-Saints. Though some polygamous couples still do exist illegally in rural areas of Deseret to this day.
Texas President Joseph Romney 1910
The Filibuster War brought about the complete end of Walker's expeditions and the end of American filibusters within the Gulf. As a result of the war the Texas-Yucatan alliance was strengthened along with each nations ties to Honduras, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica. Gradually all three nations fell into the French sphere of influence as France stepped in the aftermath and promised greater financial and military aid in return for deals that were slightly more one-sided then the ones with Texas and the Yucatan, something that the Central Three agreed to, prompting further British investment in Mexico. As for the Rio Grande the nation became a pariah state in the Southwestern Union. Both Texas and the Yucatan wanted nothing to do with the state as it was seen as a failed experiment that wasn't worth spending lives over. Both nations generally left the Rio Grande to its own devices over the next five years while France limited its troops deployments to the 1500 in Tampico, throwing the nation into further chaos. These conditions prompted the further rise of Pan-Mexican feelings in the Rio Grande due to the strong desire to reunite with the homeland to bring back some amount of pride to the people and a returned sense of order. This was fully exploited by Benito Juarez who committed Mexico to an extensive militarization policy and sent agents to the Rio Grande to push the populace's feelings towards that of Mexican Unification. Bringing the Mexican War ever closer.
As for Texas the general aftermath was quite mixed. For a short while President Crockett's popularity spiked due to the quick crushing of the Mormon revolt and Texas's successful defense of its sphere of influence within Nicaragua. However, the Republicans launched a smear campaign that blamed the Mormon Rebellion upon Crockett's admittance of the commonwealth and declared that even with the banning enforcement the problem of the Mormon's radical beliefs was still present. While this did push the Deseret Commonwealth towards the Western Union it was something the Republicans did not care about due to reduced votes and representation and the increased support for the party among the religious in Texas. Crockett also came under fire for the Rio Grande intervention as while it did push Walker's men out, many saw it as unnecessary and lives lost over useless Rio Grande land. Texas now having the total mindset that their southern neighbor was a lawless hellhole beyond saving. The biggest strike to the Crockett administration came from the economic costs of the war. The destruction of property in Deseret and the costs of deployment in Nicaragua added thousands of Redbacks to the nations debt. While this could've been easily solved with a tax increase the Western Union did not want to betray their platform and Crockett did not want to be seen as a hypocrite. Adding unto these costs were motions by Republican lawmakers to increase the size of the Army to 10,000 men in 4 regiments to prevent future uprisings, deal with the rising Apache problem, and protect against future wars against Mexico. Crockett vetoed the measure as he saw it as unnecessary but it managed to get a 2/3rds override in Congress within weeks, causing an embarrassing loss for the administration. When the 1856 elections came along it proved to be an ever tighter race than the last one due to the Crockett administration's perceived failures. Republican nominee Matthias Ward frequently attacked Crockett for Deseret and Tamaulipas while campaigning for higher industrial subsidies and the support of a strong army against Mexico. Crockett wanted to continue the status quo of his policies and attacked the Republican party for what he claimed to be the start of this whole crises with the hasty drafting of the anti-polygamy law, while calling them hypocrites for criticizing Rio Grande when the Republican Party supports its continued existence against Mexico and voted in an overwhelming majority for war. In the end Crockett won a slight majority but the closer gap in the electorate showed the nation's disaproval with some of his policies. The Western Union already losing support with the Republican recapture of the Senate while the Union held the House. Whatever difficulties Crockett had in this election though would pail in comparison to 1859.
1856 Presidential Elections
Crockett/Zandt (W): 34,561 Votes 54.9%
Ward/Jacobs (R) 28,386 Votes 45.1%
Davy Crockett (Left). Matthias Ward (Right).
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"Walker is a damned fool if he thinks that the United States will save his ass from the Texans. The south already screwed up Cuba, I will not let our reputation be tarnished in Central America."- President Stephen Douglas 1855
"I will state for the record as I've said multiple times before that never in my life have I believed that the so-called Mormon rebellion was a righteous cause. While Joseph Smith is a great man who I am proud to bare the same name as, he was fundamentally wrong when it came to the issue of marriage. God's holy union is meant to be between a man and his wife. If I become President there will be absolutely no attempts to reinstate polygamy."- Presidential Candidate Joseph Romney 1910
"Hey Rob, we aren't related to that Bill character so it'd be totally okay if I blew his head off right?"- Doug Walker 1854
In the year 1855 Texas faced an enormous crises both foreign and domestically with the rise of the Mormon Rebellion and the start of what would become known as the Filibuster War. While Texas was perfectly capable of handling either of these crises individually it would become a huge strain on the growing nation to have to deal with both threats at the same time. What made the situation worse was that both wars combined resulted in what would become the largest military conflict for the Lone Star Republic to date, far surpassing both the Revolution and the Border Wars. Yet at the same time there was hope on the horizon. If Texas managed to overthrow Walker from Nicaragua then it could possibly become the dominant nation of the Gulf (excluding the United States) and gain central access and informal control of the trade routes between California and Texas. If the Mormon Rebellion was squashed in a quick enough victory then all future notions of secession from the Republic could hopefully be avoided with Deseret being a prime example. It would also teach a lesson to the Mormons not to spread their radical beliefs of polygamy and set an example to limit any possible attempts of a religion trying to assume the mantles of state. Most importantly that many Texans were unaware of at the time, the war would serve as good practice for the upcoming Mexican War, which would engulf the Southwest in a rain of Blood and Iron.
Deseret: The main problem that existed in dealing with the Mormon rebels was that of Geography. The modern Commonwealth of Deseret is a territory that is not one easily traveled without the modern comforts of a highspeed train or an automobile due to the area's rugged mountain terrain and scorching hot desert that would severely impede mobility for a nineteenth century armed force that was mostly on horseback. Add to that the Mormon's homefield advantage of defense and it could have possibly become a years long guerilla war. Luckily for the Texans while most soldiers and Rangers were seasoned fighters of the frontier, the Mormons were a pacifistic lot for the most part that only used weapons for hunting and self-defense. Leading to their knowledge of warfare and fighting being limited besides shooting straight and mob tactics. Therefore the Texan Army had to mobilize quickly in order to end the rebellion before they could receive any substantial training. Since the 1st Regiment and much of the Rangers stationed in Texas were too focused on either Nicaragua or the Rio Grande, that left the 2nd Regiment under the command of Colonel Albert Sidney Johnston to handle the crises. Johnston was considered by many within the Texan Army to be a rising star within the force as the man was one of the few West Point graduates that had served in Texas and was likened by many of his peers to be a natural at warfare due to his brilliant tactics and knack for organization. Johnston had served honorably in both the Revolution and the Border Wars with many in Austin hoping that he would one day come to replace Major General Travis when the man decided to retire from command. Johnston departed from Monterey on September 1st with all 2500 men of the 2nd Regiment, 250 Texas Rangers, 2000 men of the French garrison forces, and 750 volunteers from the California population. Bringing his total force to that of 5500 soldiers to face off against the 2000 Mormons. Still if there was one thing that the Texans learned after the Revolution was that size didn't matter in terms of armies, therefore they had to treat the rebels as the most serious threat to the Republic. The journey to Deseret took a full month through the scorching Deseret desert with many men collapsing along the way due to the temperatures, luckily for the Texan force there were no deaths of heat stroke. On October 5th the Texan Army had made their way to the western side of the Salt Lake, the capitol being on the eastern side. With some time left before winter Johnston ordered his men to make camp and prep their supplies while the Rangers went scouting on the other side to try and gain intelligence from what the Mormons were doing. The Rangers were gone for a week and reported back on the 12th to give some shocking news to Johnston. Apparently while the Mormons had done the right thing by taking the time to fortify their city they had done little else in the way of actual training or preparation for a full scale war. The four month interlude had taken its effect on the rebels byallowing them to relax due to their supposed arrogance that Austin had given up and had allowed them to remain free in their worship (news did not spread of the Filibuster War and there was little connection from Salt Lake to western Deseret to notify the men of the upcoming Texan march). Most men had instead directed their energies to gathering the harvest or joining in large prayer ceremonies for victory. The Church of Latter-Day Saints being confident that they were on the righteous side and would win. In reality these practices were a blessing for the Texan side as they were being given time and the element of surprise on their side to achieve victory. With winter coming in only the next month and the Rockies providing a harsh alternative to the warm conditions that most Texans were used to, Johnston quickly thought of a surefire plan that would end the rebels before Christmas.
After a few more days of planning and preparation Johnston began the first phase of his plan by sending a portion of the cavalry and Rangers out northeast to enact a limited scorch earth policy and cause a ruckus for the citizens of the region. The horsemen did just this by stealing ruining several crops and causing property damage for Mormon families (though no women were raped and zero were killed with the Texans having orders to cause damage to the land). The men then rode out into the the town of Ogden and caused a general ruckus by looting some stores and burning down a Mormon church in the town. What made these acts peculiar to the Mormons was that the horsemen were wearing Yankee blue and had Indian allies who appeared to bear the marks of the Comanche. This convinced Ezekiel King that the devil had sent the Americans and savage Indians to test the Church in their righteous struggle. On October 13th Ezekiel rallied the People's Army and gave them the order to march out North in order to defend the Holy Land. The People's Army marched on October 14th, though this would later be revealed to be all part of Johnston's plan. The man had decided to scavenge some French uniforms and decorate them to forge American ones while he had ordered the Indian men under his command to dress up as Comanche and play the role, with one actual Comanche playing the role as leader. The reason for the farce was two-fold, it disguised the Texan's advance and performed a Red Herring to make the Mormons think the Americans had come to finish the job, while at the same time the Mormons would free up their capitol with their leave. Two days after they left the people of Salt Lake City rose up in the morning at shock as artillery fire from the Texan's 20 canons came scorching down upon the city of Salt Lake. Buildings were destroyed while the population hurried about in panic due to this unexpected force. Then the infantry came in in droves to the town and took control of each street with squads performing search operations for any dissidents. What few people did rise up were gunned down by Texans and their avenues of escape being blocked off by the cavalry. Johnston declared marshal law over the city at the end of the day and let a lone Mormon escape to inform the People's Army that Texas had the Quorum, Brigham Young, and the entire townspeople as hostages. Word reached Ezekiel by dust and the man became furious with this sudden trickery. He set off the army in the other direction without making camp and declared that he would bring God's righteous wrath against the Infidels. Unfortunately for his men it meant no breaks in the night to sleep and the continued stress of marching dozens of miles across the mountainside. On the early morning of the 18th the rebels reached the outskirts of the city where several Texan men were gathered in lines Napoleonic style to meet the Mormons. As soon as Ezekiel saw the occupiers he ordered his men to send them to hell in the name of the Book of Mormon. Unfortunately for him, this was all another trap. During their initial march the Mormons had unknowingly had a squad of Rangers following their every moves, reporting back to Johnston on a semi-daily basis. With this information Johnston was able to set up traps along the desired path which the rebels would take with the French part of the force hiding in the trees. After a few minutes of the rebels running across the only road leading into Salt Lake, TNT exploded among the sand and sent much of the rebels flying in guts and body parts, the Texans having procured it from the local silver mine. This was que for the French to charge in while the Texans came in from the town. The following fight took a total of forty minutes to complete but by the end of it there were few Mormons left standing with most either being killed, wounded, or deserting from the field when met with the ferocity of the Texans. Ezekiel King himself was killed with a Bowie knife slitting his throat and his body was dragged back into town and held on display for the rest of the day in order to show Deseret that treason would not be tolerated.
The Battle of Salt Lake (the only battle of the entire war) was a costly event for the rebels as they had suffered 412 killed, 347 wounded, and the rest of the army having deserted immediately or being taken capture. To the Mormons credit they had caused some casualties for the Texans as they had suffered 41 dead, 144 wounded along with 18 French killed and 89 wounded. After the mass burial of men on both sides was conducted the Quorum and the remainder of the civilian population where led into the Texan camp where Johnston had given him his demands. The Mormons would turn over their firearms to the Texan forces as long as marshal law would stay in place. Deseret would include the polygamy ban in their new constitution and it would be written in a manner where the Church of the Latter-Day saints would be given no power in the Commonwealth government, the only upside being existing polygamous marriages could remain intact but once a woman divorced they could not reenter into a polygamous relationship. The Deseret commonwealth would pay a $50,000 Redback reparation to Austin. Salt Lake City would receive both a garrison and Ranger company in the future. While the entire commonwealth would only receive one senator and representative for the next ten years in Austin. Finally all surrendered rebels had to swear an oath to never take arms against the Republic again and would be ineligible to vote for the next ten years as well. These were all steep prices to pay but Johnston declared the terms to be non-negotiable and any rejection would result in harsher punishment. Reluctantly Young and the Quorum signed the document and for the next half year the army would remain in Deseret as marshal law until a civilian government was instated with the passing of the Constitution and a gentile governor, Abraham Hayes, elected as governor. When Johnston returned back to California he was hailed as a hero and savior of the Republic. Unlike the United States, Texas would not fight a civil war.
Battle of Salt Lake City
Tamaulipas: When dealing with Walker's takeover of Nicaragua half of the 1st Regiment was deployed to the Central American nation while the 4th battalion was deployed to reinforce McCulloch along with 1,000 French soldiers and hundreds of recruits from the Tejano population along the Rio grande border. All of these forces together made a 3,000 man army that while wasn't much was declared to be more than sufficient for dealing with whatever forces Walker had left in the state. While most of the Texas Navy was dealing with a blockade of Nicaragua seven ships remained under the command of Commodore Jeremiah Edwards to complete the blocakde so as to tighten reinforcements and supplies for the filibusters. A total of 10 ships tried to break the blockade during the Filibuster War but only one managed to break through with the rest either being captured or sunk by the Texas Navy. With his newly reinforced army Lieutenant Colonel McCulloch left Brownsville on June 20th and made his way down south into the Rio Grande to liberate the area from the filibusters. The overall army was split into two with the Rangers and a majority of the cavalry force under Henry McCulloch making their way across the Tamaulipas to liberate the frontier towns that were occupied by Walker's forces. Meanwhile the remainder of the force would march across the coast and capture each port town so as to retain total naval control and ever widen the tight noose that was left for Walker's Rio Grande. The campaign took a total of six weeks but by the end of it the majority of the state had been liberated from Walker's forces (though areas with Mexican filibusters were left alone) and all that remained was the port of Tampico. On August 4th McCulloch's forces combined and began a siege outside the city limits. At the exact same time the Texan Navy moved in towards the coast and began daily bombardments of the city. This method was highly effective as the filibusters had little knowledge and the way of siege warfare and the only canon in town was a 1 pound piece leftover from the days of Spanish occupation. While the Texan/French forces waited outside the entirety of the town was slowly getting leveled under the weight of the Texan firepower. On the fifth day of the siege was when the local populace had enough of the filibusters for bringing destruction into town and began a general revolt to drive the gringos from their country. While at first the filibusters had an advantage due to their stockpiling of the town's firearms the tide quickly turned when after a few hours of the uprising the Texan army began rolling into the town, the Texans having learned from civilians who had escaped the fighting and begged them to intervene. Already tired from the siege, lack of supplies, and fighting against the local populace, the filibusters capitulated by dusk with most wanting to return back to the United States and leave the southwest behind. The Battle of Tampico resulted in only minor casualties on the Texan side with 23 killed, 17 wounded and the French suffering 11 killed and 14 wounded. On the opposing side the casualties were much greater with the populace suffering over 4,000 casualties from either the uprising or the siege while the filibusters suffered 202 killed, 176 wounded, and the rest having fled or being captured by the Texans. For the rest of the year the port was occupied by Texan forces while the filibusters were either extradited to the United States or executed for crimes against the people. In 1856 the occupying Texans left back to the other side of the Rio Grande while a small force of 1500 from the Rio Grande French garrison stayed behind to protect French commerce entering into the Rio Grande. Unfortunately the Filibuster War did not improve the general life of the Rio Grande as their civil wars and filibusters continued, five more years of chaos until the Mexican War.
Nicaragua: As soon as Austin declared war on Nicaragua the Texan Navy was immediately mobilized and sent into action. The remaining 14 ships of the Gulf fleet under Rear Admiral Edwin Moore were deployed along the coastline and managed incoming trade to the Nicaragua route while also depriving the nation of any supplies in the general blockade. At the same time the Pacific Squadron under Commodore Phillipe Rodriguez sailed around Mexico and blockaded what few ports the country did have on the pacific. Luckily for Texas as soon as the blockade began the small Nicaraguan Navy defected to their side since they were made up of Nicaraguans with Walker paying little attention to them and their force not having been bought by the filibusters. Reinforcing the Central American coalition were the second half of the 1st regiment along with a company of Texas Rangers and hundreds of volunteers. This total force resulted in another 3,000 men and would once again be led by Major General Travis in the field. This time the French did not send any troops numbers due to the conflict taking place outside of the Southwest Union, though they managed to send a group of officers as observers to later negotiate with the liberated Nicaraguans. Joining the Texans were the Yucatan and a 10,000 men army along with 5,000 of Costa Rica and Honduras' limited 1,000. As soon as war was declared by both Texas and the Yucatan Costa Rica marched right across the border and coordinating with Honduras managed to secure it to prevent any outside aid coming in or Walker having any chances of escape. The operations truly began on July 25th when the entirety of the Yucatan/Texan force were organized along the Honduras border, starting the coalitions advances into the country. The campaign took a total of five months with the war lasting generally longer than the Mormon Rebellion and the Tamaulipas campaign due to the extensive difficulty of traveling in the Nicaraguan jungle and the trouble that the coalition received in guerilla warfare from some of Walker's filibusters and Nicaraguan loyalists. Still, the coalition was able to receive extensive support from the populace due to the fact that as soon as Walker took power he began an mandated Americanization system which forced Nicaraguans to learn English, reinstate slavery, recognize American dollars, and encourage American immigration. These limited efforts having failed in its entirety and only resulting in greater anti-American feelings throughout Central America. One key battle before the end of the war is the Battle of Rivas where Costa Rican forces repealed an attack in the southern town of Rivas by Walker's soldiers that could've had the possibility of retaking the southern half of the country. Unfortunately while this battle was won militarily it turned out to be a huge disaster for Costa Rica as mismanagement of the dead and efforts by Walker's filibusters resulted in a Cholera outbreak reaching Costa Rica, killing 10,000 people or 10% of the total population. The end of Walker's filibuster days happened in the Fall of Granada where coalition forces gathered outside the ancient city in order to force Walker's surrender and liberate the last remnant of Nicaragua still under foreign control. The assault for the city took place on December 14th with thousands of coalition troops rushing in to topple the regime. The coalition army with its superior numbers and higher morale managed to decimate Walker's army in only a matter of hours. Unfortunately for Nicaragua it would not escape Walker's wrath without paying the price. Just as the last pockets of resistance were being eliminated a fire broke out in the town center from some of Walker's men who were given orders to leave nothing behind. These men were shot but it was far too late as the fires spread, consuming much of the ancient city. Meanwhile Walker attempted to escape but was spotted by Texas Rangers in the outskirts and was shot in the leg while riding his horse, the Rangers bringing the man before Major General Travis by the end of the day. Whatever chances Walker had of being extradited to the United States were vanqueshed with what became known as the Great Grenada Fire due to the flames consuming 65% of the city and causing dozens of casualties for the coalition. Walker was sentenced to death from a military tribunal encompassing the various nations and was shot by firing squad on Christmas Eve. When New Years came around the Texan Army left with their mission completed and most of the troops contracts set to expire. The Yucatan army slowly began to return to their own nation with Honduran and Costa Rican troops staying to help Nicaragua. With the death of William Walker came the end of the Filibuster Wars and the First Age of American Imperialism.
Execution of William Walker (Left) Burning of Grenada (Right)
While the overall effects of both the Mormon Rebellion and the Filibuster War would seem limited in contemporary viewpoints they would have far-lasting consequences for the entire region. The end of the Mormon Rebellion brought about an era of distrust for the Mormons by the rest of Texas as many of their fears seemed to be confirmed true in the rebellion. Luckily there would not be another attempted rebellion in the rest of the Commonwealth's existence nor another violent secession movement in the rest of Texan history. Still the Deseret suffered for many years due to the increased centralized rule from Austin and the commonwealths virtual isolation within the Republic. It wasn't until the 1870's with the completion of the Transcontinental Railroad that Deseret began to truly prosper due to its greater connection and importance to the rest of the nation in mining and trade from the railroad. Gradually as the years went by the hate against Mormons died down but they many Texans were still wary of the group due to their unorthodox beliefs. The truly shining moment of Mormon progression in Texan society was the election of President Joseph Romney as the first Mormon Texan President in 1910, just three months after the start of the Great War. As for the actual practice of polygamy the ban of further marriages were enforced strongly and the number of official polygamous relationships began to die off. Many Mormons still found a loophole around this by taking a second women as a "spiritual wife" and not acting as a legal wife but as a mistress, unintentionally making all offspring outside the first wife bastards. Texas Rangers continued to crack down on these marriages for decades and it wasn't until 1890 when church president Wilford Woodrow issued a manifesto officially condemning polygamy and decrying it to be a sin in the Church of Latter Day-Saints. Though some polygamous couples still do exist illegally in rural areas of Deseret to this day.
Texas President Joseph Romney 1910
The Filibuster War brought about the complete end of Walker's expeditions and the end of American filibusters within the Gulf. As a result of the war the Texas-Yucatan alliance was strengthened along with each nations ties to Honduras, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica. Gradually all three nations fell into the French sphere of influence as France stepped in the aftermath and promised greater financial and military aid in return for deals that were slightly more one-sided then the ones with Texas and the Yucatan, something that the Central Three agreed to, prompting further British investment in Mexico. As for the Rio Grande the nation became a pariah state in the Southwestern Union. Both Texas and the Yucatan wanted nothing to do with the state as it was seen as a failed experiment that wasn't worth spending lives over. Both nations generally left the Rio Grande to its own devices over the next five years while France limited its troops deployments to the 1500 in Tampico, throwing the nation into further chaos. These conditions prompted the further rise of Pan-Mexican feelings in the Rio Grande due to the strong desire to reunite with the homeland to bring back some amount of pride to the people and a returned sense of order. This was fully exploited by Benito Juarez who committed Mexico to an extensive militarization policy and sent agents to the Rio Grande to push the populace's feelings towards that of Mexican Unification. Bringing the Mexican War ever closer.
As for Texas the general aftermath was quite mixed. For a short while President Crockett's popularity spiked due to the quick crushing of the Mormon revolt and Texas's successful defense of its sphere of influence within Nicaragua. However, the Republicans launched a smear campaign that blamed the Mormon Rebellion upon Crockett's admittance of the commonwealth and declared that even with the banning enforcement the problem of the Mormon's radical beliefs was still present. While this did push the Deseret Commonwealth towards the Western Union it was something the Republicans did not care about due to reduced votes and representation and the increased support for the party among the religious in Texas. Crockett also came under fire for the Rio Grande intervention as while it did push Walker's men out, many saw it as unnecessary and lives lost over useless Rio Grande land. Texas now having the total mindset that their southern neighbor was a lawless hellhole beyond saving. The biggest strike to the Crockett administration came from the economic costs of the war. The destruction of property in Deseret and the costs of deployment in Nicaragua added thousands of Redbacks to the nations debt. While this could've been easily solved with a tax increase the Western Union did not want to betray their platform and Crockett did not want to be seen as a hypocrite. Adding unto these costs were motions by Republican lawmakers to increase the size of the Army to 10,000 men in 4 regiments to prevent future uprisings, deal with the rising Apache problem, and protect against future wars against Mexico. Crockett vetoed the measure as he saw it as unnecessary but it managed to get a 2/3rds override in Congress within weeks, causing an embarrassing loss for the administration. When the 1856 elections came along it proved to be an ever tighter race than the last one due to the Crockett administration's perceived failures. Republican nominee Matthias Ward frequently attacked Crockett for Deseret and Tamaulipas while campaigning for higher industrial subsidies and the support of a strong army against Mexico. Crockett wanted to continue the status quo of his policies and attacked the Republican party for what he claimed to be the start of this whole crises with the hasty drafting of the anti-polygamy law, while calling them hypocrites for criticizing Rio Grande when the Republican Party supports its continued existence against Mexico and voted in an overwhelming majority for war. In the end Crockett won a slight majority but the closer gap in the electorate showed the nation's disaproval with some of his policies. The Western Union already losing support with the Republican recapture of the Senate while the Union held the House. Whatever difficulties Crockett had in this election though would pail in comparison to 1859.
1856 Presidential Elections
Crockett/Zandt (W): 34,561 Votes 54.9%
Ward/Jacobs (R) 28,386 Votes 45.1%
Davy Crockett (Left). Matthias Ward (Right).
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