Talk:Bear River Expedition

Request for details

This is an interesting piece of American History that seems so out of place, and I can't seem to find other historical references to this military incursion.

It seems to me that this is more a part of what Gen. Connor did at the Bear River Massacre as one of the battles of this expedition, but perhaps I'm seriously mistaken and this is actually an earlier visit by the U.S. Army to the Bear River region.

There is one note that a military unit from Fort Hall went to Cache Valley during the winter of 1849-1850 to provide foraging for horses and cattle from the main post. Still, that doesn't seem like a major miltary expedition that should be placed side by side with the Utah War or even the Whisky Rebellion.

There is another reference about a minor disturbance when some horses were taken from pioneer wagon trains in the vicinity of Brigham City, Utah, where soldiers from Fort Hall were also dispatched in order to investigate what was going on. This happened in the rough time period mentioned on the U.S. Army website. Again, this was such a minor affair that it hardly has even a footnote in any historical books about the area, much less being considered a major military expedition.

While the Bear River Wikipedia page offers several alternatives as for a location of Bear River, given the time period and Army attention, it seems as though the Utah river is a very likely spot for such a military campaign. The problem is that I can't seem to find any mention of this expedition in local histories.

This just seems a little bit weird that other than a mere mention from what I've seen to be copies of the same list of battles and military expeditions to the west, this engagement doesn't appear to even exist. Even more notable is that the 1863 expedition by Connor from Fort Douglas to the Bear River basin is conspicously missing from any of these lists, making me think there was some confusion on the part of somebody trying to put the list of these battles together. If there is any reference to the 1859 expedition outside of general lists of U.S. military actions, and I mean any at all, please make note of it here. --Robert Horning 20:44, 29 September 2006 (UTC)

Info concerning the "Bear River Expedition", the "Humbolt Expedition" and the "Santa Clara Expedition" from Camp Floyd, U.T. (1859) can be found here:

1. Thompson, Jacob (1860), Message of the President of the United States: communicating, in compliance with a resolution of the Senate, information in relation to the massacre at Mountain Meadows, and other massacres in Utah Territory, 36th Congress, 1st Session, Exec. Doc. No. 42, Washington, D.C.: U.S. Dept. of the Interior.

There is a small amount of info about the (1859) "Wallen Expedition" from Fort Walla Walla to Raft River.Tinosa (talk) 17:17, 16 August 2008 (UTC)

This is interesting. Thanks for bringing it up, although it still doesn't completely explain why this 1859 expedition was considered so much more noteworthy than the 1863 expedition that resulted in the Bear River Massacre. The only real "battle" that I can find refers to an incident on the California Trail that resulted in the wounding of several U.S. calvary troops but no fatalities with the incident. It was lead by a Lieutenant E. Gay, of "Company G, 2nd Dragoons", who was actually sent to this region to monitor what was going on along this migration artery.

It just doesn't seem like it should be something hugely significant that a mere 2nd Lieutenant was placed in direct command of a major military campaign, nor was the battle really anything of note either. This said, it is an "expedition to Bear River" that took place in 1859. It looks and smells like a mere scouting expedition to me, with what amounts to be a reinforced platoon at best. This reference certainly does no justice for why it would be ranked equal with other much more significant campaigns of the Indian Wars.

This is indeed the best documentation for this event that I have ever found so far, and with the information in there, it is no small wonder that other historians have neglected this... er... highly critical event in the unfolding of the history of the American Republic in the west. (just kidding) At least it was a real military expedition with some actual soldiers.

I still believe the official documentation with the Army about the events of the Indian Wars to be a clerical misunderstanding between this event and the much more significant events of the Bear River Massacre. --Robert Horning (talk) 23:53, 17 August 2008 (UTC)

After reading the information I provided(http://www.archive.org/details/messageofpreside00unitrich), you (R. Horning) have concluded that "Lieutenant E. Gay" led an expedition to Bear River that took place in 1859. Is my asumption correct? Tinosa (talk) 20:04, 25 August 2008 (UTC)

I dug in a little deeper and put in a very short abridgment of the article that you have mentioned here, and it was in fact Major Porter who was in charge of the expedition, although Lt. Gay did lead one of the more notable engagements of that expedition. This article could certainly use some expansion. I still don't know why this event is of such historical note, as I haven't seen it mentioned in other histories of northern Utah/southeastern Idaho that I've read to date. This source you've found is by far and away the most detailed accounting of this expedition that I've ever found... and in fact the only one that discusses it in more than 5 words. I would only wish that I could find some other sources that talk about what happened here. --Robert Horning (talk) 23:35, 25 August 2008 (UTC)