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Sale 55: United States Postal History

Table of Contents

Westward Expansion - Mormon Related

Lot 113    

[Mormon] "Fort Kearney N.T., Aug 30", manuscript postmark on cover front bearing 1852, 3¢ dull red cancelled by matching manuscript strokes, addressed to Mrs. J. A. Gove in Concord N.H., a Very Fine use, ex-Craveri.
Estimate    $500 - 750.

This cover was sent from a member of the expedition to his wife in New Hampshire. It entered the mail at Fort Kearney on August 30, 1857 when the troops briefly stopped there on the way west.

Acting on rumors of a Mormon insurrection in Salt Lake City in May 1857, President James Buchanan ordered 2,500 soldiers under the command of General William S. Harney (and later Col. Albert Sidney Johnson) to the area. These troops followed the California/Oregon Trail along the Platte River and then overland via Fort Laramie. The Mormons destroyed Fort Bridger before the expedition arrived, forcing the troops to winter in the open at a nearby site.

In the spring of 1858 the army marched through Salt Lake City and built Camp Floyd about 40 miles beyond the city. It was occupied from 1858 to midsummer of 1861, when the troops were recalled to the East because of the beginning of the Civil War.

Realized: $575

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