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The Mormon military experience is unique in American history. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS) is the only denomination to field military units for its own support and purpose rather than national interests, an effort which began in Missouri in 1838 and lasted through the Spanish American War of 1898. From World War I onward, however, the military exceptionalism of the LDS Church faded and Mormon soldiers came to serve national interests as loyal citizens alongside their fellow Americans. The Mormon Military Experience: 1838 to the Cold War is the first book to present a historical overview of the Mormon military experience. Sherman Fleek and Robert Freeman tell this unique story of how the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has experienced war and military service and their teachings concerning participation in armed conflict.The LDS Church's distinct relationship between religious life and military service is rooted in its adherence to the Book of Mormon and its unique doctrine based in ancient and then modern revelations from church leaders. Religious and military exceptionalism went hand in hand during the nineteenth century, when LDS Church leaders dictated when and how members would serve in armed conflict. Mormon militiamen were often more loyal to church interests and the guidance of LDS leaders than they were to government policy, from mustering of the Mormon Battalion during the Mexican War to orchestrating the armed effort during the Utah War of 1857-58. In Utah the Saints supported Church policy during the Indian wars to serving as Civil War volunteers in the West but were counseled by Church leaders not to serve in the bloody campaigns in the East. While LDS leaders adapted church practices and policies to support national objectives at times, there were also occasions when Mormon militia units defied state and federal military forces, sometimes to the point of open combat. No other American denomination has done this. This is a story about changing loyalties: as the LDS Church transformed from a personalist religious movement on the edge of society to a mainstay of American religious and political life, Mormons have moved from battling the US military to serving with distinction within it.
Lt. Col. Sherman L. Fleek, US Army (Retired) is the Command Historian at the US Military Academy at West Point.Robert C. Freeman is professor of Church History and Doctrine at BYU.
Series Editor's Preface Preface: The Genesis of an Idea Introduction Book One: Nineteenth-Century Conflicts and Mormon Exceptionalism 1. The Mormon Way of War: Teachings and Practice 2. A Civil Conflict in Missouri 3. The Nauvoo Legion: Forging a Mormon Army 4. Mormon Defiance: The Mormon Territorial Militia and the Utah War 6. The American Civil War: LDS Service and Postwar Frustration 7. The Saints and Indians at War 8. Wars with Spain and the Philippines, 1898-1902: The End of Mormon Exceptionalism Book Two: Twentieth-Century Conflicts and the End of Mormon Exceptionalism 9. American Expedition 1946 and Saints in Mexico 10. World War I: Mormons Enter the Mainstream Ranks 11. World War II: Saints in the Global War 12. Early Cold War Conflicts: The Rise of the International Church 13. Southeast Asia: Defending Democracy and Expanding the Church 14. LDS Opposition to MX Missile Basing Epilogue: The Cold War and Beyond Appendix: Medal of Honor Citations World War I World War II Korean War Vietnam Medal of Honor Recipients Global War on Terrorism Chronology: The Mormon Military Experience, 1820-1896 Notes Bibliography Index Illustrations follow page 18
"We overuse the terms unique and overdue, but this study of the Mormon military experience is truly both. Fleek and Freeman bring to the fore a fascinating and intricate history of the often-troubling and always-complicated involvement of Mormonism with the force of arms, from the LDS Church literally operating its own army for many decades in the nineteenth century to becoming an ardent advocate and supporter of the armed forces of the United States in the twentieth. Their work ranges effectively from the stories of individual Mormons in uniform to analyses of the institution's interface with military affairs, events, and issues."-Gene A. Sessions, coauthor of Camp Floyd and the Mormons: The Utah War "The Mormon Military Experience is a welcome addition to the growing literature on the relationship between religion, the military, and war in the United States. Sherman Fleek and Robert Freeman tell a story, supported by extensive archival research and engaging narrative, of a quintessentially American religious group and its interaction with a quintessentially national institution as it moves from exceptional in the late nineteenth century to mainstream in the twentieth. Historians of the American military, American religion, and of LDS history will all find tremendous value in this volume."-Jacqueline E. Whitt, author of Bringing God to Men: American Military Chaplains and the Vietnam War
