The Journal of San Diego History
SAN DIEGO HISTORICAL SOCIETY QUARTERLY
Summer 1975, Volume 21, Number 3
James E. Moss, Editor
Book Notes
David J. Weber, Book Review Editor
To Utah with the Dragoons and Glimpses of Life in Arizona and California, 1858-1859. Edited by Harold D. Langley. Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 1974. Bibliography. Illustrations. Index. Maps. Notes. 230 pages. $8.50.
This handsome volume contains twenty-five articles written by an anonymous dragoon who had been recruited to march west and fight in the so-called “Mormon War.” His articles were originally published in the Philadelphia Daily Evening Bulletin under the pen name “Utah,” and are especially detailed and well composed. Their author was a former newspaper reporter with wide-ranging interests. After a bullet shattered his hand, “Utah” was discharged from the army and made his way to California, robbed of all his money along the way. Readers of the Journal of San Diego History will be especially interested in the four letters he wrote from Los Angeles and three from the “Gila Gold Mines” near present-day Yuma. Editor Harold Langley has provided detailed commentary on the letters and makes a suggestion as to the identity of their author.
