In 1858 a young recruit in the Second Dragoons marched across the plains with the U.s. Army's Sixth Column to help end an alleged rebellion by the Mormons of Utah against the authority of the federal government. A former newspaperman, this young recruit wrote articles that were published in the Philadelphia Daily Evening Bulletin under the pen name "Utah." The articles reflect his awareness of the temper of the times and his interest in national politics and political aspects of the U.S. Army. Besides writing about the Mormon War, he told Bulletin readers at home about the spectacular scenery of the West, the Indians of the territories, and the daily life of a dragoon. By the time the Sixth Column reached Utah, the "rebellion" among the Mormons had been resolved, but he continued to write while stationed at Camp Floyd, describing life in camp and expressing his changing feelings about the Mormons as he came to know them. Wounded in an encounter with Indians after three months at Camp Floyd, "Utah" was discharged from the army and made his way south through the arid regions of Arizona to the little town of Los Angeles in Southern California. His comments on political matters in California, Arizona, and Mexico, events in the Southwest, and his gold mining experiences on the Gila River offer readers an exceptionally articulate and perceptive view of events in the mid-nineteenth-century West. "Utah" remains anonymous in all his articles, and the editor can only suggest a speculative conclusion as to who he might have been. But as the reader comes to know "Utah," a surprisingly vivid portrait of an intelligent, learned, and patriotic man emerges, and his insights into army life, war, the government, and incidents in the early West give us a genuinely new perspective on history andsingularlar impression of a truly exceptional man.