The Civil War in Idaho ?

[flyingcollie]

Briefly, Idaho Territory was created by presidential decree in March, 1863. The territory comprised what is modern-day Idaho, Montana and Wyoming, the proclamation came months after gold was discovered on both sides of the Great Divide, but before the exceptionally rich strikes on Grasshopper Creek (Bannack) and Alder Gulch (Virginia City).

Lincoln's government was probably painfully aware that the territory's inhabitants, mostly "boomers" and gold-seekers all, were at least evenly split between Unionists and Southern sympathizers. Obviously, organization of a territorial government was still in the hands of the federal government in Washington, D.C., and Lincoln would surely make his appointments from among the ranks of staunch Republicans ready to defend the Union cause. One such was Sidney Edgerton, Lincoln's appointee to head up the new territorial court. Edgerton, in company with his family travelled overland bound for the territorial capital at Lewiston, but the late season, the weather, and news of the bonanza at Bannack decided Edgerton to detour there . . .

Is it possible Edgerton had a more urgent commission to assure that gold flowing from the new mines would help finance the Union forces?  Lewiston, a port accessible to steamboat travel located on the territory's far western border was arguably nearly as remote from the new gold diggings as Washington, D.C.  Edgerton remained in Bannack, and petitioned the federal government to part Montana territory from the newly established  Idaho territory, which was granted early in 1864. Edgerton became the first territorial governor of the newly established Montana Territory.

The plot thickens . . . when the inevitable robberies (the Magruder massacre) and murders began to occur, Edgerton and his son-in-law Wilbur Sanders enlisted known Masons to form a Vigilance Committee to eliminate the "road agents". Presumaibly organized to punish criminals and restore order in the absence of the customary legal institutions, ultimately, the Vigilantes claimed the extermination of twenty to thirty (depending on who's lying to you) criminal conspirators  all of whom belonged to a well-oiled criminal organization ruled by Henry Plummer, who had been elected sheriff of both the Bannack and Virginia City districts.  The "rub" lies in the fact that to a man, those hanged were either Democrats, admitted Southern sympathizers or hailed from southern and border states. While there is no doubt the vigilantes hanged a number of murderers and very bad men (Boone Helm for one) the extent of their activity makes it questionable whether their motives were equally divided between "fighting crime" and  consolidating power for the Unionist faction through terror.

Little if anything is written about the role western gold has played in financing the War Between the States on both sides, or the impact it may have had on the fortunes of war.

An interesting facet of the rise of the Vigilantes is the role which the Masonic Lodge played in its organization. In fact, the  Masons claim authorship of the "mysterious" 3-7-77 legend which vigilantes continued to use to warn evil-doers into the 1880s, and which  is incorporated  in the emblem of the Montana State Patrol to this day. The Masonic interpretation  is that "3" represents the first Masonic rites held in Montana in 1862 by Nathaniel Langhorn and his companions as they were en route to the gold diggings, the "77" represents the number of Masons present (including the deceased) at the funeral of William Bell who was laid to rest with Masonic ritual, and the "7" represents  the seven Masonic brothers who first met to initiate the Vigilance Committee in Virginia City.

[Fox Creek Kid]

...The "rub" lies in the fact that to a man, those hanged were either Democrats...

Now there's an idea that has come full circle.   

[Rowdy Fulcher]

FCK
That would start a rope shortage 

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