Buchanan ordered General Scott to assemble a force consisting of the 2nd Dragoons ( Ft. Leavenworth, Ks. ), the 5th Infantry  (Florida ), the 10th Infantry (Minn.) and the 4th Battery of Phelp's Artillery, a force of roughly 1500 men. Reno's Battery was added later. Scott also ordered 2000 head of cattle and six months of provisions to be made ready to travel with the Army. Gen. William S. Harney was originally appointed to head up the expedition, but was replaced by Col. Albert Sidney Johnston on Aug. 28, 1857. Harney, rightly so, deemed the expedition would fail and succeeded in persuading authorities to allow him to remain in Kansas. The force was judged to be a "posse comitatus" and were not to attack any body of civilians unless directed by Cummings, the marshals, the judges or the troops themselves.

      Supplies were forwarded to Ft. Leavenworth hastily and 6 companies of the 2nd Dragoons under Lt. Philip St. George Cooke were assigned to accompany Gov. Cummings. Major Fitz John Porter acted as Johnston's adjutant general. By late July, Brigham Young was aware of a possible expedition and made plans accordingly to defend. 

      Another factor that worsened the situation may have been the Mountain Meadows Massacre of 142 men, women and children by Mormon Bishop John D. Lee on Sept. 10, 1857. Lee tricked the settlers into laying down their arms after being besieged by Indians for five days only to murder nearly the entire party of Arkansas pioneers.

      On Sept. 15th, Young issued a decree as Governor that declared no Federal troops were requested from the Government (per Federal law, a Governor had to request troops ) , all forces hold themselves ready to repel an invasion of the territory, and martial law was in effect. On Sept. 18, Col. Edmund Alexander, temporarily commanding, and his troops left Ft. Leavenworth heading West. By Sept. 30th, they had reached Camp Winfield, near Green River, in southwestern Wyoming. There, Alexander received a copy of Young's decree. The Mormons were prepared and began implementing Young's orders to destroy supplies, harass the troops and generally cause havoc.

      On October 5, Mormon troops of the Nauvoo Legion captured one Federal supply train and subsequently captured and burned two other trains destroying 2720 lbs. of ham, 92,700 lbs. of bacon, 167,900 lbs. of flour, 8910 lbs. of coffee, 1400 lbs. of sugar, 1333 lbs. of soap, 800 sperm candles, 765 lbs. of tea, 7781 lbs. of hard tack and 68, 832 lbs of desiccated vegetables leaving Alexander with only 2 weeks worth of provisions.

     Alexander, in ignorance of his mission, decided to strike out and advance towards Salt Lake City in an abortive attempt to keep moving forward and resupply himself. While on this march, Mormons struck again and drove 800 head of cattle off to Salt Lake City. After running into many physical obstacles such as no road or path to travel over, Alexander retraced his path back to a point 2 miles north of Ft. Bridger.

      Col. Johnston, meanwhile, had reached Ft. Laramie and had enlarged his force by retaining two infantry companies bound for Ft. Leavenworth. As he headed south, he ran into heavy snow storms and bad weather which denied his animals forage. His draft animals and cattle were in sad shape and then another snow storm hit freezing several of the animals to death. He learned of Alexander's where abouts and linked up with him. After undergoing all the inclement weather, he decided against a winter move on Salt Lake City and decided to go to ground in the sacked and abandoned Ft. Bridger for the winter.                                                   

       Lt. Cooke's command faired badly also. Starting out on Sept. 17th from Ft. Leavenworth, he too lost animals to the lack of forage and encountered snow storms that killed off a number of animals and left his cavalry dismounted. Finally reaching Fort Bridger on Nov. 19th, he was able to only bring 10 horses of the 144 he started out with to safety.

      While the army was in winter quarters, Col. T. L. Kane, a Mormon ally in Washington, D. C., negotiated a peace between Buchanan and the Mormons. The Mormons, according to plans, had evacuated Salt Lake , piled anything flammable inside of the buildings while a rear guard remained to torch the town in case of a Federal advance. National and international newspapers carried news of the entire affair with international heads of state asking "Where are the Mormons?" With the advent of spring and summer, peace was restored and the "war" ended without a single loss of life. The whole incident was called Buchanan's Folly.    

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     Little more than three years later, Buchanan faced the same situation, only on a larger scale, with secession of the South. He perhaps thought that he could successfully negotiate a compromise with Southern leaders like as he did with the Mormons and reach a peaceful end to a growing threat of another rebellion. However it was not to be, and, rather than launch another provocative military expedition that could result in embarrassment and failure, he chose to reinforce Ft. Sumter subtly with an unarmed ship, the Star of the West, loaded with 250 troops and supplies.

      Through a series of missteps, and betrayal by Federal government officials in the manner of Senator Louis Wigfall, Texas, as well as from Buchanan's secretary of the interior, Jacob Thompson of Mississippi , war came to the United States. Northern newspapers found out about the mission of the Star of the West, and Wigfall and Thompson telegraphed South Carolina officials about the mission. At the same time, Buchanan's orders to Major Robert Anderson did not reach him via the mail and The Star of the West was fired upon by the Citadel cadets.

 

      The rest is history.