1838 Mormon War

 

In the early 1830s, an influx of members of the Church of Christ (Latter Day Saint), then headquartered in Kirtland, Ohio, began settling in Jackson County, Missouri. According to Mormon belief, Independence, Missouri and the surrounding area were to become the "City of Zion", and Mormon leadership in Missouri was directed to make extensive land purchases in the area. This clashed with the interests of non-Mormon Jackson County settlers.^[5][6] The Mormon settlers' cultural and political differences, economic cohesion, and their proselytizing among Native Americans and African-Americans also contributed to growing animosity.^[7] Most Latter Day Saints were originally from New England, the Ohio Valley, and Great Britain and, unlike their southern neighbors, generally opposed slavery.

Harassment against the Mormon settlers turned violent in 1833. In October 1833, the Mormon storehouse in Independence was sacked, vigilantes destroyed the Mormon's printing press, attacked Mormon settlements in the outskirts of the city, and eventually forcibly expelled the Mormons from Jackson County. These episodes of violence informed the patterns of conflict between the Mormons and other Missouri residents over the course of the Mormon war.^[8] The expelled Mormons sought refuge in the neighboring counties, especially in Clay County.

Lilburn Boggs, who would later be the Governor of Missouri during the 1838 war, was a Jackson County resident and Lieutenant Governor at the time. He was in a position to observe the events leading up to the conflict, as described by Mormon church historian Richard Lloyd Anderson:

In 1833 Boggs passively saw community leaders and officials sign demands for Mormon withdrawal, and next force a gunbarrel contract to abandon the county before spring planting...anti-Mormon goals were reached in a few simple stages. Executive paralysis permitted terrorism, which forced Mormons to self-defense, which was immediately labeled as an "insurrection", and was put down by the activated militia of the county. Once Latter-day Saints were disarmed, mounted squads visited Mormon settlements with threats and enough beatings and destruction of homes to force flight.^[9]

 

Despite appeals and legal efforts, the Mormons were unable to regain their lands in Jackson County. The non-Mormons in Jackson refused to allow the Mormons to return and reimbursement for confiscated and damaged property was refused.^[10] In 1834, Mormons attempted to effect a return to Jackson County with a quasi-military expedition known as Zion's Camp, but this effort also failed when the governor failed to provide the expected support.^[11] Recognizing the need for a more permanent solution, Alexander William Doniphan of the Missouri legislature proposed the creation of a new county specifically for Mormon settlement. In 1836, the Missouri legislature passed a law establishing Caldwell County. Mormons had already begun buying land in the proposed Caldwell County, including areas that were carved off to become parts of Ray and Daviess Counties.^[12] The Mormons began establishing the town of Far West as their headquarters within Missouri.

This arrangement allowed for a period of relative peace. According to an article in the Elders' Journal, a Latter Day Saint newspaper published in Far West: "the Saints here are at perfect peace with all the surrounding inhabitants, and persecution is not so much as once named among them...". John Corrill, one of the Mormon leaders, remembered:

Friendship began to be restored between (the Mormons) and their neighbors, the old prejudices were fast dying away, and they were doing well, until the summer of 1838^[13]

In 1837, problems at the church's headquarters in Kirtland, Ohio, centering on the Kirtland Safety Society bank, led to schism. The church relocated in January 1838 from Kirtland to Far West, Missouri, which became its new headquarters. Mormon settlement increased as hundreds of members from Kirtland and elsewhere poured into Missouri. Mormons established new colonies outside of Caldwell County, including Adam-ondi-Ahman in Daviess County and De Witt in Carroll County.^[14]

In the eyes of many non-Mormon citizens (including Alexander Doniphan),^[15] these settlements outside of Caldwell County were a violation of the compromise.^[16] Mormons felt that the compromise only excluded major settlements in Clay County and Ray County, which had substantial population centers, but not the recently colonized Daviess and Carroll counties.^[17] The earlier settlers saw expansion of Mormon communities outside of Caldwell County as a political and economic threat.^[9]

 

With the Kirtland-based presidency now in control of the Missouri church, a leadership struggle emerged between the arriving and the previously established Missouri church leadership. Many of the oldest and most prominent leaders of the church, including Oliver Cowdery (one of the Three Witnesses and the church's original "second elder"), David Whitmer (another of the Three Witnesses and Stake President of the Missouri Church), John Whitmer, William W. Phelps and others, were excommunicated on allegations of misusing church property and finance amid tense relations between them and Smith.^[18][19]

These "dissenters", as they came to be called, owned a significant amount of land in Caldwell County, much of which was purchased when they were acting as agents for the church.^[20] Possession became unclear and the dissenters threatened the church with lawsuits. The presidency responded by urging the dissenters to leave the county, using strong words that the dissenters interpreted as threats. In his famous Salt Sermon, Sidney Rigdon announced that the dissenters were as salt that had lost its savor and that it was the duty of the faithful to cast the dissenters out to be trodden beneath the feet of men.^[21][22]

At the same time some Mormons, led by Sampson Avard, began to organize a vigilante organization known as the Danites, whose purposes included obeying the church presidency "right or wrong" and expelling the dissenters from Caldwell County.^[23] Two days after Rigdon preached his Salt Sermon, 80 prominent Mormons, including Hyrum Smith, signed the so-called Danite Manifesto, which warned the dissenters to "depart or a more fatal calamity shall befall you". On June 19, the dissenters and their families fled to neighboring counties where their complaints fanned anti-Mormon sentiment.^[22][24][25]

On July 4, Rigdon gave an oration, which was characterized by Mormon historian Brigham Henry Roberts as a "'Declaration of Independence' from all mobs and persecutions".^[26] The text of this speech was endorsed by Joseph Smith, who appeared at the event and participated in the raising of a liberty pole.^[27] In the speech, Rigdon declared that the Latter Day Saints would no longer be driven from their homes by persecution from without or dissension from within: "and at mob that comes on us to disturb us, it shall be between us and them a war of extermination; for we will follow them until the last drop of their blood is spilled; or else they will have to exterminate us, for we will carry the seat of war to their own houses and their own families, and one party or the other shall be utterly destroyed".^[22]

The newly formed Daviess County, Missouri, held its first elections on August 6, 1838.^[28] William Peniston, a candidate for the state legislature, had made disparaging statements about the Mormons, calling them "horse-thieves and robbers", and warned them not to vote in the election.^[29][30] Reminding Daviess County residents of the growing electoral power of the Mormon community, Peniston made a speech in Gallatin claiming that if the Missourians "suffer such men as these [Mormons] to vote, you will soon lose your suffrage." Around 200 non-Mormons gathered in Gallatin on election day to prevent Mormons from voting.^[31]

When about thirty Mormons approached the polling place, a Missourian named Dick Weldon declared that in Clay County the Mormons had not been allowed to vote, "no more than the negroes". One of the Mormons present, Samuel Brown, claimed that statements was false and then declared his intention to vote. This triggered a brawl between the bystanders.^[30]

 

At the start of the brawl, Mormon John Butler let out a call, "Oh yes, you Danites, here is a job for us!" which rallied the Mormons and allowed them to drive off their opponents.^[31] The crowd dispersed, and the Mormons returned to their homes. The skirmish is often cited as the first serious violence of the war in Missouri.^[32] Rumors among both parties spread that there were casualties in the conflict, however, when Joseph Smith and volunteers rode to Daviess County to assess the situation, they discovered there were no truths to the rumors.^[29][31]

When the Mormons heard a rumor that Judge Adam Black was gathering a mob near Millport, one hundred armed men, including Joseph Smith, surrounded Black's home. They asked if the rumor was true and demanded that he sign a document disavowing any connection to the vigilance committees. Black refused, but after meeting with Smith, he wrote and signed a document stating that he "is not attached to any mob, nor will attach himself to any such people, and so long as they [the Mormons] will not molest me, I will not molest them."^[23][33] The Mormons also visited Sheriff William Morgan and several other leading Daviess County citizens, also forcing some of them to sign statements disavowing any ties to the vigilance committees.^[33]

At a meeting at Lyman Wight's home between leading Mormons and non-Mormons, both sides agreed not to protect anyone who had broken the law and to surrender all offenders to the authorities. With peace restored, Smith's group returned to Caldwell County.^[33] Black and others filed complaints against Smith and the other identifiable Mormon participants. On September 7, Smith and Lyman Wight appeared before Judge Austin A. King to answer the charges. King found that there was sufficient evidence to have the defendants appear before a grand jury on misdemeanor charges.^[34]

In the spring of 1838, Henry Root, a non-Mormon who was a major land-owner in Carroll County, visited Far West and sold his plots in the mostly vacant town of De Witt to Mormons. De Witt possessed a strategically important location near the intersection of the Grand River and the Missouri River. Two members of the Far West High Council, George M. Hinkle and John Murdock, were sent to take possession of the town and to begin to colonize it.^[35][36]

On July 30, citizens of Carroll County met in Carrollton to discuss the Mormon colonization of De Witt. The question of whether or not Mormons should be allowed to settle in the county was placed on the August 6 ballot; a heavy majority favored expulsion of the Mormons. A committee sent to De Witt ordered the Latter Day Saints to leave. The Mormon leaders refused, citing their right as American citizens to settle where they pleased.^[9][37] Sentiment among the anti-Mormon segment of Carroll County's population hardened, and some began to take up arms. On August 19, 1838, Mormon settler Smith Humphrey reports that 100 armed men led by Colonel William Claude Jones took him prisoner for two hours and threatened him and the rest of the Mormon community.^[38]

While Mormons were viewed as a fringe religious group, the sentiment reflected in the Southern Advocate questioned the legitimacy of the vigilante committees:

By what color of propriety a portion of the people of the State, can organize themselves into a body, independent of the civil power, and contravene the general laws of the land by preventing the free enjoyment of the right of citizenship to another portion of the people, we are at a loss to comprehend.^[39]

As tensions built in Daviess County, other counties began to respond to Carroll County's request for assistance in expelling the Mormons from their county. Citizens in Saline, Howard, Jackson, Chariton, Ray, and other nearby counties organized vigilance committees sympathetic to the Carroll County expulsion party.^[9][40] Some isolated Mormons in outlying areas also came under attack. In Livingston County, a group of armed men forced Asahel Lathrop from his home, where they held his ill wife and children prisoner. Lathrop wrote "I was compeled [sic] to leave my home my house was thronged with a company of armed men consisting of fourteen in number and they abusing my family in allmost [sic] every form that Creturs [sic] in the shape of human Beeings [sic] could invent."^[41] After more than a week, a company of armed Mormons assisted Lathrop in rescuing his wife and two of his children (one had died while prisoner). Lathrop's wife and remaining children died shortly after their rescue.^[42] On September 20, 1838, about one hundred fifty armed men rode into De Witt and demanded that the Mormons leave within ten days. Hinkle and other Mormon leaders informed the men that they would fight. They also sent a request for assistance to Governor Boggs, noting that the mob had threatened "to exterminate them, without regard to age or sex".^[43]

On October 1, vigilantes burned the home and stables of Smith Humphrey.^[38] The citizens of De Witt sent non-Mormon Henry Root to appeal to Judge King and General Parks for assistance. Later that day, the vigilantes sealed off the town.^[43] The besieged town resorted to butchering whatever loose livestock wandered into town in order to avoid starvation while waiting for the militia or the Governor to come to their aid. General Parks arrived with a Ray County militia on October 6, but his order to disperse was ignored. When his own troops threatened to join the attackers, Parks was forced to withdraw to Daviess County in hopes that the Governor would come to mediate. Parks wrote his superior, General David Rice Atchison, that "a word from his Excellency would have more power to quell this affair than a regiment."^[43][44]

On October 9, A. C. Caldwell returned to De Witt to report that the Governor's response was that the "quarrel was between the Mormons and the mob" and that they should fight it out.^[43] On October 11, Mormon leaders agreed to abandon the settlement and move to Caldwell County. On the first night of the march out of Carroll County, two Mormon women died. One woman died of exposure, the other (a woman named Jenson) died in childbirth. Several children also became ill during the ordeal and died later.^[43][44]

General David R. Atchison wrote a letter to Governor Lilburn Boggs on October 16, 1838. He stated that General Parks reported to him that "a portion of the men from Carroll County, with one piece of artillery, are on their march for Daviess County, where it is thought the same lawless game is to be played over, and the Mormons to be driven from that county and probably from Caldwell County." Atchison said further, "I would respectfully suggest to your Excellency the propriety of a visit to the scene of excitement in person, or at all events, a strong proclamation" as the only way to restore peace and the rule of law.^[45] Boggs, however, ignored this plea and continued to wait as events unravelled.^[9]

Meanwhile, a group of vigilantes from Clinton, Platte, and other counties began to harass Mormons in Daviess County, burning outlying homes and plundering property.^[9] Latter Day Saint refugees began to flee to Adam-ondi-Ahman for protection and shelter against the upcoming winter. Joseph Smith, returning to Far West from De Witt, was informed by General Doniphan of the deteriorating situation. Doniphan already had troops raised to prevent fighting between Mormons and anti-Mormons in Daviess County. On Sunday, October 14, a small company of state militia under the command of Colonel William A. Dunn of Clay County arrived in Far West. Dunn, acting under the orders of Doniphan, continued on to Adam-ondi-Ahman.^[46][47] Although he was sympathetic to the Mormons' plight, Doniphan reminded the Latter Day Saints that the Caldwell County militia could not legally enter Daviess County, and he advised Mormons traveling there to go in small parties and unarmed.^[46][48] Ignoring this counsel, Judge Higby, a Mormon judge in Caldwell County called out the Caldwell militia, led by Colonel George M. Hinkle, to defend Latter Day Saint settlements in neighboring Daviess County.^[49] They were joined by elements of the Danite vigilante organization.^[48]

On October 18, these Mormons marched under arms in three groups to Daviess County. Lyman Wight attacked Millport, and David W. Patten attacked Gallatin. Both settlements had been evacuated before they arrived.^[50] Seymour Brunson attacked Grindstone Fork, driving the unarmed Missourians from their homes, who made their way to neighboring counties.^[51] Having taken control of the Missourian settlements, the Mormons plundered the property and burned the stores and houses. The county seat, Gallatin, was reported to have been "completely gutted" – only one shoe store remained unscathed.^[48][52] Millport, Grindstone Fork and the smaller Missourian settlement of Splawn's Ridge were also plundered and had some houses burned.^[53] The plundered goods were deposited in the Bishop's storehouse at Diahman.^[54] During the days that followed, Mormon vigilantes under the direction of Lyman Wight drove Missourians who lived in outlying farms from their homes, which were similarly plundered and burned.^[55] According to one witness, "We could stand in our door and see houses burning every night for over two weeks... the Mormons completely gutted Daviess County. There was scarcely a Missourian's home left standing in the county. Nearly every one was burned."^[56]

The Missourians evicted from their homes were no better prepared than the Mormon refugees had been. After the stress of being expelled from Millport into the snow, Milford Donaho's wife gave birth prematurely, and the child was severely injured during the birth.^[53] Even Missourians who had been friendly to the Mormons were not spared. Jacob Stollings, a Gallatin merchant, was reported to have been generous in selling to Mormons on credit, but his store was plundered and burned with the rest. Judge Josiah Morin and Samuel McBrier, both considered friendly to the Mormons, both fled Daviess County after being threatened. McBrier's house was among those burned.^[53] When a Mormon band plundered and burned the Taylor home, one young Mormon, Benjamin F Johnson, argued his fellow vigilantes into leaving a horse for a pregnant Mrs Taylor and her children to ride to safety. Ironically, as a result of his kindness, he was the only Mormon who was positively identified to have participated in the home burnings. After several non-Mormons made statements to the authorities that Johnson had acted as a moderating influence on the Danites, he was allowed to escape rather than stand trial.^[57]

Many Latter Day Saints were greatly troubled by the occurrences. Mormon leader John Corrill wrote, "the love of pillage grew upon them very fast, for they plundered every kind of property they could get a hold of."^[58] Some Latter-day Saints claimed that some of the Missourians burned their own homes in order to blame the Mormons.^[59] None of these claims, however, purport to be eyewitness accounts. These claims are contradicted by the majority of both Missourian and Latter Day Saint testimony and also by the evidence of the looted property found in the possession of Latter Day Saints.^[53] Mormon leader Parley P Pratt conceded that some burnings had been done by Mormons.^[60] LeSueur estimates that Mormons were responsible for the burning of fifty homes or shops and the displacement of one hundred non-Mormon families.^[53] Millport, which at time was the largest settlement in the county and the center for trade, never recovered from the Mormon burnings, and became a ghost town.^[61] Local citizens were outraged by the actions of the Danites and other Mormon bands. Several Mormon homes near Millport were burned and their inhabitants expelled into the snow. Agnes Smith, a sister-in-law of Joseph, was chased from her home with two small children when her home was burned. With one child in each arm, she waded across an icy creek to safety in Adam-ondi-Ahman. Nathan Tanner reported that his militia company rescued another woman and three small children who were hiding in the bushes as their home burned. Other Mormons, fearing similar retribution by the Missourians, gathered into Adam-ondi-Ahman for protection.^[53]

Thomas B. Marsh, President of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of the church, and fellow Apostle Orson Hyde were alarmed by the events of the Daviess County expedition. On October 19, 1838, the day after Gallatin was burned, Thomas B. Marsh and fellow apostle Orson Hyde left the association of the Church.^[62] On October 24, they swore out affidavits concerning the burning and looting in Daviess County. They also reported the existence of the Danite group among the Mormons and repeated a popular rumor that a group of Danites was planning to attack and burn Richmond and Liberty.^[63][64]

 

Fearing attack, many citizens of Ray County moved their wives and children across the Missouri River for safety. A militia under the command of Samuel Bogart was authorized by General Atchison to patrol the no-man's land between Ray and Caldwell Counties known as "Bunkham's Strip" – a territory 6 miles (9.7 km) east to west and 1-mile (1.6 km) north to south.^[65] Instead of staying in the strip, Bogart crossed into Caldwell County and began to disarm Mormons, reportedly threatening to attack Far West.^[66] When rumors reached Far West that a mob had taken Mormons prisoner and were threatening to execute them, an armed party was quickly assembled to rescue these prisoners and drive the mob out of the county.^[67]

When the Mormons arrived on the scene, the militia was camped along Crooked River in the Bunkham's Strip just south of Caldwell County. After a militia sentry shot at the crowd, the Mormons divided into three columns led by David W. Patten, Charles C. Rich, and James Durphee. The militia broke ranks and fled across the river. Although Mormons won the battle, they took heavier casualties than the militia, only one of whom, Moses Rowland, was killed. On the Mormon side, Gideon Carter was killed in the battle and nine other Mormons were wounded, including Patten, who soon after died from his wounds.^[68] According to one Mormon witness, the deaths "threw a gloom over the whole place".^[69]

News of the battle quickly spread and contributed to an all-out panic in northwestern Missouri. Exaggerated initial reports indicated that nearly all of Bogart's company had been killed.^[70] Generals Atchison, Doniphon and Parks decided they needed to call out the militia to "prevent further violence". In a letter to US Army Colonel R. B. Mason of Ft. Leavenworth, they expressed:

The citizens of Daviess, Carroll, and some other counties have raised mob after mob for the last two months for the purpose of driving a group of Mormons from those counties and from the State.^[71]

Missouri vigilantes continued to act on their own, driving Mormons inward to Far West and Adam-ondi-Ahman.^[72] Meanwhile, exaggerated reports from the Battle of Crooked River made their way to Missouri's governor, Lilburn Boggs. Boggs was considered more adversarial towards the Mormons than his predecessor, and, as Lieutenant Governor, had sided with the vigilantes who had expelled the Mormons from Jackson County in 1833.^[73] Boggs mustered 2,500 state militiamen to put down what he considered a Mormon insurrection against the state. Possibly playing on Rigdon's July 4 sermon that talked of a "war of extermination", Boggs issued Missouri Executive Order 44, also known as the "Extermination Order", on October 27, which stated that "the Mormons must be treated as enemies, and must be exterminated or driven from the State if necessary for the public peace..."^[74] The Extermination Order was officially rescinded on June 25, 1976, by Governor Christopher Samuel "Kit" Bond.^[75][76]

Agitation against the Latter Day Saints had become particularly fierce in the sparsely settled counties north and east of Caldwell County. Mormon dissenters from Daviess County who had fled to Livingston County reportedly told Livingston County militia under Colonel Thomas Jennings that Mormons were gathering at Hawn's Mill to mount a raid into Livingston County.^[77] One 19th century Missouri historian noted:

The Daviess County men were very bitter against the Mormons, and vowed the direst vengeance on the entire sect. It did not matter whether or not the Mormons at [Haun's] mill had taken any part in the disturbance which had occurred [in Daviess County]; it was enough that they were Mormons. The Livingston men became thoroughly imbued with the same spirit, and were eager for the raid ... feel[ing] an extraordinary sympathy for the outrages suffered by their neighbors^[78]

Although it had just been issued, little evidence exists that the governor's "Extermination Order" had reached the attackers. None of the participants in the raid cited the order as justification for their actions.^[79]

On October 29, this large vigilante band of about 250 men assembled and entered eastern Caldwell County. When the Missourian raiders approached the settlement on the afternoon of October 30, some 30 to 40 Latter Day Saint families were living or encamped there. Despite an attempt by the Mormons to parley, the mob attacked. Thomas McBride surrendered his rifle to Jacob Rogers, who shot McBride with his own gun. When McBride held out a hand, Rogers cut it off with a corn knife, then may have further mangled his body while McBride was still alive.^[80] Other members of the mob opened fire, which sent the Latter-day Saints fleeing in all directions.

 

While Mormon women and children scattered and hid in the surrounding woods and nearby homes, Mormon men and boys rallied to defend the settlement. They moved into a blacksmith shop, which they hoped to use as a makeshift defensive fortification, however, the shop had large gaps between the logs which the Missourians shot into and, as one Mormon later recalled, it became more "slaughter-house rather than a shelter".^[81] After firing at the shop for half an hour, some of the Missourians entered to kill the survivors. They found 10-year-old Sardius Smith hiding behind the bellows. William Reynolds of Livingston County shot and killed the boy, saying: "Nits will make lice, and if he had lived he would have become a Mormon"^[77] 17 were killed in total.^[3][82] When survivors of the massacre reached Far West, the reports of the savagery of the attack played a significant part in the decision of the Mormons to surrender.^[77] No Missourians were ever prosecuted for their role in the Hawn's Mill Massacre.^[77]

Most Mormons gathered to Far West and Adam-ondi-Ahman for protection. Major General Samuel D. Lucas marched the state militia to Far West and laid siege to the Mormon headquarters on the 1st of November.^[83] Surrounded by the state militia, Joseph Smith ordered Colonel George M. Hinkle, the head of the Mormon militia in Caldwell County, to ride out and meet with General Lucas to seek terms. According to Hinkle, Smith wanted a treaty with the Missourians "on any terms short of battle".^[84] Other Latter Day Saint witnesses remembered that Smith said to "beg like a dog for peace".^[85][86][87]

Lucas' terms were one-sided. The Mormons were to give up their leaders for trial and to surrender all of their arms. Every Mormon who had taken up arms was to sell his property to pay for the damages to Missourian property and for the muster of the state militia. Finally, the Mormons who had taken up arms were to leave the state.^[87][88] Colonel Hinkle stated that the Mormons would help bring to justice those who had violated the law, but he protested that the other terms were illegal and unconstitutional.^[89]

Colonel Hinkle rode to the church leaders in Far West and informed them of the offered terms. According to Mormon witness Reed Peck, when Smith was told that the Mormons would be expected to leave the state, he replied that "he did not care" and that he would be glad to get out of the "damnable state" anyway.^[86] Smith and the other leaders rode with Hinkle back to the Missouri militia encampment. The militia promptly arrested Smith and the other leaders.^[87] Smith believed that Hinkle had betrayed him,^[90] but Hinkle maintained his innocence and claimed that he was following Smith's orders. To William Wines Phelps, a fellow Mormon and witness to the events, Hinkle wrote: "When the facts were laid before Joseph, did he not say, 'I will go'; and did not the others go with him, and that, too, voluntarily, so far as you and I were concerned?"^[91][92]

Joseph Smith and the other arrested leaders were held overnight under guard in General Lucas' camp. Hyrum Smith, Brigham Young, and other leaders left at Far West warned the veterans of Crooked River to flee. "If found, they will be shot down like dogs," warned Hyrum.^[93] Joseph Smith attempted to negotiate with Lucas, but Lucas considered his conditions to be non-negotiable. At 8:00 am, Joseph sent word to Far West to surrender.^[92] Ebenezer Robinson described the scene at Far West:

General Clark made the following speech to the brethren on the public square: "... The orders of the governor to me were, that you should be exterminated, and not allowed to remain in the state, and had your leaders not been given up, and the terms of the treaty complied with, before this, you and your families would have been destroyed and your houses in ashes."^[94]

The Far West militia was marched out of the city and forced to turn over their weapons to General Lucas. The men under the command of Lucas were then allowed to ransack the city to search for weapons.^[95] Brigham Young recounts that, once the militia was disarmed, Lucas's men were turned loose on the city:

[T]hey commenced their ravages by plundering the citizens of their bedding, clothing, money, wearing apparel, and every thing of value they could lay their hands upon, and also attempting to violate the chastity of the women in sight of their husbands and friends, under the pretence of hunting for prisoners and arms. The soldiers shot down our oxen, cows, hogs and fowls, at our own doors, taking part away and leaving the rest to rot in the streets. The soldiers also turned their horses into our fields of corn.^[96][97]

 

Lucas tried Joseph Smith and other Mormon leaders by court martial on November 1, the evening of the surrender. After the court martial, he ordered General Alexander William Doniphan:

You will take Joseph Smith and the other prisoners into the public square of Far West and shoot them at 9 o'clock tomorrow morning.^[98]

Doniphan refused to obey the order, replying:

It is cold-blooded murder. I will not obey your order. My brigade shall march for Liberty to-morrow morning, at 8 o'clock, and if you execute those men, I will hold you responsible before an earthly tribunal, so help me God!^[99]

The defendants, consisting of about 60 men including Joseph Smith and Sidney Rigdon, were turned over to a civil court of inquiry in Richmond under Judge Austin A. King, on charges of treason, murder, arson, burglary, robbery, larceny and perjury.^[9][100] The court of inquiry began November 12, 1838. After the inquiry, all but a few of the Mormon prisoners were released, but Joseph Smith, Sidney Rigdon, Lyman Wight, Caleb Baldwin, Hyrum Smith and Alexander McRae were held in the Liberty Jail in Liberty, Clay County on charges of treason against the state, murder, arson, burglary, robbery and larceny.^[100][101]

During a transfer to another prison in the spring of 1839, Smith and the other prisoners escaped. The exact circumstances that allowed for him to escape are not certain. John Whitmer suggests that Smith bribed the guards.^[102] Historian Richard Bushman believes that Smith's imprisonment had become an embarrassment, and that an escape would be convenient for Boggs and the rest of the Missouri political establishment.^[103] Smith and the other Mormons resettled in Nauvoo, Illinois, beginning in 1839.^[103]

Daviess County residents were outraged by the escape of Smith and the other leaders. William Bowman, one of the guards, was dragged by his hair across the town square. Sheriff Morgan was ridden through town on an iron bar, and died shortly afterward from the injuries he suffered during the ride.^[104]

 

General Clark viewed Executive Order 44 as having been fulfilled by the agreement of the Mormons to evacuate the state the following spring.^[105] The militia was disbanded in late November.^[9] Missouri blamed the Mormons for the conflict and forced the Mormons to sign over all their lands in order to pay for the state militia muster. Mormon leaders appealed to the state legislature to overturn the requirement that they leave the state, but the legislature tabled the issue until a date well after that when the Mormons would have left the state.^[9]

Having surrendered the bulk of their firearms, Mormons were left nearly defenseless against the mobs.^[106] Mormon residents were harassed and attacked by angry residents who were no longer restrained by militia officers.^[107][108] Judge Austin A King, who had been assigned the cases of the Mormons charged with offenses during the conflict, warned "If you once think to plant crops or to occupy your lands any longer than the first of April, the citizens will be upon you: they will kill you every one, men, women and children."^[9]

Stripped of their property, most refugees made their way east to Illinois, where residents of the town of Quincy helped them. When faced with the Mormon refugees from Missouri, the people of Quincy were outraged by the treatment the Mormons had experienced.^[109] One resolution passed by the Quincy town council read:

Resolved: That the gov of Missouri, in refusing protection to this class of people when pressed upon by an heartless mob, and turning upon them a band of unprincipled Militia, with orders encouraging their extermination, has brought a lasting disgrace upon the state over which he presides.^[110]

Eventually, the Mormons purchased and settled the mostly vacant city of Commerce, north of Quincy, which they renamed Nauvoo in 1839.^[111]

 

Many of Boggs's constituents felt that he had mismanaged the situation by failing to intervene earlier in the crisis, and then by overreacting on the basis of partial and incorrect information.^[112] The Missouri Argus published an editorial on December 20, 1838, arguing that the Mormons should not be permitted to be forcibly expelled from the state:

They cannot be driven beyond the limits of the state—that is certain. To do so, would be to act with extreme cruelty. Public opinion has recoiled from a summary and forcible removal of our negro population;—much more likely will it be to revolt at the violent expulsion of two or three thousand souls, who have so many ties to connect them with us in a common brotherhood. If they choose to remain, we must be content. The day has gone by when masses of men can be outlawed, and driven from society to the wilderness, unprotected. ... The refinement, the charity of our age, will not brook it.^[113]

Even people who otherwise expressed no sympathy towards the Mormons disapproved of Boggs's order and the treatment of the Mormons by the mobs. One contemporary critic of the Mormons wrote:

Mormonism is a monstrous evil; and the only place where it ever did or ever could shine, this side of the world of despair, is by the side of the Missouri mob.^[114][115]

LeSueur notes that, along with other setbacks, Boggs's mishandling of the Mormon conflict left him "politically impotent" by the end of his term.^[112]

On May 6, 1842, Boggs was shot in the head at his home three blocks from Temple Lot.^[116] Boggs survived, but Mormons came under immediate suspicion, especially Orrin Porter Rockwell, bodyguard of Joseph Smith. Sheriff J.H. Reynolds discovered a revolver at the scene, still loaded with buckshot. He surmised that the perpetrator had fired upon Boggs and lost his firearm in the night when the weapon recoiled due to its unusually large shot. The gun was found to have been stolen from a local shopkeeper, who identified "that hired man of Ward's" as the most likely culprit. Reynolds determined the man in question was Rockwell.^[117]

 

John C. Bennett, a disaffected Mormon, reported that Smith had offered a cash reward to anyone who would assassinate Boggs, and that Smith had admitted to him that Rockwell had done the deed.^[118] Joseph Smith denied Bennett's account, speculating that Boggs—who was campaigning for state senate—was attacked by an election opponent. One historian notes that Governor Boggs was running for election against several violent men, all capable of the deed, and that there was no particular reason to suspect Rockwell of the crime.^[119] Other historians are convinced that Rockwell was involved in the shooting.^[120] The following year, Rockwell was arrested, tried, and acquitted of the attempted murder, after a grand jury was unable to find sufficient evidence to indict him,^[118] although most of Boggs' contemporaries remained convinced of his guilt. Rockwell famously stated that he "never shot at anybody, if I shoot they get shot!... He's still alive, ain't he?"^[121]

 

Wikimedia Commons has media related to 1838 Mormon War.

• Far West Cultural Center primary sources Archived July 22, 2005, at the Wayback Machine
• Mel Tungate's Battle of Crooked River sources website
• Joseph Smith's Journal Entries
• History of the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, Volume 2 Chapter 11