Vigilantes’ Armed Siege of De Witt

1 October 1838

Vigilantes began armed siege of Latter-day Saint settlement in De Witt, Carroll County, Missouri, causing Latter-day Saints to seek help from Missouri governor Lilburn W. Boggs and other civil authorities.

John Murdock, Affidavit, Adams Co., IL, 10 Jan. 1840, Library of Congress Collection, National Archives, Washington DC; Smith Humphrey, Affidavit, Adams Co., IL, 8 Jan. 1840, Library of Congress Collection, National Archives, Washington DC; Murdock, Autobiography, 40–41; JS History, vol. B-1, 831, 833; Baugh, “Call to Arms,” 163–164, 178–179.

Comprehensive Works Cited

Library of Congress Collection. National Archives, Washington DC. Redress petitions from this collection are also available in Clark V. Johnson, ed., Mormon Redress Petitions: Documents of the 1833–1838 Missouri Conflict, Religious Studies Center Monograph Series 16 (Provo, UT: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University, 1992).

Murdock, John. Autobiography, ca. 1859–1867. John Murdock, Journal and Autobiography, ca. 1830–1867. CHL. MS 1194, fd. 4.

JS History / Smith, Joseph, et al. History, 1838–1856. Vols. A-1–F-1 (original), A-2–E-2 (fair copy). Historian’s Office, History of the Church, 1839–ca. 1882. CHL. CR 100 102, boxes 1–7. The history for the period after 5 Aug. 1838 was composed after the death of Joseph Smith.

Baugh, Alexander L. “A Call to Arms: The 1838 Mormon Defense of Northern Missouri.” PhD diss., Brigham Young University, 1996. Also available as A Call to Arms: The 1838 Mormon Defense of Northern Missouri, Dissertations in Latter-day Saint History (Provo, UT: Joseph Fielding Smith Institute for Latter-day Saint History; BYU Studies, 2000).

Vigilantes’ Armed Siege of De Witt

1 October 1838

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