Sidney Rigdon, Testimony, 1 July 1843 [Extradition of JS for Treason]
Source Note
, Testimony, [, Hancock Co., IL], 1 July 1843, Extradition of JS for Treason (Nauvoo, IL, Municipal Court 1843). Copied [between 3 and 6 July 1843]; handwriting of ; docket by unidentified scribe, [, Hancock Co., IL], ca. [6] July 1843; notation by unidentified scribe, ca. [6] July 1843; twenty-four pages; Nauvoo, IL, Records, CHL.
The citizens were completely beseiged by the mob no man was at liberty to go out nor any to come in. The extremities were now great to which the people were driven <were very great> suffering with much sickness without shelter and deprived of all aid <either> medical or of any other kind, <& being> without food, or the privilege of the getting it, <&> Betrayed by every man who made the least pretension to friendship. a notable instance <of which> I will here give, as a sample of many others, of a similar kind There was neither bread nor flour to be had in the place— a steam boat landed at the<re> place <&> application was made to get flour but they captain said, there was none <on> aboard. A man then offered his services to get flour for the place, knowing he said where there was a quantity, money was given to him for this purpose— he got on the boat, and went off— and that was the last <we heard> of the man or the money This was a man who had been frequently in during the siege, and professed great friendship. In this time of extremity a man who had a short time before moved into bringing with him a fine yoke of cattle started out to hunt his cattle, in order to butcher them to keep the citizens from actual starvation, but before he got but a little distance from the he was fired <up>on by the mob, and was narrowly escaped with his life and had to return, or at least such was his report when he returned. Being now completely inclosed on every side we could plainly see many men on the opposite side of the , and it was supposed that they were there to prevent the citizens from crossing the and indeed a small craft crossed from them with three men in it who said that that was their object, for which they had assembled. At this critical moment, with death staring us in the face, in its worst form cut off from all comm[un]ication with the surrounding country, and all our provisions exhausted we were sustained as the children of Israel in the desert, only by different animals. They by quailes— and us by cattle and hogs which came walking into the camp, for such it truly was [p. [4]]