Military Authorities
Caldwell County Militia
supplied the
soldiers for the Fifty-Ninth Regiment of the state militia. The militia’s
commander in chief was the governor, .
served as the major
general over the militia’s Third Division, also called the “the
northern division,” which included several
of the northwestern counties, such as and
counties. Within the Third Division, served as the brigadier
general over the Second Brigade, which included
, , and possibly other
counties.
The Fifty-Ninth Regiment was organized in mid-1837 by Latter-day Saints
, , , and .
Like other regiments, the Fifty-Ninth Regiment was
commanded by a colonel and included several other officers and
subdivisions. and were commissioned as colonels. There is conflicting
evidence as to who was colonel and who was lieutenant colonel. A county
history that appears to draw on militia records lists Hinkle as the
colonel and Wight as lieutenant colonel.
Regiments were divided into battalions, which were commanded by majors.
Battalions were in turn divided into companies, which were commanded by
captains. The battalion and
company substructure of the Fifty-Ninth Regiment is not known. law allowed for a regiment to have as many as
sixteen companies. The Fifty-Ninth Regiment
consisted of at least seven companies. The officers in the companies are
mostly unknown, except for those in the Second Company. Within the
Second Company, it is possible that some of the men listed after
Lewis Turner were corporals, not sergeants,
matching the 3 October 1838 organization.
Fifty-Ninth Regiment
| Colonel |
| Lieutenant Colonel |
| Major |
| Adjutant |
| Sergeant Major |
First Company
| Captain |
| (apparently departed between late May and late June 1838) |
Second Company
| Circa early 1838 | 3 October 1838 |
| Captain | Captain |
| Lieutenants | Lieutenant |
| Jerome Benson | Jerome Benson |
| D. Chase | |
| Ensign | Ensign |
| William Clark | |
| Sergeants (or possibly Corporals) | Sergeants |
| Chapman Duncan | Eli Chase, first sergeant |
| Lewis Turner | William R. Cole, second sergeant |
| Edward Larkey | , third sergeant |
| Asa C. Earl, fourth sergeant | |
| William Hawk | Corporals |
| William Jay, first corporal | |
| Lyman Stevens | Uriah B. Powell, second corporal |
| Nelson Mainard, third corporal | |
| Philo Allen, fourth corporal |
Seventh Company
| Captain |
| First Lieutenant |
Officers in One or More Unidentified
Companies
| Captain |
| Captain |
| Lieutenant |
| Ensign |
Society of the Daughter of Zion
(Danites)
The was an oath-bound
military society organized among the Latter-day Saints in circa late June 1838 to defend the church from
internal and external opposition. The members of this organization soon
became known as Danites. The exact organizational
structure of the society is difficult to reconstruct because of a
scarcity of sources. A constitution for the society was presented in
court in the Missouri government’s case against JS. Although it is uncertain whether JS ever approved of this
constitution, his journal and other contemporaneous sources confirm that
the society implemented several organizational aspects that were
articulated in the constitution. The society’s constitution described an
executive branch consisting of the and a
legislative branch consisting of the First Presidency as well as
generals and colonels. The constitution also outlined the function of a
secretary of war and specified that the military forces were to be led
by a captain general. The general membership of the society
was apparently organized in a military style, with generals, colonels,
and other officers. Some participants described a command structure of
captains of thousands, captains of hundreds, captains of fifties, and
captains of tens. No captains of thousands or of hundreds have been
identified. Given the size of these units and the general parallel
between Danite offices and militia offices, captains of thousands and of
hundreds may have gone by other military titles. The generals were apparently
general officers over the Danites in both and counties. Caldwell County
probably had at least one captain of fifty, as did Daviess County, but
none have been identified. The division in Daviess County may not have
had a lieutenant colonel or a major because of the much smaller number
of Saints in that county. The following charts show only the known
officers.
| Captain General |
| (removed early July 1838) |
| (appointed early July 1838) |
| Major General |
| (removed after 8 August 1838) |
| Brigadier General |
| Adjutant |
| Caldwell County | Daviess County |
| Colonel | Colonel |
| Lieutenant Colonel | |
| Major | Captains of Fifties |
| Captains of Tens | Captains of Tens |
| Unidentified |
War Department
It is unclear how long the original command structure of
the continued or whether or to what extent the small,
secret, oath-bound society that started in summer 1838 had continuity
with the much larger military force of mid-October, which included many
if not most of the adult male members of the church. Multiple sources attest that the term
Danites was being used—perhaps informally—to
describe the large Mormon military force that was active in
October. If this military force had continuity with the
original Danite society, the original organization had significantly
transformed. For example, in the October structure, held the office of surgeon instead of his
former position of major general. Further, the primary military leaders in October
were , , and
instead of Generals and , although Higbee may
have continued in an executive capacity. It is also unclear how much overlap there was
between positions in the church militia and the regiment of the
state militia.
, one of the men
who used the term Danites to describe Mormon
forces, more often used the term armies of
Israel, perhaps as an informal title.
In November, witnesses testifying in the court hearing about the October
conflict also used the word army to describe the
Mormon military. On 24
October, in a council meeting held in home, JS and other officers reorganized the command structure of
the Mormon “war department,” which included the officers in the
following chart.
| Caldwell County | Daviess County |
| Colonel Commander in Chief (Infantry) | Colonel Commander in Chief (Infantry) |
| Captain (Cavalry) | Captain (Cavalry) |
Officers in Unidentified
Organizations
Historical accounts of the October 1838 conflict between
the Latter-day Saints and other Missourians mention several officers
without clarifying whether they held offices in the state militia, the
society, the Army of Israel, a posse comitatus, or
some other well or loosely defined organization—or even some combination
of these organizations.
| Captains | Lieutenants |
| , captain of fifty | , first lieutenant |
| , captain of ten | , second lieutenant/ensign |
| William Allred | |
| David Evans | |
| Ephraim Owen | |