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  2. Military Authorities, February 1838–August 1839

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
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