Documents, Volume 6, Part 3 Introduction: 4 November 1838–16 April 1839
Part 3: 4 November 1838–16 April 1839
Part 3 covers JS’s time in state
custody—primarily in the
in , Missouri—from his arrest on 31 October 1838 to
his escape on 16 April 1839. His incarceration was based on charges
stemming from crimes allegedly committed during the October 1838
conflict between the and
other Missourians.
In mid-September 1838, Brigadier General and his militia troops successfully disbanded and
dispersed vigilantes in , Missouri. However, under the leadership of
William Austin, the vigilantes refocused
their efforts on the small Mormon settlement at , Carroll County, Missouri. In late September, the
vigilantes announced that the Saints had until 1 October to leave De
Witt. Unwilling to abandon their property, the Saints endured a
ten-day siege in early October, under the leadership of church
member and colonel .
During the siege, JS traveled from , Missouri, to De Witt to rally church members.
Ultimately, civil and militia authorities refused to intervene, and
the outnumbered Saints had little choice but to evacuate the town
and relocate to Far West. During the journey, at least two
female church members died and were buried in unmarked graves.
Emboldened by this victory, the anti-Mormon vigilantes acquired a cannon and
moved their operations back to , hoping to drive out the Saints living there. JS and other church leaders
determined that the failure of state authorities to protect the
Saints necessitated aggressive self-defense. On 16 October, about
three hundred Latter-day Saint men from marched to
. Over the next few weeks, Latter-day
Saints and anti-Mormons engaged in vigilante actions in the absence
of civil and militia responses to the rising tensions. According to
, the Mormon vigilantes
intended “to fall upon and scatter the mob wherever they could find
them collected” and “to destroy those places that harbored them.” On
18 October, , an and a member of the pro tempore
, led a targeted raid on , the county seat. , a member of the Adam-ondi-Ahman presidency and a veteran of the War of 1812,
directed a similar raid on . , a
who served in the War of 1812, led a third
raid on Grindstone Fork. The Mormon forces
dispersed the anti-Mormons, destroyed buildings—including a store, a
mill, and several houses—and confiscated property as wartime
appropriations. JS reportedly sent a letter to announcing the Saints’ victory. A
few days later, Patten and his men secured the cannon that their
enemies had brought to Daviess County. , president of the Adam-ondi-Ahman stake, noted
in his journal on 22 October that “we have Driven most of the enemy
out of the co[unty].”
JS and the other men returned to on 22 October. For the remainder of
the month, chaos reigned in , with both Mormons and anti-Mormons burning homes
and confiscating property. Latter-day Saint recalled, “It
should not be supposed because we sought to repel mob violence and
were compelled to forage for food when hemmed in on all sides by a
mob who had driven us from homes . . . that we were common robbers
because we took as by reprisal with which to keep from starvation
our women and children. Ours was a struggle for our lives and homes;
and a more conscientious, noble, and patriotic spirit never enthused
man than that which animated our leaders in this just defense of our
rights.” Meanwhile, anti-Mormon vigilantes
under the command of ,
operating out of neighboring counties, led targeted strikes on
Mormon homes in outlying areas of Daviess County, taking prisoners,
burning buildings, and confiscating goods.
Reports of Latter-day Saint military operations spread quickly throughout
northwestern . Several non-Mormon eyewitnesses
prepared affidavits on 21 and 22 October, describing what they had
seen.
Likewise, apostles
and , who had recently defected from
the church because they opposed the preemptive strikes in , described the
military operations in an affidavit prepared on 24 October in , Ray County, Missouri. These affidavits were
forwarded to Missouri governor ,
and the information contained in them was circulated in the
press.
Anticipating a prolonged conflict, JS and other
Latter-day Saint leaders prepared to be the “head quarters of the Mormon war,” as
church member described
it. These preparations included engaging the “armies of Isreal” in
drills and forming special companies to build new cabins, gather
food and wood, monitor the movements of anti-Mormon vigilantes, and
assist families living outside of Far West to move to the city.
Rockwood wrote that these companies were “called because the Prophet Daniel has said they shall
take the kingdom and possess it for-ever.” At a
meeting held at the home of on 24
October, the command structure for the Mormon forces was solidified.
and would command the
infantry and cavalry, respectively, in , while and would perform the
same duties in . Wight,
Brunson, and Patten had led the targeted strikes in Daviess County
on 18 October, while Hinkle was the commanding colonel of the
Caldwell County regiment of the state militia.
In late October, non-Mormon vigilantes targeted church members living near
the borders of . Ostensibly
fearing a Mormon invasion of ,
Captain of the state militia
sought and received authorization “to range the line between
Caldwell & Ray County.” The militiamen exceeded this authorization,
harassing church members living near the border between Caldwell and
Ray counties, burning at least one Latter-day Saint cabin, and
capturing three Mormon men—Addison Greene,
Nathan Pinkham Jr., and William Seely, two of whom were probably scouts. , apparently operating under
the commission he received the day before to command cavalry in
Caldwell County, led a contingent of about sixty Mormon cavalry to
rescue the prisoners. At dawn on 25 October, Patten’s men exchanged
gunfire with Bogart’s company of thirty-five men near , two miles south
of the Caldwell County border, resulting in the deaths of three
Latter-day Saints—Patten, , and
—as well as
Missourian Moses Rowland. On 30 October, more than two hundred
anti-Mormon vigilantes attacked the settlement at in eastern Caldwell County, where
approximately thirty Latter-day Saint families had gathered. The
vigilantes, many of whom were members of the and county militias
operating without authorization from their superior officers,
apparently instigated the attack in retaliation for the Mormon
military operations in Daviess County earlier in the month. As women
and children fled the mill amidst gunfire, at least one woman was
injured in the hand. Latter-day Saint men and some boys assumed a
defensive position in an unfinished blacksmith shop, which quickly turned into a death trap.
The vigilantes killed—in some cases, brutally—ten Latter-day Saint
men and boys and fatally injured seven others. Another thirteen men
and boys were wounded. None of the vigilantes were killed. In the
wake of the killings, the survivors interred the dead in a nearby
well, which became a mass grave.
On 27 October, in response to exaggerated reports of the Saints’ operations and
the engagement, issued an order accusing
church members of being
“in the attitude of an open and avowed defiance of the laws,” of waging “war upon the people of this ,” and of committing “outrages . . . beyond all
description.” Claiming that “the Mormons must be treated as enemies
and must be exterminated or driven from the state if necessary,”
Boggs ordered the state militia to “operate against the
Mormons.” Major
General assembled eighteen
hundred troops in and on 30
October established his headquarters approximately one mile south of
. The following day, Lucas met with and a delegation of Saints,
presenting conditions for peacefully resolving the crisis: JS and several other church leaders
were required to submit to arrest and prosecution. The Mormon
participants in the conflict were required to surrender their
weapons and sign over their property to pay for debts they owed to
other Missourians and for the damages incurred during the conflict.
Further, all Latter-day Saints were required to leave the
state.
Upon the delegates’ return to , they presented JS and other church leaders with a
copy of ’s 27 October 1838 order.
According to , then informed the church
leaders that “desired an interview” with JS,
, Wight, , and and that they
would “be released that night or the next morning early.” Evidently,
the delegation did not inform JS and the others that they would be
Lucas’s prisoners when they entered the camp. For his part, Lucas viewed
the men as hostages to be held until Hinkle decided whether to
comply with the conditions. If he did, the prisoners were to be held
for trial; if he rejected the conditions, the
prisoners would be released and the militia would prepare to subdue
Far West by force. On 1 November, Hinkle formally accepted the
terms, and Lucas paraded his captives through the streets of Far
West. As several documents in part 3
attest, JS passionately argued that Hinkle and the other delegates
had deceived and betrayed him. Later, in response
to these accusations, Hinkle claimed he surrendered only with JS’s
authorization. On
the same day as the surrender, 1 November, and were
arrested and confined with the other prisoners. That
evening, Lucas reportedly held an ad hoc court martial in which JS
and the six other Latter-day Saint prisoners were sentenced to
death. Only the protest of
stopped the executions from proceeding.
In and , as well as at , state militiamen and anti-Mormon vigilantes
ransacked the homes of the Latter-day Saints, stole food and other
property, and harassed church members. Disaffected Mormons who served as
informants for the militia taunted the Saints. Former apostle ransacked
JS’s home in Far West. Not long
afterward, , the previous owner of the
Smiths’ home, stole items from the property and expelled and her children from the
premises.
In the midst of the chaos, anti-Mormon men committed multiple acts
of sexual violence,
including rape, against Latter-day Saint women. In addition, militiamen near
Far West struck Latter-day Saint William
Carey’s head with a rifle, causing his death. Carey may have been the last of about
forty Mormons who were killed or died from exposure during the
conflict. As demonstrated in several documents in
part 3, JS and other church members considered these individuals to
be martyrs for the cause of .
On 2 November, JS and the other prisoners were
permitted to obtain provisions and bid an emotional good-bye to
their families before being taken to ,
Missouri.
assigned Brigadier General and three hundred
state militiamen from Jackson County to escort the prisoners the
fifty miles to , the headquarters for the militia’s Fourth
Division. Upon arriving in Independence on 4 November, the prisoners
were placed first in a large and comfortable log home and
subsequently at Noland’s Inn, rather than in
the Jackson County jail. Five days later, Lucas
moved the prisoners to , where Major General assumed custody of
them, having received an order from to oversee the entire campaign
to quell the Mormon “rebellion,” including through prosecuting the
“ring leaders.” In Richmond, JS and his fellow prisoners were placed
in chains in a vacant log house near the unfinished courthouse. Clark also confined
forty-six other Latter-day Saint men to the courthouse on charges
stemming from their alleged roles in the October 1838 operations in
.
On 10 November 1838, asked of the fifth
judicial circuit to preside at a criminal court of inquiry in . From 12 to 29 November, Judge King
evaluated testimony that the prisoners had committed treason and
other crimes during the October 1838 conflict. A charge of treason,
which is legally defined as “levying war” against the (or a state) or
“giving aid” to its enemies, can be established only if two
witnesses testify of the same “overt act” or the defendant confesses
to the crime in court. Forty-two
witnesses, many of whom were disaffected church members, testified
for the prosecution, which contended that JS and other church leaders had
begun planning an insurrection against the state of as early as spring 1838, with the implementation
starting that fall. Former Danite general was the prosecution’s key witness. Although the prisoners submitted the names
of dozens of potential defense witnesses, ultimately only seven
testified, largely because of the intimidation of court
officials.
During the course of the proceedings, eleven more Latter-day Saint
men were charged, bringing the total to sixty-four defendants. The
defendants later
alleged that the hearing was significantly marred by procedural and
substantive problems.
At the conclusion of the hearing, ruled
there was probable cause to believe that JS, , , , and had committed treason in
during the
conflict and that had committed the same offense
in . As treason
was a nonbailable offense and neither Daviess nor Caldwell county
had a jail, these men were confined in the
in to await a spring trial. The judge also
ruled there was probable cause to believe that and four other Latter-day
Saint men had participated in the murder of Moses
Rowland in the
skirmish; because murder was also nonbailable, King committed these
prisoners to the jail to await
trial. Finally, King found
probable cause to believe that twenty-four other defendants had
committed arson, burglary, robbery, and larceny. The judge admitted
them to bail on the condition that they appear before the Circuit Court
during the spring term.
The remaining prisoners were discharged for lack of evidence.
On 1 December 1838, JS and his companions arrived in
, the seat of , and
were incarcerated in the county , an imposing edifice with four-foot-thick walls made
of limestone and oak. The jail had only one entrance: double iron
doors at the landing of a short flight of stairs. The doors opened
to a room containing two windows, each with vertical iron bars
preventing entrance or escape. A trapdoor in the floor opened into
the jail’s dungeon, a 14- by 14½-foot space that was 6½ feet from
stone floor to ceiling. Two windows, 2 feet wide and 6 inches high,
with a heavy iron bar running horizontally through each, provided
the only natural light. The prisoners were guarded by Clay County
sheriff and
jailer Samuel Hadley and his deputy, Samuel Tillery. Through
the winter of 1838–1839, the prisoners slept on dirty straw
mattresses and subsisted on a coarse diet. However, the prisoners
spent some of their time in the upper story of the jail, eating
meals and meeting with visitors.
, for example, visited JS
in the jail three times before she departed from the . In
addition, they were occasionally permitted to leave the jailhouse
under supervision of a guard.
The main body of the church endured the winter in . On 10 December 1838, and
other church leaders wrote an extensive petition to the legislature, providing the Saints’ perspective
on the recent conflict and requesting that the legislature rescind
’s expulsion order. While
acknowledging that some church members were guilty of unlawful
behavior, especially during the October “difficulties in ,” the
petitioners argued that such crimes should be understood in the
context of past wrongs inflicted on the Saints. Partridge and the
others also queried why the Saints were charged with crimes when not
one vigilante was arrested for the murders committed at . In early 1839, it became apparent
that the legislature would not intervene on behalf of the
Saints;
consequently, church leaders in organized the evacuation of the eight to ten
thousand Latter-day Saints living in Missouri.
Faced with insufficient supplies, inclement weather, and disease,
many church members suffered considerably during the journey of
nearly two hundred miles to ,
Illinois, a town along the .
The residents of Quincy welcomed the Latter-day Saint refugees,
providing food, shelter, and work. During this mass migration,
there was little to no
correspondence between the body of the church and the prisoners left
behind in Missouri.
Eager to join the Saints leaving , the prisoners
pursued various options to obtain their freedom. In late January
1839, the prisoners petitioned the court
for habeas corpus, a legal remedy that permitted incarcerated
individuals to challenge their imprisonment; the court granted the
petition. At the hearing held on 22 January 1839 to evaluate the
reasons for the prisoners’ detention, Clay County justice reviewed the testimony from the November
1838 hearing before ,
listened to statements from the prisoners, and heard arguments from
prosecution attorney William Wood and defense
attorneys and
Peter Burnett; Turnham apparently did not
permit additional witnesses to testify for the defendants. He
released on bail but remanded JS and the other prisoners to
jail. After this
setback, the prisoners tried to escape. While receiving visitors in
the jail’s upper room on 7 February, attempted to force his way out through the
exterior doors. The jailer and
guards quickly apprehended Hyrum and the other prisoners who tried
to follow him. In early
March, the prisoners endeavored to escape by digging through the
wooden inner wall of the dungeon. However, before they could remove
the outer limestone block, the handles of their augers broke; they
sought outside assistance, and their plan was discovered. With the
failure of this second escape attempt, the prisoners again pursued
legal remedies. In mid-March, the men prepared petitions for writs
of habeas corpus. The justices of the Supreme Court refused the petitions, despite
expressing sympathy for the imprisoned Saints.
Although physically separated from the main body of the church, JS maintained family ties and
directed church affairs through letters. During his time in state
custody, he wrote at least five letters to his wife , expressing his love and
affection for her and their children. These missives are rare
examples of JS’s surviving holographic letters. One letter from Emma to JS is extant. In addition to personal
missives, JS wrote more formal letters to church leaders and the
Saints at large, providing leadership at a time when the church
community was seriously threatened. In late March, JS dictated two
lengthy general epistles to church members in and elsewhere,
offering insight into the meaning of the Saints’ recent
persecutions, reflections on past missteps, and guidance on
reestablishing church communities. Portions of these epistles were
presented in the voice of Deity in a manner similar to that in JS’s
revelations. Two of the revelation-like sections
addressed the significance of suffering and promised that JS and the
Saints would be divinely vindicated. Another section contained
counsel on the righteous use of power. When
composing these more formal letters, JS relied on his fellow
prisoners to act as scribes.
served as the primary scribe for the two general epistles, with assisting. JS reviewed
and made corrections to both of these epistles.
JS preferred correspondence to be transmitted to and from
the by couriers
rather than through the postal service. The identities of only a
handful of couriers have been preserved, but presumably most were
church members or other trusted individuals. When the main body of
the church was in , the couriers would have traversed
the approximately forty miles between and , which probably took a day or two. As church
members relocated to , the couriers would
have traveled the approximately two hundred miles between Liberty
and , a distance
probably covered in about a week.
On 6 April, the prisoners and their guards departed the
for , where they were scheduled to appear at a
session of the Circuit
Court.
Around 10 April, a grand jury indicted JS and several other Saints for
treason and other crimes allegedly committed during the previous
summer and fall. The court then granted the prisoners a change of
venue from Daviess County to ,
where they believed their chances for a fair trial would be better.
The prisoners may also have believed they could escape from custody
en route to their new destination. The prisoners did just that on 16
April 1839, evidently with the guards’ complicity, and made their
way to , arriving on 22 April. Prior to learning
of the escape, several church members in wrote to JS,
apparently in response to the general epistles he sent in late
March. Knowing that the prisoners had been moved from and that they would probably receive a change of
venue, the Saints may not have sent these letters to , preferring to wait for additional information
on JS’s whereabouts.
Correspondence between JS and the Saints, as well as legal
documents produced during his incarceration, compose the majority of
documents in part 3. Also included are financial and other documents
that JS’s representatives produced on his behalf during this period.
In ,
continued to manage JS’s financial affairs, while scribe issued
priesthood . In ,
church
worked with attorney
to assess JS’s
remaining debts.