The “Historian’s Office, Martyrdom Account, Draft,” and the “Historian’s Office, Martyrdom Account” are the two complete, extant iterations of efforts by later church historians to record the murder of JS and , including the events leading up to their deaths and the immediate aftermath. As stated at the beginning of both accounts, the information was compiled from a number of different sources, including other journals, letters, and various other documents. It was put into a cohesive narrative during the 1850s by Church Historian’s Office clerks , Jonathan Grimshaw, and , presumably under the direction of the church historian, .
was the initial scribe for approximately the first half of “Historian’s Office, Martyrdom Account, Draft,” and Grimshaw was the primary scribe for the remainder. Sometimes slips of paper were attached to pages of the draft with additional or alternative text to be included with a specific page. Page 12 of the draft has a notation by Grimshaw indicating that previously drafted text was to be added to the draft; instead of copying the text, he simply inserted a whole leaf into the draft. This leaf, in ’s handwriting, contains various numbered vignettes. It appears to be part of a larger collection of vignettes, as it is paginated “5” and “6,” and is likely the surviving portion of an earlier iteration of the martyrdom account by Thomas Bullock. The remainder of Bullock’s effort is not extant.
“Historian’s Office, Martyrdom Account,” which is a more final copy written primarily by Grimshaw in the mid-1850s, similarly has slips of papers attached. It also includes several leaves that were physically removed from “Martyrdom Account, Draft”; these leaves were renumbered to match the pagination of the copy: pages 7–10 in the draft became pages 11–14 in the more final copy; pages 13–14 became 19–20; most extensively, pages 19–52 became 27–60; and finally, page 57, the last page of the draft, became page 73 in the new version. Although these leaves are cataloged with the more final copy, this website presents the pages both in the draft, as originally paginated, and in the more final copy, with the new pagination. Two additional items were added at the end of the more final copy. A bifolium paginated as “75” and “2” and written on the back of a printed Utah Territory legal form gives an account of the arrival of the bodies of JS and Hyrum Smith in Nauvoo as well as the funeral and burial. It was written by Grimshaw and edited by from information given by . On the final leaf, which is torn and is paginated “76,” Bullock drafted an introduction to a passage from ’s History of Illinois, with instructions to include the passage from Ford’s history in the martyrdom account.
Both the draft and the more final copy were edited by , Grimshaw, and . It is not clear when the edits were made. The more final copy of the account appears to be what was used in 1856 when the final version was copied into the last volume of the Joseph Smith’s multivolume manuscript history (JS History, vol. F-1, 147, 151–204).
Page 42
been promised <“full satisfaction”, and> that they should be marched to , were disbanded and discharged in ; The was about to disband the troops [blank] all but a guard; that the will go to [blank] and make a speech to the people. <yet suffered several <two or three> hundred armed men to remain encamped some <about> eight or ten miles <miles> off on the road, apparently under the control of no one except Coll. , a <notoriously> sworn enemies <enemy> to Joseph, and who had on many occasions threatened the destruction of , and the death of Joseph. Moreover it was the duty of the to dismiss the troops into the hands of their several officers in order to be marched home and there disbanded and not to have disbanded them at a distance from home and at a time and place when they were predisposed to acts of lawless violence and rapines, and murder.>
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7:50 A. M. Previous to leaving, said < states that previous to leaving he said > to the , “Sir, you must be aware by this time that the prisoners have no fears in relation to any lawful demands made against them, but you have heard sufficient to justify you in the belief that their enemies would destroy them if they had them in their power; and now sir, I am about to leave for , and I fear for those men; they are safe as regards the law, but they are not safe from the hands of the traitors, and the midnight assassins, who thirst for their blood, and have determined to spill it; and under these circumstances I leave with a heavy heart.” replied, “I was never in such a dilemma in my life; but your friends shall be protected, and have a fair trial by the law; in this pledge [p. 42]
Thomas Bullock handwriting ends; Jonathan Grimshaw begins.
Insertion written vertically over the succeeding paragraph in the center of the page, apparently indicating that this information came from Cyrus H. Wheelock; handwriting of Jonathan Grimshaw.