On 10 April 1843, attorney and educator wrote from , New York, to JS in , Illinois, offering legal counsel on the arrest of in . Rockwell had been detained in early March 1843 on a charge of having assaulted former governor in May 1842 with intent to kill. The charge stemmed from an allegation made by former Latter-day Saint that JS had sent Rockwell to to shoot Boggs. In summer 1842, following Bennett’s May 1842 excommunication and his subsequent efforts to attack the church, JS began corresponding with James Arlington Bennet, who became a staunch ally of and political adviser to JS. On 17 and 18 March 1843, JS wrote to Bennet to recount his recent discharge from arrest after Missouri officials attempted to extradite him in connection with the Boggs shooting and to relate ongoing difficulties caused by John C. Bennett. The next day, 19 March, , JS’s scribe, wrote to James Arlington Bennet with several questions regarding Rockwell’s legal situation.

’s 10 April letter was a response to the aforementioned letters from JS and . Addressing JS as general of the , Bennet stated that because of illness he could neither attend the parade of the Nauvoo Legion nor perform his responsibilities as the militia’s inspector general on 7 May 1843. Bennet also responded to Richards’s questions and discussed ’s activities in . Bennet mailed his letter on 12 April 1843. Letters usually traveled between and in two or three weeks. Bennet’s letter was received in Nauvoo by 4 May 1843, when JS “called at the & read a letter from [James] Arlington Bennet Shewing that he was sick & cou[l]d not be at inspe[c]tion of the Legion as had been exp[e]cted.” Richards noted on the verso of the second leaf of the featured letter that JS responded to Bennet on 11 May; the response is apparently not extant. In addition, during the evening of 18 May 1843 JS examined in his office “[James] Arlington Bennets letter,” presumably a reference to the 10 April 1843 missive.