The Rise of the Latter-day Saints by William G. Hartley

Author:William G. Hartley
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Deseret Book Company
Published: 2019-08-20T00:00:00+00:00

Hawn’s Mill, 1907. Anderson Collection, L. Tom Perry Special Collections, Brigham Young University.

I began to walk on Crutches about the time the troops came to Farwest & to ride a little on horse back, as a Spy or picket guard34 Rmors came to our ears that troops of great numbers wer advanceing in to our County, ^and committing great depredation.^ We thought it advisable to send a Company of a bout an hundred & fifty horsemen to ascertain the true situation of affairs. Towards evening we discovered a large armed force advancing to wards our town & not far distant. What men we had on hand immediately flew to arms & Calculated to defend themselves & there families & homes to the best advantage they could when the enemy saw our formidable line they halted.35 A while [white] flag was sent by each army, but judge of our surprise when enquiring their design, our flag bearer was abruptly informed that they wanted three men out of our City & then they designed to massacree the remainder.36 This was unexpected news to us this night was spent in trowing up a breast work & fortifying our City to the best advantage we Could, there being at this time a large quantity of timber for building on hand which served for that purpose. The little compay of an hundred & fifty returned just at sunset. Thy had been hemed in during the day by the mob & only exaped thm by their sperior knowledge of of the course & Country through which they made their way to our City.37

Notwithstanding the fatiegue thy had endured through the d^a^y they they hitched their horsees around my garden fence & quickly formed in line to strengthen our little force while our women spared no pains or lost any time in bakeing, Cooking, sending food to the weary yet brave & undaunted Soldiers who lost no time or thought their lives too dear to defend the helpless & innocent. This was a night long to be remembered by all the Saints.

T[he] next morning38 we again sent messengers to the enemy & requested an explanation of facts or of their intentions. We were informed that they were commissioned by the Cheif executive of the State & th[e]ir Commission authorized them to exterminate or massacree the Mormons in mass.39 Troops were on hand to the number of 13 thousand.40 We now saw that there was no alternative with out acting in direct opposition to the laws of the authorities of the State, although we well knew them to be illegal & unconstitutional.

We therefore submited ourselves to the first demand of these Commissioned made, which was to surrender our arms. Our men were Called to gather and surrounded by a large number of armed force & compeled to lay down their arms. We were kept und[er] a Strong guard until towards evening when we were permited to go to our houses, which we found had been plunderd of everry thing the mob thought worth takeing.

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