The Evacuation Of Nauvoo - The Last Mormon War

The winter of 1845-1846 in Hancock County passed without any
renewed outbreak, but the credit for this seems to have been due
to the firmness and good judgment of Major W. B. Warren, whom
General Hardin placed in command of the force which he left in
that county to preserve order, rather than to any improvement in
the relations between the two parties, even after the Mormons had
agreed to depart.

Major Warren's command, which at first consisted of one hundred
men, and was reduced during the winter to fifty and later to ten,
came from Quincy, and had as subordinate officers James D. Morgan
and B. M. Prentiss, whose names became famous as Union generals
in the war of the rebellion. Warren showed no favoritism in
enforcing his authority, and he was called on to exercise it
against both sides. The local newspapers of the day contain
accounts of occasional burnings during the winter, and of murders
committed here and there. On November 17, a meeting of citizens
of Warsaw, who styled. themselves "a portion of the anti-Mormon
party," was held to protest against such acts as burnings and the
murder of a Mormon, ten miles south of Warsaw, and to demand
adherence to the agreement entered into. On February 5, Major
Warren had to issue a warning to an organization of anti-Mormons
who had ordered a number of Mormon families to leave the county
by May 1, if they did not want to be burned out.

Governor Ford sent Mr. Brayman to Hancock County as legal counsel
for the military commander. In a report dated December 14, 1845,
Mr. Brayman said of the condition of affairs as he found them:--

"Judicial proceedings are but mockeries of the forms of law;
juries, magistrates and officers of every grade concerned in the
civil affairs of the county partake so deeply of the prevailing
excitement that no reliance, as a general thing, can be placed on
their action. Crime enjoys a disgraceful impunity, and each one
feels at liberty to commit any aggression, or to avenge his own
wrongs to any extent, without legal accountability . . . .
Whether the parties will become reconciled or quieted, so as to
live together in peace, is doubted . . . . Such a series of
outrages and bold violations of law as have marked the history of
Hancock County for several years past is a blot upon our
institutions; ought not to be endured by a civilized people." *

* Warsaw Signal, December 24, 1845.


Meanwhile, the Mormons went on with their preparations for their
westward march, selling their property as best they could, and
making every effort to trade real estate in and out of the city,
and such personal property as they could not take with them, for
cattle, oxen, mules, horses, sheep, and wagons. Early in February
the non-Mormons were surprised to learn that the Mormons at
Nauvoo had begun crossing the river as a beginning of their
departure for the far West. "We scarcely know what to make of
this movement," said the Warsaw Signal, the general belief being
that the Mormons would be slow in carrying out their agreement to
leave "so soon as grass would grow and water run." The date of
the first departure, it has since been learned, was hastened by
the fact that the grand jury in Springfield, Illinois, in
December, 1845, had found certain indictments for counterfeiting,
in regard to which the journal of that city, on December 25, gave
the following particulars:--

"During the last week twelve bills of indictment for
counterfeiting Mexican dollars and our half dollars and dimes
were found by the Grand Jury, and presented to the United States
Circuit Court in this city against different persons in and about
Nauvoo, embracing some of the 'Holy Twelve' and other prominent
Mormons, and persons in league with them. The manner in which the
money was put into circulation was stated. At one mill $1500 was
paid out for wheat in one week. Whenever a land sale was about to
take place, wagons were sent off with the coin into the land
district where such sale was to take place, and no difficulty
occurred in exchanging off the counterfeit coin for paper . . . .
So soon as the indictments were found, a request was made by the
marshal of the Governor of this state for a posse, or the
assistance of the military force stationed in Hancock County, to
enable him to arrest the alleged counterfeiters. Gov. Ford
refused to grant the request. An officer has since been sent to
Nauvoo to make the arrests, but we apprehend. there is no
probability of his success"

The report that a whole city was practically for sale had been
widely spread, and many persons--some from the Eastern
states--began visiting it to see what inducements were offered to
new settlers, and what bargains were to be had. Among these was
W. E. Matlack, who on April 10 issued, in Nauvoo, the first
number of a weekly newspaper called the Hancock Eagle. Matlack
seems to have been a fair-minded man, possessed of the courage of
his convictions, and his paper was a better one in, a literary
sense than the average weekly of the day. In his inaugural
editorial he said that he favored the removal of the Mormons as a
peace measure, but denounced mob rule and threats against the
Mormons who had not departed. The ultra-Antis took offence at
this at once, and, so far as the Eagle was supposed to represent
the views of the new-comers,--who were henceforth called New
Citizens,--counted them little better than the Mormons
themselves. Among these, however, was a class whom the county
should have welcomed, the boats, in one week in May, landing four
or five merchants, six physicians, three or four lawyers, two
dentists, and two or three hundred others, including laborers.

The people of Hancock and the surrounding counties still refused
to believe that the Mormons were sincere in their intention to
depart, and the county meetings of the year before were
reassembled to warn the Mormons that the citizens stood ready to
enforce their order. The vacillating course of Governor Ford did
not help the situation. He issued an order disbanding Major
Warren's force on May 1, and on the following day instructed him
to muster it into service again. Warren was very outspoken in his
determination to protect the departing Mormons, and in a
proclamation which he issued he told them to "leave the fighting
to be done by my detachment. If we are overpowered, then recross
the river and defend yourselves and your property."

The peace was preserved during May, and the Mormon exodus
continued, Young with the first company being already well
advanced in his march across Iowa. Major Warren sent a weekly
report on the movement to the Warsaw Signal. That dated May 14
said that the ferries at Nauvoo and at Fort Madison were each
taking across an average of 35 teams in twenty-four hours. For
the week ending May 22 he reported the departure of 539 teams and
1617 persons; and for the week ending May 29, the departure of
269 teams and 800 persons, and he said he had counted the day
before 617 wagons in Nauvoo ready to start.

But even this activity did not satisfy the ultra element among
the anti-Mormons, and at a meeting in Carthage, on Saturday, June
6, resolutions drawn by Editor Sharp of the Signal expressed the
belief that many of the Mormons intended to remain in the state,
charged that they continued to commit depredations, and declared
that the time had come for the citizens of the counties affected
to arm and equip themselves for action. The Signal headed its
editorial remarks on this meeting, "War declared in Hancock."

When the news of the gathering at Carthage reached Nauvoo it
created a panic. The Mormons, lessened in number by the many
departures, and with their goods mostly packed for moving, were
in no situation to repel an attack; and they began hurrying to
the ferry until the streets were blocked with teams. The New
Citizens, although the Carthage meeting had appointed a committee
to confer with them, were almost as much alarmed, and those who
could do so sent away their families, while several merchants
packed up their goods for safety. On Friday, June 12, the
committee of New Citizens met some 600 anti-Mormons who had
assembled near Carthage, and strenuously objected to their
marching into Nauvoo. As a sort of compromise, the force
consented to rendezvous at Golden Point, five miles south of
Nauvoo, and there they arrived the next day. This force,
according to the Signal's own account, was a mere mob,
three-fourths of whom went there against their own judgment, and
only to try to prevent extreme measures. A committee was at once
sent to Nauvoo to confer with the New Citizens, but it met with a
decided snubbing. The Nauvoo people then sent a committee to the
camp, with a proposition that thirty men of the Antis march into
the city, and leave three of their number there to report on the
progress of the Mormon exodus.

On Sunday morning, before any such agreement was reached, word
came from Nauvoo that Sheriff Backenstos had arrived there and
enrolled a posse of some 500 men, the New Citizens uniting with
the Mormons for the protection of the place. This led to an
examination of the war supplies of the Antis, and the discovery
that they had only five rounds of ammunition to a man, and one
day's provision. Thereupon they ingloriously broke camp and made
off to Carthage.

After this nothing more serious than a war of words occurred
until July 11, when an event happened which aroused the feeling
of both parties to the fighting pitch. Three Mormons from Nauvoo
had been harvesting a field of grain about eight miles from the
city.* In some way they angered a man living near by (according
to his wife's affidavit, by shooting around his fields, using his
stable for their horses, and feeding his oats), and he collected
some neighbors, who gave the offenders a whipping, more or less
severe, according to the account accepted. The men went at once
to Nauvoo, and exhibited their backs, and that night a Mormon
posse arrested seventeen Antis and conveyed them to Nauvoo. The
Antis in turn seized five Mormons whom they held as "hostages,"
and the northern part of Hancock County and a part of McDonough
were in a state of alarm.

* The Eagle stated that the farm where the Mormons were at work
had been bought by a New Citizen, who had sent out both Mormons
and New Citizens to cut the grain.


Civil chaos ensued. General Hardin and Major Warren had joined
the federal army that was to march against Mexico, and their cool
judgment was greatly missed. One Carlin, appointed as a special
constable, called on the citizens of Hancock County to assemble
as his posse to assist in executing warrants in Nauvoo, and the
Mormons of that city at once took steps to resist arrests by him.
Governor Ford sent Major Parker of Fulton County, who was a Whig,
to make an inquiry at Nauvoo and defend that city against
rioting, and Mr. Brayman remained there to report to him on the
course of affairs.

What was called at that time, in Illinois, "the last Mormon war"
opened with a fusillade of correspondence between Carlin and
Major Parker. Parker issued a proclamation, calling on all good
citizens to return to their homes, and Carlin declared that he
would obey no authority which tried to prevent him from doing his
duty, telling the major that it would "take something more than
words" to disperse his posse. While Parker was issuing a series
of proclamations, the so-called posse was, on August 25, placed
under the command of Colonel J. B. Chittenden of Adams County,
who was superseded three days later by Colonel Singleton. Colonel
Singleton was successful in arranging with Major Parker terms of
peace, which provided among other things that all the Mormons
should be out of the state in sixty days, except heads of
families who remained to close their business; but the colonel's
officers rejected this agreement, and the colonel thereupon left
the camp. Carlin at once appointed Colonel Brockman to the chief
command. He was a Campbellite preacher who, according to Ford,
had been a public defaulter and had been "silenced" by his
church. After rejecting another offer of compromise made by the
Mormons, Brockman, on September 11, with about seven hundred men
who called themselves a posse, advanced against Nauvoo, with some
small field pieces. Governor Ford had authorized Major Flood,
commanding the militia of Adams County, to raise a force to
preserve order in Hancock; but the major, knowing that such
action would only incense the force of the Antis, disregarded the
governor's request. At this juncture Major Parker was relieved of
the command at Nauvoo and succeeded by Major B. Clifford, Jr., of
the 33rd regiment of Illinois Volunteers.

On the morning of September 12, Brockman sent into Nauvoo a
demand for its surrender, with the pledge that there would be no
destruction of property or life "unless absolutely necessary in
self-defence." Major Clifford rejected this proposition, advised
Brockman to disperse his force, and named Mayor Wood of Quincy
and J. P. Eddy, a St. Louis merchant then in Nauvoo, as
recipients of any further propositions from the Antis.

The forces at this time were drawn up against one another, the
Mormons behind a breastwork which they had erected during the
night, and the Antis on a piece of high ground nearer the city
than their camp. Brayman says that an estimate which placed the
Mormon force at five hundred or six hundred was a great
exaggeration, and that the only artillery they had was six pieces
which they fashioned for themselves, by breaking some steamboat
shafts to the proper length and boring them out so that they
would receive a six-pound shot.

When Clifford's reply was received, the commander of the Antis
sent out the Warsaw riflemen as flankers on the right and left;
directed the Lima Guards, with one cannon, to take a position a
mile to the front of the camp and occupy the attention of the men
behind the Mormon breastwork, who had opened fire; and then
marched the main body through a cornfield and orchard to the city
itself. Both sides kept up an artillery fire while the advance
was taking place.

When the Antis reached the settled part of the city, the firing
became general, but was of an independent character. The Mormons
in most cases fired from their houses, while the Antis found such
shelter as they could in a cornfield and along a worm fence.
After about an hour of such fighting, Brockman, discovering that
all of the sixty-one cannon balls with which he had provided
himself had been shot away, decided that it was perilous "to risk
a further advance without these necessary instruments."
Accordingly, he ordered a retreat and his whole force returned to
its camp. In this engagement no Antis were killed, and the
surgeon's list named only eight wounded, one of whom died. Three
citizens of Nauvoo were killed. The Mormons had the better
protection in their houses, but the other side made rather
effective use of their artillery.

The Antis began at once intrenching their camp, and sent to
Quincy for ammunition. There were some exchanges of shots on
Sunday and Monday, and three Antis were wounded on the latter
day.

Quincy responded promptly to the request for ammunition, but the
people of that town were by no means unanimously in favor of the
"war." On Sunday evening a meeting of the peaceably inclined
appointed a committee of one hundred to visit the scene of
hostilities and secure peace "on the basis of a removal of the
Mormons." The negotiations of this committee began on the
following Tuesday, and were continued, at times with apparent
hopelessness of success, until Wednesday evening, when terms of
peace were finally signed. It required the utmost effort of the
Quincy committee to induce the anti-Mormon force to delay an
assault on the city, which would have meant conflagration and
massacre. The terms of peace were as follows:

"1. The city of Nauvoo will surrender. The force of Col. Brockman
to enter and take possession of the city tomorrow, the 17th of
September, at 3 o'clock P.m.

"2. The arms to be delivered to the Quincy Committee, to be
returned on the crossing of the river.

"3. The Quincy Committee pledge themselves to use their influence
for the protection of persons and property from all violence; and
the officers of the camp and the men pledge themselves to protect
all persons and property from violence.

"4. The sick and helpless to be protected and treated with
humanity.

"5. The Mormon population of the city to leave the State, or
disperse, as soon as they can cross the river.

"6. Five men, including the trustees of the church, and five
clerks, with their families (William Pickett not one of the
number), to be permitted to remain in the city for the
disposition of property, free from all molestation and personal
violence.

"7. Hostilities to cease immediately, and ten men of the Quincy
Committee to enter the city in the execution of their duty as
soon as they think proper."

The noticeable features of these terms are the omission of any
reference to the execution of Carlin's writs, and the engagement
that the Mormons should depart immediately. The latter was the
real object of the "posse's" campaign.

The Mormons had realized that they could not continue their
defence, as no reenforcements could reach them, while any
temporary check to their adversaries would only increase the
animosity of the latter. They acted, therefore, in good faith as
regards their agreement to depart. How they went is thus
described in Brayman's second report to Governor Ford: *

* For Brayman's reports, see Warsaw Signal, October 20, 1846.


"These terms were not definitely signed until the morning of
Thursday, the 17th, but, confident of their ratification, the
Mormon population had been busy through the night in removing. So
firmly had they been taught to believe that their lives, their
city, and Temple, would fall a sacrifice to the vengeance of
their enemies, if surrendered to them, that they fled in
consternation, determined to be beyond their reach at all
hazards. This scene of confusion, fright and distress was
continued throughout the forenoon. In every part of the city
scenes of destitution, misery and woe met the eye. Families were
hurrying away from their homes, without a shelter,--without means
of conveyance,--without tents, money, or a day's provision, with
as much of their household stuff as they could carry in their
hands. Sick men and women were carried upon their beds--weary
mothers, with helpless babes dying in the arms, hurried away--all
fleeing, they scarcely knew or cared whither, so it was from
their enemies, whom they feared more than the waves of the
Mississippi, or the heat, and hunger and lingering life and
dreaded death of the prairies on which they were about to be
cast. The ferry boats were crowded, and the river bank was lined
with anxious fugitives, sadly awaiting their turn to pass over
and take up their solitary march to the wilderness."

On the afternoon of the 17th, Brockman's force, with which the
members of the Quincy committee had been assigned a place,
marched into Nauvoo and through it, encamping near the river on
the southern boundary. Curiosity to see the Mormon city had
swelled the number who entered at the same time with the posse to
nearly two thousand men, but there was no disorder. The streets
were practically deserted, and the few Mormons who remained were
busy with their preparations to cross the river. Brockman, to
make his victory certain, ordered that all citizens of Nauvoo who
had sided with the Mormons should leave the state, thus including
many of the New Citizens. The order was enforced on September 18,
"with many circumstances of the utmost cruelty and injustice,"
according to Brayman's report. "Bands of armed men," he said,
"traversed the city, entering the houses of citizens, robbing
them of arms, throwing their household goods out of doors,
insulting them, and threatening their lives."


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