Chapter VIII.
Expulsion From Nauvoo.
1845-1846.

A Busy City — Meeting in the Temple — Sacrifice of Property — Detachments Move Forward — a Singular Exodus — the First Encampment — Cool Proposal From Brother Brannan — the Journey — Courage and Good Cheer — Swelling of Their Numbers — the Remnant of the Saints in Nauvoo — Attitude of the Gentiles — the Mormons Attacked — Continued Hostilities — the Final Departures — the Poor Camp — a Deserted City.

    THE holy city now presented an exciting scene. Men were making ready their merchandise, and families preparing to vacate their homes. Hundreds were making tents and wagon covers out of cloth bought with anything they happened to have; companies were organized and numbered, each of which had its own wagon-shop, wheelwrights, carpenters, and cabinetmakers, who were all busily employed.¹ Green timber was prepared for spokes and felloes, some kiln-dried, and some boiled in salt and water. it the Nauvoo house shops were established as well as at the mason's hall and arsenal. Iron was brought from different parts of the country, and blacksmiths were at work night and day.²

    Some three years previous, the prophet Joseph had ordered that there should not be another general conference

²In December the drying-house of emigrating company no. 18 was burned to the ground, consuming $300 worth of wagon timber. Id., MS., Dec, 1845.

    In the same number of the Times and Seasons in which appeared a notice of this meeting was published a circular signed by Brigham Young, and addressed to the brethren scattered abroad throughout America, informing them of the impending change. "The exodus of the nations of the only true Israel from these United States to a far distant region of the west, where bigotry, intolerance, and insatiable oppression will have lost its power over them, forms a new epoch, not only in the history of the church, but of this nation."⁴

⁴Times and Seasons, vi. 1018. In this number is a notice, signed by Willard Richards, cutting off William Smith, the prophet's brother, for apostasy.

    In January 1846 the council ordered that a detachment should set forth at once, and that the remainder of the saints should follow as soon as possible. "Beloved brethren," said their leader, "it now remains to be proven whether those of our family and friends who are necessarily left behind for a season, to obtain an outfit through the sale of property, shall be mobbed, burned, and driven away by force. Does any American want the honor of doing it? or will any Americans suffer such acts to be done, and the disgrace of them to remain on their character, under existing circumstances. If they will, let the world know it."

    The world was soon to know it. Driven almost at the point of the sword, a large number of the saints, soon afterward followed by the president, the twelve, the high council, and other companies, gathered on the eastern bank of the Mississippi early in February.

    There was but little money in circulation throughout

    And now, putting upon their animals and vehicles such of their household effects as they could carry, in small detachments the migratory saints began to leave Nauvoo.⁶ Before them was the ice-bound river, and beyond that the wilderness.

    There is no parallel in the world's history to this migration from Nauvoo. The exodus from Egypt was from a heathen land, a land of idolaters, to a fertile region designated by the Lord for his chosen people, the land of Canaan. The pilgrim fathers in flying to America came from a bigoted and despotic people—a

⁶When we were to leave Mo., the saints entered into a covenant not to cease their exertions until every saint who wished to go was removed, which was done…We are better off now than we were then;…he [B. Y.] wants to see this influence extend from the west to the east sea.' Brigham moved: 'That we take all the saints with us, to the extent of our ability, that is, our influence and property; seconded by Elder Kimball, and carried unanimously.' This covenant was entered into Oct. 6, 1845. Times and Seasons, vi. 1011.

    The first teams crossed about the 10th, in flat boats, which were rowed over, and which plied forth and back from early dawn until late into the night, skiffs and other river craft being also used for passengers and baggage. The cold increased. On the 16th snow fell heavily; and the river was frozen over, so that the remainder of the emigration crossed on the ice. Their first camp, the camp of the congregation, was on Sugar Creek, a few miles from Nauvoo and almost within sight of the city.⁷ All their movements were directed by Brigham, who with his family and a quorum of the twelve, John Taylor, George A. Smith, Heber C. Kimball, Willard Richards, Orson Hyde, Orson Pratt, Parley P. Pratt, and Amasa Lyman, joined the brethren on Sugar Creek on the 15th. Wilford Woodruff, who had been sent to preside over the mission to England, joined the emigration later at Mount Pisgah.

    On the morning of the 17th, all the saints in camp being assembled near the bridge to receive their leader's instructions, the president stood upright in his wagon, and cried with a loud voice, "Attention! the

    After this, with comparatively light hearts, they broke camp, and slowly wending their way westward, disappeared at length beyond the horizon, in pursuit once more of the ever-mocking phantom of home. Whither they journeyed they were as yet uncertain. They knew only that they were to search out, probably beyond the Rocky Mountains, if not indeed among them, some isolated spot, where, far away from the land of boasted freedom, the soil, the skies, and mind and manners were free. If they were offensive to the laws, if the laws of the land were offensive to them, they would go where they might have land and laws of their own.

    Considering their situation, and what they had been lately called to undergo—ignominy, insult, the loss of property, the abandonment of home—there was little complaint. It was among their opponents, and in the midst of a general recital of their wrongs, that the saints were accustomed to put on a long face and strike into a doleful strain. Among themselves there were

⁹It has been stated that after dismissing his congregation on the 17th the president led several of the twelve aside to a valley east of the camp, and held a council. A letter was then read from Samuel Brennan, a Mormon elder then in New York, together with a copy of an agreement between him and one A. G. Benson. Brennan was at that time in charge of a company of saints bound for the Pacific coast by way of Cape Horn, and the agreement which he forwarded for Brigham's signature required the pioneers to transfer to A. G. Benson and company the odd numbers of all the town lots that they might acquire in the country where they settled. 'I shall select,' writes Brennan, 'the most suitable spot on the bay of San Francisco for the location of a commercial city.' the council refused to take any action in the matter. In case they refused to sign the agreement, Tullidge soberly relates, Life of Brigham Young, 19-23, the president, it was said, would issue a proclamation, setting forth that it was the intention of the Mormons to take sides with either Mexico or Great Britain against the United States, and order them to be disarmed or dispersed! Further mention of this matter is made in History of California, vol. v. cap. xx., this series.

    In the present instance, though all were poor and some destitute, and though man and beast were exposed to driving rain and hail, and the chill blasts of a western winter often sweeping down upon them unchecked from the limitless prairie, they made the best of it, and instead of wasting time in useless repining, set themselves at work to make the most of their joys and the least of their sorrows. On the night of March 1st, when the first camp was pitched beyond Sugar Creek, after prayer they held a dance, and as the men of Iowa looked on they wondered how these homeless outcasts from Christian civilization could thus praise and make merry in view of their near abandoning of themselves to the mercies of savages and wild beasts.¹⁰ Food and raiment were provided for all; for shelter they had their tents and wagons, and after the weather had spent somewhat of its ruggedness, no extreme hardships were suffered. Without attempting long distances in a single day, they made camp rather early, and after the usual manner of emigrants, the wagons in a circle or semicircle round the camp-fire, placed so as best to shield them from the wind and wild beasts and Indians, with the animals at a convenient distance, some staked, and some running loose, but all carefully guarded. The country through which they passed was much of it well wooded; the land was fertile and afforded abundant pastures, the grass in summer being from one to ten feet high. Provisions were cheap: corn twelve cents and wheat twenty-five to thirty cents a bushel,

    Into the wilderness they went, journeying day after day on toward the setting sun, their hearts buoyant, their sinews strengthened by a power not of this world. Forever fades the real before the imaginary. There is nothing tougher than fanaticism. What cared they for wind and rain, for comfortless couches or aching limbs?—the kingdom of the Lord was with them. What cared they for insults and injustice when the worst this world could do was to hasten heaven to them? So on toward the west their long train of wagons rolled, leaving each day farther and farther behind the old, cold, fanatical east, with its hard, senseless dogmas, and its merciless civilization, without murmurings, without discord, the man above any other on earth they most loved and feared riding at their head, or standing with uplifted and extended hands as his people passed by, blessing and comforting them. "We were happy and contented," says John Taylor, "and the songs of Zion resounded from wagon to wagon, reverberating through the woods, while the echo was returned from the distant hills."¹¹

    There were brass or stringed instruments in every company, and night and morning all were called to prayers¹² at the sound of the bugle. Camp-fires drew around them the saints when their day s work was finished, and singing, dancing, and story-telling enlivened the hour.

    As they went on their way their ranks were swelled by fresh bands, until there were brought together 3,000 wagons, 30,000 head of cattle, a great number of mules and horses, and immense flocks of sheep.

¹²Each family had prayers separately. Taylor's Rem., MS., 9.

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¹⁴About 150 miles from Nauvoo, on the east fork of the Grand River. 'Many located there, ploughing and sowing, and preparing homes for their poor brethren for a longer period.' Horne's Migrations, MS., 19. 'On the morning of the 27th of April the bugle sounded at Garden Grove, and all the men assembled to organize for labor. Immediately hundreds of men were at work, cutting trees, splitting rails, making fences, cutting logs for houses, building bridges, making ploughs, and herding cattle. Quite a number were sent into the Missouri settlements to exchange horses for oxen, valuable feather-beds and the like for provisions and articles most needed in the camp, and the remainder engaged in ploughing and planting. Messengers were also despatched to call in the bands of pioneers scattered over the country seeking work, with instructions to hasten them up to help form the new settlements before the season had passed; so that, in a scarcely conceivable space of time, at Garden Grove and Mount Pisgah, industrious settlements sprung up almost as if by magic.' Tullidge's Life of Brigham Young, 41.

¹⁵This site was discovered by Parley, who was sent forward to reconnoitre by Brigham. It was situated on a branch of Grand River, and for years was the resting-place for the saints on their way to Utah. Autobiog. P. Pratt, 381.

¹⁶Here 700 log cabins and 150 dugouts (cabins half under ground) were built. A large quantity of hay was cut, and a flouring mill erected. Id., 383.

    Leaving here the advance portion of the emigration, let us return to Nauvoo and see how it fared with those who were still engaged in preparations for their pilgrimage. It had been stipulated, the reader will remember, that the Mormons should remove from the state in the spring, or as soon afterward as they could sell their property, and that meanwhile they should not be molested. Long before spring, thousands had crossed the Mississippi, among whom were all the more obnoxious members of the sect. Meanwhile, how had the gentiles kept their faith?

    But passing the cause, what a picture was now presented by the deserted city and its exiled inhabitants!—the former, as Colonel Kane viewed it—but which view must be regarded as ideal rather than strictly historical—with "its bright new dwellings set in cool green gardens, ranging up around a stately dome-shaped hill, which was crowned by a noble marble edifice, whose high tapering spire was radiant with white and gold. The city appeared to cover several miles; and beyond it, in the background, there rolled off a fair country, checkered by the careful lines of fruitful husbandry."

    To the Nauvoo Eagle Major Warren sent notice from Carthage, on the 16th of April, that he had been directed by the governor to disband on the 1st of May the force which had been kept there ostensibly for the protection of the saints, as the time appointed for their departure would expire on that day.¹⁷ The day arrived, and there were yet many Mormons remaining, many who had found it impossible to remove on

    Major Warren appears to have performed his duty firmly and well, and to have done all that lay in his power to protect the Mormons. In a letter to the Quincy Whig, dated May 20th, he writes: "The Mormons are leaving the city with all possible despatch. During the week four hundred teams have crossed at three points, or about 1,350 souls. The demonstrations made by the Mormon people are unequivocal. They are leaving the state, and preparing to leave, with every means God and nature have placed in their hands." It was but the lower class of people that clamored for the immediate expulsion of the remnant of the saints—the ignorant, the bigoted, the brutal, the vicious, the lawless, and profligate, those who hated their religion and coveted their lands.

    There were yet remaining, as late as August, certain sturdy saints who, having committed no crime, would not consent to be driven from their homes or barred from their occupations. Among these was a party engaged in harvesting wheatat a settlement eight miles from Nauvoo, in company with one or two of the gentiles, although it was forbidden by the men of Illinois that any Mormon should show himself outside the city, except en route for the west. The harvesters were seized and beaten with clubs, whereupon the people of Nauvoo, both Mormons and gentiles, took up the matter. Some arrests were made, and the culprits taken to Nauvoo, but by writ of habeas corpus were removed to Quincy, where they met with little trouble. While in Nauvoo, a gun in the hands

    In short, from the let of May until the final evacuation of the city, the men of Illinois never ceased from strife and outrage. Of the latter I will mention only two instances: "A man of near sixty years of age," writes Major Warren in the letter just referred to, "living about seven miles from this place, was taken from his house a few nights since, stripped of his clothing, and his back out to pieces with a whip, for no other reason than because he was a Mormon, and too old to make a successful resistance. Conduct of this kind would disgrace a horde of savages." In August a party consisting of Phineas H. Young, his son Brigham, and three others who were found outside the city, were kidnapped by a mob, hurried into the thickets, passed from one gang to another—men from Nauvoo being in hot pursuit—and for a fortnight were kept almost without food or rest, and under constant threat of death.

    Fears are now entertained that, by reason of the popular feeling throughout the country, Nauvoo city will be again attacked; the gentile citizens therefore ask Governor Ford for protection, whereupon Major Parker is sent to their relief.¹⁹ All through August

    Intending, as it seems, to keep his word, Carlin places his men under command of Colonel Singleton, who at once throws off the mask, and on the 7th of September announces to Major Parker that the Mormons must go. On the same day a stipulation is made, granting to the saints sixty days' extension of time, and signed by representatives on both sides.²¹

²⁰Among the members was the Rev. Thomas S. Brockman, who afterward took command of the posse.

²¹Hostilities to cease; the city to be evacuated in 60 days, 25 men remaining to see the stipulation carried out. Id., 34-5.

    At this time there were in the city not more than a hundred and fifty Mormons, and about the same number of gentiles, or, as they were termed, 'new citizens,' capable of bearing arms, the remainder of the population consisting of destitute women and children and of the sick. Many of the gentiles had departed, fearing a general massacre, and those who remained could not be relied upon as combatants, for they were of course unwilling to risk their lives in a conflict which, if successful, would bring them no credit. Nothing daunted, the little band, under command of colonels Daniel H. Wells²² and William Cutler, took up its position on the edge of a wood in the suburbs of Nauvoo, and less than a mile from the enemy's camp.²³

    Before hostilities commenced, a deputation from Quincy²⁴ visited the camp of the assailants, and in vain attempted to dissuade them from their purpose. No sooner had they departed than fire was opened on the Mormons from a battery of six-pounders, but without effect. Here for the day matters rested. At sunrise the posse changed their position, intending to take the city by storm, but were held in cheek by

²³There were about 300 Mormons and new citizens who could then bear arms against the mob, but on the day of the fight no more than 100 could be found to go, as the Mormons were continually leaving.' Wells' Narrative, MS., 39.

²⁴John Wood, the mayor, Major Flood, Dr Conyera, and Joel Rice. See Wells' Narrative, MS., passim.

    On the morning of the 12th the demand of unconditional surrender was promptly rejected; whereupon, at a given signal, several hundred men who had been stationed in ambush, on the west bank of the river, to cut off the retreat of the Mormons, appeared with red flags in their hands, thus portending massacre. The assailants now opened fire from all their batteries, and soon afterward advanced to the assault, slowly, and with the measured tramp of veterans, at their head being Constable Carlin and the Reverend Brockman, and unfurled above them—the stars and stripes. When within rifle-range of the breastworks the posse wheeled toward the south, attempting to outflank the saints and gain possession of the temple square. But this movement had been anticipated, and posted in the woods to the north of the Mormon position lay the Spartan band. Leading on his men at double-quick, Anderson suddenly confronted the enemy and opened a brisk fire from revolving rifles.²⁷ The posse advanced no farther, but for an hour and a half held their ground bravely against the Spartan band, the expense of ammunition in proportion to casualties being greater than has yet been recorded in modern warfare. Then they retreated in excellent order to the camp. The losses of the Mormons were three killed and a few slightly wounded; the losses of the gentiles are variously

²⁶'Many of our log houses were torn down by the mob, which numbered 1,000 men; we made barricades of corn-stalks stacked up.' Wells, in Utah Notes, MS., 7.

²⁷Elder John S. Fullmer, then a colonel in the Nauvoo legion, claims that he directed this movement. Expulsion, 38.

    The following day was the sabbath, and hostilities were not renewed; but on that morning a train of wagons, despatched by the posse for ammunition and supplies, entered the town of Quincy. It was now evident that, whether the men of Illinois intended massacre or forcible expulsion, it would cost them many lives to effect either purpose. With a view, therefore, to prevent further bloodshed, a committee of one hundred proceeded to Nauvoo and attempted mediation. At the same time the Reverend Brockman sent in his ultimatum, the terms being that the Mormons surrender their arms, and immediately cross the river or disperse, and that all should be protected from violence.²⁹ There was no alternative. The armed mob in their front was daily swelling in number, while beyond the river still appeared the red flag; their own ranks, meanwhile, were being rapidly thinned by defection among the new citizens.³⁰

²⁹'1st. The city of Nauvoo will surrender. The force of Reverend Brockman to enter and take possession of the city to-morrow, the 17th of September, at three o'clock P.M. 2d. The arms to be delivered to the Quincy committee, to be returned on crossing the river. 3d. The Quincy committee pledge themselves to use their influence for the protection of persons and property, and the officers of the camp and the men likewise pledge themselves. 4th. The sick and helpless to be protected and treated with humanity. 5th. The Mormon population of the city to leave the state or disperse as soon as they can cross the river. 6th. 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. 7th. 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.' It will be observed that nothing is said about the surrender of Pickett. He was not even arrested.

³⁰'The mob entered the temple, instituted an inquisition, and regardless of the Mormons or new citizens, went from house to house plundering cow-yards, pig-pens, hen-roosts, and bee-stands indiscriminately; thus turning some of their best friends into enemies, bursting open trunks and cheats, searching for arms, keys, etc.' p. 343. 'In the temple ringing the bells, shouting, and (cont.)

    It was indeed a singular spectacle, as I have said, this upon the western border of the world's great republic in the autumn of 1846. A whole cityful, with other settlements, and thousands of thrifty

³¹The best narrative, and indeed the only one that enters circumstantially into all the details of the expulsion from Nauvoo, is contained in the Assassination of Joseph and Hyrum Smith, the Prophet and the Patriarch of the Church of Latter-day Saints. Also a Condensed History of the Expulsion of the Saints from Nauvoo by Elder John S. Fullmer (of Utah, U. S. A.), Pastor of the Manchester, Liverpool, and Preston Conferences. Liverpool and London, 1855. The work is written from a Mormon standpoint, but including as it does copies of the despatches of Illinois officers and officials, of the stipulations between the belligerents, and of some comments made by the Quincy Whig, appears in the main reliable. The author's comments on the gentiles are sufficiently bitter, and his description of the fight at Nauvoo and the valor of the saints militant must of course be taken with due allowance. For instance: 'Seeing our men take possession of some vacant buildings on the line of their approach, they took a position on an elevated spot of ground, and opened a heavy cannonade at a distance of something less than half a mile. This was returned with great spirit on our part from guns made of steam shafts that carried six-pound balls. Many were the balls that we picked up as they came rolling and bounding among us, and we sent them back with as much spirit and precision as they were first sent.' p. 37. Col Kane says: 'A vindictive war was waged upon them, from which the weakest tied in scattered parties, leaving the rest to make a reluctant and almost ludicrously unavailing defence.' The Mormons, 54. In the General Epistle of the Twelve, Dec. 23, 1847, in Snow's Voice of Joseph, 14-15, we read: 'In September 1846 an infuriated mob, clad in all the horrors of war, fell on the saints who had still remained in Nauvoo for want of means to remove, murdered some, and drove the remainder across the Mississippi into Iowa, where, destitute of houses, tents, food, clothing, or money, they received temporary assistance from some benevolent souls in Quincy, St Louis, and other places, whose names will ever be remembered with gratitude. Their property in Hancock co., Illinois, was little or no better than confiscated; many of their houses were burned by the mob, and they were obliged to leave most of those that remained without sale; and those who bargained sold almost for a song; for the influence of their enemies was to cause such a diminution in the value of property that for a handsome estate was seldom realized enough to remove the family comfortably away; and thousands have since been wandering to and fro, destitute, afflicted, and distressed for the common necessaries of Life, or unable to endure, have sickened and died by hundreds; while the temple of the Lord is left solitary in the midst of our enemies, an enduring monument of the diligence and integrity of the saints.' Mention of the expulsion from Nauvoo is of course made in most of the books published on Mormonism, but in none of them, except perhaps in one or two of the meet rabid anti-Mormon works, which I have not thought it worth while to notice, is the conduct of the Illinois mob defended.

    And in regard to the late occupants of the place, the last of the Mormon host that now lay huddled to the number of 640 on the western bank of the river in sight of the city:³² if the first departures from Nauvoo escaped extreme hardships, not so these. It was the

    This encampment was about two miles above Montrose on the Mississippi, and was called the Poor Camp. Aid was solicited, and within three weeks a little over one hundred dollars was collected, mostly in Quincy, with provisions and clothing, though the prejudice against them was deep and strong.³⁵ Some of the people were crowded into tents, made frequently of quilts and blankets; others in bowers made of brush; others had only wagons for shelter. They suffered from heavy thunder-storms, when the rain was bailed out with basins from their beds. Mothers huddled their children in the one dress which often was all they possessed, and shaking with ague or burning with fever, took refuge from the pitiless storms under wagons and bushes.³⁶

³⁴'Such deaths occurred from exposure and fright in Nauvoo. The camp journalist recorded: Effect of persecution by the Illinois mob.'

³⁵The trustees from Nauvoo also distributed clothing, and molasses, salt, and salt pork. Hist. B. Young, MS., 1846, 383.

³⁶Mrs Clara Young's Experience, MS., 3.

    Wagons were sent from Winter Quarters for the removal of the people from Poor Camp; and gradually all reached the various stations in which the Mormons had gathered.³⁸

    Of their long journey many painful incidents are recorded. Weakened by fever or crippled with rheumatism, and with sluggish circulation, many were severely frost-bitten. Women were compelled to drive the nearly worn-out teams, while tending on their knees, perhaps, their sick children. The strength of the beasts was failing, as there were intervals when they could be kept froth starving only by the browse or tender buds and branches of the cotton-wood, felled for the purpose.³⁹

    At one time no less than two thousand wagons could be counted, it was said, along the three hundred miles of road that separated Nauvoo from the Mormon encampments. Many families possessed no wagons,

³⁸See The Mormons: A Discourse delivered before the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, March 26, 1850, by Thomas L. Kane. Philadelphia, 1850. A copy of it will be found at the end of Orson Pratt's Works, and in Mackay's The Mormons, 200-45. The story of the Mormon exodus, as handed down to us by a man of Colonel Kane's powers of observation, would have been a valuable record were it not plainly apparent that truth is too often sacrificed to diction. Among Mormon writers we find no detailed narrative of this exodus, and among others little that is not borrowed from the colonel's discourse.

³⁹Snow's Biography, 89.

    On arriving at the banks of the Missouri, the wagons were drawn up in double lines and in the form of squares. Between the lines, tents were pitched at intervals, space being left between each row for a passage-way, which was shaded with awnings or a lattice-work of branches, and served as a promenade for convalescents and a playground for children.

    And what became of Nauvoo? The temple was destroyed by fire and tempest,⁴⁰ and all the wood-work consumed, while the rock was utilized for miles around as foundations of houses, for door-steps, and other purposes. A French company coming in later bought the stone from those in possession, and built wine-vaults. Foundations of buildings were broken up, and houses once surrounded by carefully tended flower-gardens, pillaged of all that was valuable, were now abandoned by their ruthless destroyers.⁴¹ "At present," writes Linforth, "the Icarians form the most important part of the population of Nauvoo…They live in a long ugly row of buildings, the architect of which and of the school-house was a cobbler." In the house built for the prophet and his family dwelt in 1854 the prophet's widow, his mother, and his family.⁴²

⁴¹As James Linforth describes in writing of Nauvoo in 1858.

⁴²Route from Liverpool to G. S. L. Valley, 63.