History of Utah, 1540-1886 - Brigham Young University

122 THE STORY OF MORMONISM.
ported a battle as having been fought at Gallatin, in
which several of the fraternity were killed. Considerable
excitement followed the announcement, and several
parties went to Diahman to learn the truth of
the matter. Ascertaining the facts, and being desirous
of preventing further trouble, one of the brethren
went to the magistrate, Adam Black, and proposed
bonds on both sides to keep the peace. The proposition
was accepted, Joseph Smith and Lyman Wight signing
for the Mormons, and Black for the gentiles.
The Mormons then returned to Far West; but the
people of Daviess county, not approving the action
of the magistrate, disputed Black's right to bind
them; whereupon, to appease them, Black went to
the circuit judge and obtained a writ for the arrest
of Smith and Wight on a charge of having forced him,
by threats of violence, to sign the agreement. Brought
before Judge King at Gallatin, Smith and Wight
were released on their own recognizances.
Nevertheless the excitement increased. In Daviess
and adjacent counties, three hundred gentiles met and
armed. The Mormons say that the gentiles made
prisoners, and shot and stole cattle, and the gentiles
say that the Mormons did the same. 16
Finally affairs
became so alarming that Major-General Atchison concluded
to call out the militia of Bay and Clay counties,
under command of generals Doniphan and Parks,
the latter being stationed in Daviess county. 17
Their
purposes in that quarter being thus defeated, the men
of Missouri threw themselves on a small settlement of
saints at Dewitt, where they were joined by a party
with a six-pounder from Jackson county. Setting ore
16 In Daviess county the saints killed between 100 and 200 hogs and a
number of cattle, took at least forty or fifty stands of honey, and at the same
time destroyed several fields of corn. The word was out that the Lord had
consecrated through the bishop the spoils unto his host. Harris'' Mormonism
Portrayed, 30-1.
17 'One thousand men were then ordered into service under the command
of Major-General Atchison and brigadier-generals Parks and Doniphan.
These marched to Daviess co., and remained in service thirty days. But
judging from the result, they hail no intention of coming in contact with the
mob, but only to make a show of defending one neighborhood while the mob
was allowed to attack another.' Pratt's Autobiography, 191.