History of Utah, 1540-1886 - Brigham Young University

FIGHT AT NAUVOO. 229
Captain Anderson 25 at the head of thirty-five men,
termed by the saints the Spartan band. The enemy
now fired some rounds of grape-shot, forcing the besieged
to retire out of range; and after some further
cannonading, darkness put an end to the skirmish,
the Mormons throwing up breastworks during the
night. 26
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 batter-
ies, 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
25 He was more than brave, he was presumptuous. Wells, in Utah Notes,
MS., p. 7.
26 'Many of our log houses were torn down by the mob, which numbered
1,000 meu; we made barricades of corn-stalks stacked up.' Wells, in Utah
Notes, MS., 7.
27 Elder John S. Fullmer, then a colonel in the Nauvoo legion, claims that
be directed this movement. Expulsion, 38.