History of Utah, 1540-1886 - Brigham Young University

552 THE MOUNTAIN MEADOWS MASSACRE.
aid to the settlements of southern Utah. 15 Thus far
the evidence is somewhat contradictory. There is
sufficient proof, however, that, in accordance with a
programme previously arranged at Cedar, a company
of militia, among whom were Isaac C. Haight and
Major John M. Higbee, and which was afterward
joined by Colonel William H. Dame, bishop of Parowan,
16 arrived at Lee's camp on the evening before
the massacre.
It was then arranged that Lee should conclude
terms with the emigrants, and, as soon as they had
delivered themselves into the power of the Mormons,
should start for Hamblin's rancho, on the eastern side
of the meadows, with the wagons and arms, the young
children, and the sick and wounded. The men and
women, the latter in front, were to follow the wagons,
all in single file, and on each side of them the militia
were to be drawn up, two deep, and with twenty
paces between their lines. Within two hundred yards
of the camp the men were to be brought to a halt,
until the women approached a copse of scrub-oak,
about a mile distant, and near to which Indians lay in
ambush. The men were now to resume their march,
the militia forming in single file, each one walking by
the side of an emigrant, and carrying his musket
on the left arm. As soon as the women were close to
the ambuscade, Higbee, 17 who was in charge of the
detachment, was to give the signal by saying to his
command, "Do your duty;" whereupon the militia
were to shoot down the men, the Indians were to
15 See the district attorney's opening address to the jury, in the Deseret
News, Sept. 2, 1877. Lee states that his object in sending for aid was to protect
the emigrants. Confession, in Mormonism Unvaried, 229.
16 A full list of the company is given in Id., 379-80, and a list of all the
Mormons who took part in the massacre in the 8. L. City Tribune, June 2,
1877. See also the speech delivered by Judge Oadlebaugh in the house of
representatives, Feb. 7, 1S63. Cong. Globe, 18G2-3, app. 119. The speech
was afterward published in pamphlet form, one copy of it being entitled Mormonism,
and another Utah and the Mormons. The former was reprinted
from the S. L. Dally Tribune, Apr. 8, 1877. The parts of it relating to tha
massacre will be found in Wake's The Mormon Prophet, 65, and Stenhoutse'a
Rocky Mountain Saints, 447-50.
17 First councillor to Haight.