History of Utah, 1540-1886 - Brigham Young University

KILLING OF THE SICK. 555
blood, a few minutes after the disabled men had been
murdered. She was shot dead within sixty yards of
the spot where Lee was standing. The massacre
was now completed, and after stripping the bodies of
all articles of value, 21 Brother Lee and his associates
went to breakfast, 22 returning after a hearty meal to
bury the dead.
21 Lee statea that only a little money and a few watches were found on
them. Id., 244. This is improbable, and other accounts show that the Mormons
gathered considerable booty.
22 'After breakfast,' says Lee, 'we all went back in a body to the meadows,
to bury the dead and take care of the property that was left there. ' The
above account of the Mountain Meadows massacre is taken mainly from Forney's
Rcpt, in Sen. Doc, 35th Cong. 1st Sess., ii. no. 42, pp. 87-9; Cradlebaugh's
Mormonism, 12; the affidavit of Philip Klingon Smith (Klingensmith),
bishop of Cedar City, who was present at the massacre, made in 1871 before
the clerk of court of the seventh judicial district of Nevada, in Stenhouse's
Rocky Mountain Saints, 439-42; the confession of Lee, in Mormonism Unvaried,
244, and his trial in Id., 302-78. In the S. F. Call, July 30, 1881, it is stated
that Bishop Klingensmith was murdered in Mexico. There is no important
discrepancy in the several versions. Forney and Cradlebaugh officially investigated
the matter in 1859. The statements of both are very brief, and why
the investigation was not made sooner does not appear. News of the massacre
was first received in Washington in Feb. 1858. See letter of C. E. Mix,
acting commissioner of Indian affairs, to Senator W. K. Sebastian, and of the
secretary of war to Representative A. B. Greenwood, in Sen. Doc., 35th Cong.
1st Sess., ii. no. 42, pp. 4, 42. On the 18th of this month Senator Gwin of
California moved that the secretary of war be called upon to report what steps
had been taken to bring the offenders to justice. Gwin's Memoirs, MS., 138a,
138 e. No steps had been taken, and for reasons that will presently appear,
none were taken—or none that were effectual—until nearly 20 years later.
For other accounts of the massacre, see Stenhouse's Roclai Mountain Saints,
435-9; Stenhouse's Tell It All, 32S-37; Beadle's Life in Utah, 180-4; Waite's
The Mormon Prophet, G0-9; Beadles' Western Wilds, 306-7, 496-501; Young's
Wife No. 19, 228 et seq.; Bowie's Our New West, 266-8; Busting, Across America,
1SS-90; Hayes' Scraps, Los Angeles, viii. 228-31, xvii. 3-7; Hutching's
Cal. Mag., iv. 345-9; Utah Review, Feb. 18S2, 243-6. The story of the massacre
has, of course, been related thousands of times in the magazines and
newspapers of Europe and America. Some of these accounts are substantially
correct and some are absurd. One writer, for instance, attemps to throw new
light on the subject by giving what is claimed to be a copy of the original order
for the massacre, signed ' Daniel G. Wells,' and dated S. L. City, Apr. 9,
1858. The massacre occurred, as we have seen, on Sept. 11, 1857. For statements
and comments of the press of the Pacific slope, see, among others, the
Descret News, Dec. 1, 1869; S. L. City Tribune, Jan. 3, Aug. 22, Oct. 3, Nov.
28, 1874; Aug. 14, 1875; Sept. 9, 1876; Apr. 23, 1879; S. F. Bulletin, Oct. 12,
27, Nov. 12, 1857; Apr. 13, May 14, Aug. 12, 185S; Apr. 23, Aug. 25, Oct. 28,
1859; Sept. 23, 27, Nov. 27, 1872; Nov. 17, 1874; July 26, 1875; March 24,
Apr. 12, 1877; S. F. Call, July 21, 1866; May 23, Sept. 23, 1872; Oct. 14, 1874;
July 18, 22, 25, 1875; Feb. 16, March 9, 24, 25, May 29, 1877; S. F. Alta,
Oct. 12, 21, 1857: Aug. 13, 1858; Jan. 6, May 8, June 26, 1859; Feb. 9, 1S73;
July 28, Aug. 23, 1875; March 24, Apr. 7, 1877; S. F. Chronicle, March 22,
23, 31, Apr. 8, 1877; S. F. Post, March 22, 23, 1877; S. F. Herald, Oct. 12,
27, Nov. 2, 1857; Mining and Scientific Press, July 31, 1S75, March 31, 1S77;
Pacific Rural Press, March 31, 1877; Oakland Tribune, Apr. 9, 1877; Sac.
Daily Union, Oct. 13, Dec. 18, 1857; March 1, Aug. 14, 1858; Apr. 14, 25,