Docket Entry, 1–circa 6 July 1843 [Extradition of JS for Treason]
Source Note
Docket Entry, [, Hancock Co., IL, 1–ca. 6 July 1843], Extradition of JS for Treason (Nauvoo, IL, Municipal Court 1843); Nauvoo Municipal Court Docket Book, 55–87, 116–150; handwriting of and ; CHL.
to , with an additional army of six thousand men. Immediately after this, there came into the a messenger from , bringing the intelligence of an awful massacre of the people who were residing in that place, and that a force of two or three hundred, detached from the main body of the army, under the superior command of Colonel Ashley, but under the immediate command of Captain , who, the day previous had promised them peace & protection, but on receiving a copy of the ’s order “to exterminate or to expel” from the hands of Coloneel Ashley, he returned upon them the following day & surprised & massacreed the whole population of the , & then came on to the town of & & entered into conjunction with the main body of the army. The messenger informed us that he himself with a few others fled into the thickets, preserved them from the Massacre & on the following morning they returned & collected the dead bodies of the people & cast them into a well & there were upwards of twenty who were dead or mortally wounded & there are several of the wounded who are now living in this .— One of the name of Yocum has lately had his leg amputated in consequence of wounds he then received. He had a ball shot through his head which entered near his eye & came out at the back part of his head, and another ball passed through one of his arms.
The army, during all the while they had been encamped in , continued to lay waste fields of Corn, making hogs, sheep & cattle common plunder & shooting them down for sport. One man shot a cow & took a strip of her skin the width of his hand, from her head to her tail & tied it around a tree to slip his halter into to tie his horse unto <with>. The was surrounded with a strong guard & no man woman or child was permitted to go out or come in under the penalty of death. Many of the citizens were shot in attempting to go out to obtain sustenance for themselves & families. There was one field fenced in consisting of twelve hundred acres mostly covered with corn. It was entirely laid waste by the horses of the army & the next day after the army towards evening, came up from the camp, requesting to see my brother Joseph, , , , and , stating that the officers of the army wanted a mutual consultation with those men, also stating that Generals , & Graham— (however General Graham is an honorable exception; he did all he could to preserve the lives of the people, contrary to the order of the ,)— he , assured them that these generals had pledged their sacred honor that they should not be abused or insulted but should be guarded back <in safety> in the morning, or so soon as the consultation was over. My brother Joseph replied that he did not know what good he could do in any conn [p. 68]