Footnotes
McLellin, Journal, 12–13 Jan. 1832, 13; Smith, Saintly Scoundrel, 12, 50, 54–56.
McLellin, William E. Journal, 18 July–20 Nov. 1831. William E. McLellin, Papers, 1831–1836, 1877–1878. CHL. MS 13538, box 1, fd. 1. Also available as Jan Shipps and John W. Welch, eds., The Journals of William E. McLellin, 1831–1836 (Provo, UT: BYU Studies; Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1994).
Smith, Andrew F. The Saintly Scoundrel: The Life and Times of Dr. John Cook Bennett. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1997.
James Berry, Letter, 25 Apr. 1839, Governor’s Correspondence, Military Affairs, 1839, Illinois Governor’s Correspondence, 1816–1852, Illinois State Archives, Springfield; Bennett, History of the Saints, 14–15.
Illinois Governor’s Correspondence, 1816–1852. Illinois State Archives, Springfield.
Bennett, John C. The History of the Saints; or, an Exposé of Joe Smith and Mormonism. Boston: Leland and Whiting, 1842.
While he was not precise in dating events from this time of his life, Coray later wrote that he finished copying correspondence into JS Letterbook 2 before JS and Bennett began drafting Nauvoo’s city charter. (Coray, Autobiographical Sketch, 4–5, 19.)
Coray, Howard. Autobiographical Sketch, after 1883. Howard Coray, Papers, ca. 1840–1941. Photocopy. CHL. MS 2043, fd. 1.
In another letter he wrote to JS two days later, Bennett again referred to this letter he wrote to JS—probably in early 1839—during the “Mormon War” in Missouri. However, no correspondence from Bennett to JS dated prior to this 25 July 1840 letter has been located. Bennett stated in this letter that he wrote the earlier letter while he was serving as brigadier general of the Invincible Dragoons—a position within the second Illinois militia division to which he was commissioned on 20 February 1839. By that time, the majority of the Saints had left Missouri for refuge in Illinois and Iowa Territory, but JS was incarcerated in Clay County, Missouri, awaiting trial on charges including treason against the state. (Letter from John C. Bennett, 27 July 1840; Bennett, History of the Saints, 14.)
Bennett, John C. The History of the Saints; or, an Exposé of Joe Smith and Mormonism. Boston: Leland and Whiting, 1842.
Bennett was probably referring to the Saints’ removal from the hostile situation in northern Missouri and their settling in western Illinois and eastern Iowa Territory during winter 1838–1839, although he may have been referring to JS’s escape from jail in April 1839 and his subsequent relocation to Illinois.
A couple of months before being commissioned quartermaster general of the Illinois militia in July, Bennett resigned his position as brigadier general of the Invincible Dragoons. (John C. Bennett, Nauvoo, IL, 14 June 1842, Letter to the Editor, Wasp, 18 June 1842, [3].)
The Wasp. Nauvoo, IL. Apr. 1842–Apr. 1843.