noreply@blogger.com (Jerry Bustillo) — Fri, 30 Aug 2024 10:46:00 +0000

The Mountain Meadows Massacre

noreply@blogger.com (Jerry Bustillo) — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 09:41:00 +0000

This is seems to be an issue for some anti-LDS or Critics that they try to open up every time in a group discussions. This has been address over and over to their concerns and still it pops up every time when some critics thinks of new ideas they could throw. This articles and some other videos will be updated sometime to help them out in their concerns. It's not actually an issue and it's Not a concern in our days. Still this need to be address as an additional information. Read below are the articles from the Church Official Website and will add other article outside of the source to answer some of it. I will update it from time to time if I'd gather some other informations.

By Richard E. Turley Jr.
Managing Director, Family and Church History Department

...

The Massacre

On Friday, September 11, Lee entered the emigrant wagon fort under a white flag and somehow convinced the besieged emigrants to accept desperate terms. He said the militia would safely escort them past the Indians and back to Cedar City, but they must leave their possessions behind and give up their weapons, signaling their peaceful intentions to the Indians. The suspicious emigrants debated what to do but in the end accepted the terms, seeing no better alternative. They had been pinned down for days with little water, the wounded in their midst were dying, and they did not have enough ammunition to fend off even one more attack.

As directed, the youngest children and wounded left the wagon corral first, driven in two wagons, followed by women and children on foot. The men and older boys filed out last, each escorted by an armed militiaman. The procession marched for a mile or so until, at a prearranged signal, each militiaman turned and shot the emigrant next to him, while Indians rushed from their hiding place to attack the terrified women and children. Militiamen with the two front-running wagons murdered the wounded. Despite plans to pin the massacre on the Paiutes—and persistent subsequent efforts to do so—Nephi Johnson later maintained that his fellow militiamen did most of the killing.

Communication—Too Late

President Young’s express message of reply to Haight, dated September 10, arrived in Cedar City two days after the massacre. His letter reported recent news that no U.S. troops would be able to reach the territory before winter. “So you see that the Lord has answered our prayers and again averted the blow designed for our heads,” he wrote.

“In regard to emigration trains passing through our settlements,” Young continued, “we must not interfere with them untill they are first notified to keep away. You must not meddle with them. The Indians we expect will do as they please but you should try and preserve good feelings with them. There are no other trains going south that I know of[.] [I]f those who are there will leave let them go in peace. While we should be on the alert, on hand and always ready we should also possess ourselves in patience, preserving ourselves and property ever remembering that God rules.”

When Haight read Young’s words, he sobbed like a child and could manage only the words, “Too late, too late.”

Read Complete Article (Church Official)

Notes

1. The book, authored by Latter-day Saint historians Ronald W. Walker, Richard E. Turley Jr., and Glen M. Leonard, will soon be published by Oxford University Press.

2. James H. Martineau, “The Mountain Meadow Catastrophy,” July 23, 1907, Church Archives, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

3. John D. Lee, Mormonism Unveiled: The Life and Confessions of the Late Mormon Bishop, John D. Lee (1877), 219.

4. Mormonism Unveiled, 220.

5. Andrew Jenson, notes of discussion with William Barton, Jan. 1892, Mountain Meadows file, Jenson Collection, Church Archives.

6. Brigham Young to Isaac C. Haight, Sept. 10, 1857, Letterpress Copybook 3:827–28, Brigham Young Office Files, Church Archives.

7. James H. Haslam, interview by S. A. Kenner, reported by Josiah Rogerson, Dec. 4, 1884, typescript, 11, in Josiah Rogerson, Transcripts and Notes of John D. Lee Trials, Church Archives.

8. John D. Lee, “Lee’s Last Confession,” San Francisco Daily Bulletin Supplement, Mar. 24, 1877.

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The Mountain Meadows Massacre

The Massacre

Communication—Too Late

Notes