THE MOUNTAIN MEADOWS MASSACRE
FACT: On
September 11, 1857 in a place called "Mountain Meadows" located in southern
Utah, approximately 120 unarmed men, women and children were murdered.
[Edit: Most of the below is assembled from the links and sources cited below. I claim no right of original authorship to any word written on this page below this entry.
BACKGROUND:
1) Led by 52-year-old John T. Baker and Alexander Fancher, 45, a wagon train made up mainly of farm families from northwest Arkansas and Missouri was moving west to make new homes in California. Among an estimated 135 members, it numbered at least fifteen women, most young mothers. Dependent children made up the largest age group, more than sixty, or roughly half the total. Of these, more than twenty were girls between the ages of seven and eighteen. The rest were adult males, mostly heads of families, but they also included some teamsters and other hired hands.
The Arkansas company was relatively affluent. Most of its wealth took the form of a large herd of cattle, estimated by various observers to number from three hundred to a thousand head, not including other animals, work oxen, horses, or mules....
Since they were moving permanently, Baker-Fancher wagon train members
were also better off in other worldly possessions than typical emigrant parties on the California Trail. John W. Baker later placed the value of property his father took on the journey at "the full sum of ten thousand dollars." Besides animals, some thirty or forty wagons and equipment, members also carried varying amounts of cash to cover unforeseen costs on the journey.
2) The company arrived at Salt Lake City about the end of July where they hoped to replenish their stock of provisions. When the Arkansas families arrived at Salt Lake City, they found the Mormons in no friendly mood [causes included the impending 'Utah War', the previous 'persecutions' in Missouri, and
the recent death of Parley P. Pratt in Arkansas {May 1857}], and at once concluded to break camp and move on. They had been advised by Elder Charles C. Rich to take the northern route along the Bear River, but decided to travel by way of southern Utah. Passing through Provo, Springville, Payson, Fillmore, and intervening settlements, they attempted everywhere to purchase food, but without success. Toward the end of August they arrived at Corn Creek, some fifteen miles south of Fillmore, where they encamped for several days.
3) Continuing their journey, the emigrants proceeded to Beaver City, and then to Parowan. Arriving at Cedar City, they succeeded in purchasing about fifty
bushels of wheat, which was ground at a mill belonging to John D. Lee, former commander of the fort at Cedar, but then Indian agent, and in charge of an Indian farm near Harmony.
4) On the 5th of September, the company encamped about thirty miles to the south-west of Cedar in the southern end of what is known as the Mountain Meadows, which form the divide between the waters of the great basin and those that flow into the Colorado. It was Saturday evening when the Arkansas families encamped at Mountain Meadows. On the sabbath [Sunday, Sep 6, 1857] they rested, and at the usual hour one of them conducted divine service in a large tent, as had been their custom throughout their journey.
THE FIGHT:
1) At daybreak on Monday, September 7, 1857, while the men were lighting their campfires, they were fired upon without warning by a mixture of white men and Indians. Approximately twenty members of the company were immediately killed or wounded. The cattle were driven off. The survivors ran for their wagons, and quickly pushed them together so as to form a corral. The ambushers pressed the attack but were driven back. The company dug out the earth deep enough to sink their wagons almost to the top of the whe
els and quickly built a rifle-pit large enough to contain the entire company in the center of the enclosure. Due to the defenses of the Baker-Fancher party, the attackers, which numbered from three to four hundred, withdrew to the hills. On the crests of the hills they built parapets from which they shot down upon the Baker-Fancher party.
2) Some time during the night of September 10th, William A. Aden and two other young men left the make-shift fort, and after eluding their attackers started toward Cedar City to get help. Arriving at Leachy spring [over 15 miles from Mountain Meadows], they were challenged by William C. Stewart, a high priest and member of the Cedar City council, to whom Aden stated the n
ature of their mission. Stewart and another night guard opened fire, and the young artist from Tennessee [Aden] was killed--one report stating he was shot in the back. One of Aden's companions was wounded, but, with the other emigrant, escaped and succeeded in reaching their camp.
THE SEIGE AND PLANNING A MASSACRE:
1) The siege lasted four days [September 7 - 10] and though they fought bravely, the Baker-Fancher party had little hope of escape. All the outlets of the valley were guarded. Their ammunition was almost exhausted. Many were
wounded, including women and children, and their sufferings from thirst had become intolerable. Down in the ravine, and within a few yards of the make-shift fort, was a stream of water; but only after sundown could a scanty supply be obtained, and then at great risk, for this point was covered by the attackers who held the high ground. The emigrants were fired upon whenever they attempted to collect water or firewood.
2) On the morning of the fifth day [Sep 11] a wagon was seen approaching from the northern end of the meadow, and with it a company of the Nauvoo legion [Mormon militia]. When within a few hundred yards of the Baker-Fancher party's make-shift fort, the militia company halted, and one of them, W
illiam Bateman, accompanied by Lee, came forward with a flag of truce. Half-way between the Mormons and the corral, Bateman was met by one of the emigrants named Hamilton, to whom he promised protection for his party on condition that their arms were surrendered. Bateman assured Hamilton that they would be conducted safely to Cedar City. After a brief parley, each one returned to his comrades.
3) During the week of the seige, John D. Lee, with several other Mormons, encamped at a spring within half a mile of the emigrants' camp/fort. Lee was alleged, though not distinctly proven at his trial, to have induced the
Indians [by promise of booty] to make the initial attack; but, finding the resistance stronger than anticipated, Lee had sent for aid from the settlements of southern Utah. A company of Mormon militia, among whom were Isaac C. Haight (president of the Parowan "stake of Zion," and as such was the ecclesiastical agent in Iron county of President Brigham Young) and Major John M. Higbee, and which was afterward joined by Colonel William H. Dame, bishop of Parowan [UT], arrived at Lee's camp on the evening before the massacre [Sep 10].
4) One account of the pre-massacre activities of the attackers says "the men were summoned to prayers. These men knelt in the form of a 'praye
r circle.' With heads bowed in abject servility, and each right arm raised in the form of a square [a Mormon symbol of exacting obedience], those... [men] listened while one of the 'servants of the Lord' asked the blessing of their god upon the deeds they were about to enact, and for divine protection while they were 'avenging the blood of the prophets who died in Carthage jail [the site of the murder of Joseph Smith],' and the martyrs who perished in Missouri and Illinois."
5) It was collectively decided that Lee should conclude terms with the emigrants. Once Lee convinced the emigrants to surrender he was to instruct them to place their arms in the wagons, and to start moving the emigrants for Hamblin's rancho on the eastern side of the meadows, with the wagons a
nd 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. On each side of the single-file column of emigrants, 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 ambush site, Higbee, 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 slaughter the women and children, sparing only those of tender age, and Lee with some of the wagoners was to kill the sick and wounded. Mounted troopers were to be in readiness to pursue and slay those who attempted to escape, so that, with the exception of infants, no living soul should be left to tell the tale of the massacre. This was the plan.
THE MASSACRE:
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