The 1838 Mormon War, also known as the Missouri Mormon War, was a series of armed conflicts between Mormons (Latter Day Saints) and other settlers in northern Missouri during the summer and fall of 1838. Initially characterized by mutual vigilante violence, it escalated into direct intervention by the Missouri Volunteer Militia. The conflict concluded with the issuance of the Missouri Executive Order 44, which mandated the extermination or the expulsion of the Mormons from the state.
Early Latter Day Saints settled in western Missouri beginning in 1830, driven by revelations instructing them to "gather" in two main centers: Kirtland, Ohio, and Jackson County, Missouri. Facing increasing hostility from neighboring settlers, an 1833 crisis resulted in their forceful eviction from Jackson County by vigilantes. The Missouri legislature went on to create Caldwell County in 1836 as a "compromise" for displaced Mormon settlers; however, the relocation of Mormon leaders from Kirtland in early 1838 intensified fears of Mormon consolidation and expansion in Missouri.
Violence reignited on August 6, 1838, after a group attempted to prevent Mormons from voting in Gallatin, Daviess County, Missouri, catalyzing the formation of vigilance committees that sought to expel the Mormons from Missouri. Local militia largely failed to quell the unrest, which rapidly escalated into a series of raids and counter-raids. Key engagements included the Battle of Crooked River (October 24), and the Hawn's Mill Massacre (October 30) where anti-Mormon vigilantes killed 17 unarmed Latter Day Saints.
After the engagements at Crooked River, Missouri Governor Lilburn Boggs concluded that the Mormons were in open insurrection against state authority, and issued an order on October 27 commanding state troops that they "must be exterminated or driven from the state." Mormons surrendered on November 1, 1838. The state's response to the conflict provoked widespread controversy and severely damaged Boggs's political standing. The war resulted in 22 deaths and the displacement of 10,000 Latter Day Saints, most seeking refuge in the state of Illinois.
Background
Timeline of the 1838 Mormon War 1831 1833 (Jackson County) 1838 (Northwestern Missouri) January Oliver Cowdery, Parley P. Pratt, Frederick G. Williams, and other Mormon missionaries arrive in Missouri June Mormons begin settling Kaw Township in Jackson County, Missouri August Temple Lot dedicated in Independence, MissouriJuly
20th: Evening and Morning Star press (Mormon publication) is destroyed in Jackson County
November
1st: Mormon storehouse in Independence sacked. 4th: Battle near the Blue River (3 casualties); Mormons surrender and are expelled from Jackson County. January Church of Christ headquarters relocated from Kirtland, Ohio, to Far West, Missouri in Caldwell County.
June
17th: Salt Sermon; excommunicated Mormon leaders are expelled from Far West by Danites.
July
4th: Sidney Rigdon's July 4th oration. August 6th: Election day battle at Gallatin (start of the war).
October 1st: Siege of DeWitt. Mormons evacuate the town on the 11th. 16th: Daviess County expedition. 23th: Samuel Bogart's state militia unit patrols Bunkham's Strip; takes 3 Mormon prisoners. 24th: Battle of Crooked River (4 casualties). 27th: Missouri Executive Order 44 issued, ordering the "extermination" or expulsion of the Mormons from the state. 29th: Hawn's Mill massacre (17 deaths). 31st: Siege of Far West; Mormons surrender.
See Aftermath
Jackson County, 1831-1833
In spring of 1830, Joseph Smith published the Book of Mormon and founded the Church of Christ, a restorationist church. While Smith settled in Kirtland, Ohio, he sent some of his close associates to western Missouri to proselytize among Native Americans. After encountering some moderate success, Mormons began making permanent settlements in Jackson County, Missouri in 1831.
In August 1831, Smith announced that Independence, Missouri and the surrounding area would become the "centerplace" of his planned "City of Zion"—a gathering place within Mormon millennial theology. Mormon leadership in Missouri was instructed to make extensive land purchases in the area to be distributed to incoming members.
Under the auspice of Mormon leaders in Kirtland, settlers trickled to the county during the following months. By 1833, Mormons numbered over a thousand, representing about a third and as much as half of the county's population. The Mormon settlers' religious, cultural, and political differences, economic cohesion, their perceived affinity for neighboring Native American tribes, and their divine claims to the land of "Zion" contributed to growing animosity.
Most Latter Day Saint settlers were originally from New England and the Ohio Valley and, unlike their southern neighbors, generally opposed slavery. Mormons were "northern people, who, on account of their declining to own slaves and their denunciation of the system of slavery, were termed ‘free soilers’"; The Mormons were generally "free-soilers" opposed to slavery. In July 1833, a local meeting was held by non-Mormon residents in Independence after an article titled "Free People of Color" was published in the Mormon newspaper, The Evening and Morning Star. The article's mention of the potential arrival of free black converts was particularly controversial. They argued that the Mormons were already having a “corrupting influence on our slaves.” And despite the Mormons attempts to assuage the Missourians’ fears... [they] believed that the Mormons had made “an indirect invitation to the free brethren of color in Illinois, to come up, like the rest, to the land of Zion.”
Attendees contended that the Mormons threatened civil society, and that local laws were insufficient to address the perceived dangers. They resolved to remove the Mormons, "peaceably if we can, forcibly if we must." The group then agreed to destroy the newspaper's printing press and demanded that Mormon leaders pledge to halt their activities and leave the county.
When the Mormons refused, they then targeted and ransacked the Mormon storehouse in Independence. Mormon settlements in the outskirts of the city were increasingly harassed and raided throughout the summer and fall of 1833. By November 1833, vigilantes had forcefully expelled the Mormons from Jackson County.
The expulsion from Jackson County informed the patterns of conflict between the Mormons and other Missouri residents over the course of the Mormon war. The expelled Mormons sought refuge in the neighboring counties, especially in Clay County.
Lilburn Boggs, who would later be the Governor of Missouri during the 1838 war, was Lieutenant Governor and a Jackson County resident at the time. Mormon historian Richard Lloyd Anderson would later describe Boggs's role in the early upheavals: In 1833 Boggs passively saw community leaders and officials sign demands for Mormon withdrawal, and next force a gunbarrel contract to abandon the county before spring planting...anti-Mormon goals were reached in a few simple stages. Executive paralysis permitted terrorism, which forced Mormons to self-defense, which was immediately labeled as an "insurrection", and was put down by the activated militia of the county. Once Mormons were disarmed, mounted squads visited Mormon settlements with threats and enough beatings and destruction of homes to force flight.
Caldwell Compromise, 1836–1838 Despite appeals and legal efforts, the non-Mormons in Jackson refused to allow the Mormons to return. Reimbursement for confiscated and damaged property was denied. Mormons refused to sell their lands in the county, hoping that the government would eventually help them reclaim them. In 1834, Mormons attempted to effect a return to Jackson County with a quasi-military expedition known as Zion's Camp, but this effort also failed when the governor did not provide the expected support. Recognizing the need for a more permanent solution, Alexander William Doniphan of the Missouri legislature proposed the creation of a new county specifically for Mormon settlement.
In 1836, the Missouri legislature passed a law establishing Caldwell County, with Far West as its seat. Mormons had already begun buying land in the proposed county, including areas that were carved off to become parts of Ray and Daviess Counties. The Mormons chose a site in the town of Far West to build a temple, which was never finished due to the war. This arrangement brought about a period of relative peace. According to an article in the Elders' Journal, a Latter Day Saint newspaper published in Far West: "the Saints here are at perfect peace with all the surrounding inhabitants, and persecution is not so much as once named among them..." John Corrill, one of the Mormon leaders, remembered:Friendship began to be restored between (the Mormons) and their neighbors, the old prejudices were fast dying away, and they were doing well, until the summer of 1838In 1837, problems centered on the Kirtland Safety Society bank at the church's headquarters in Kirtland, Ohio led to schism. The church relocated in January 1838 from Kirtland to Far West, Missouri, which became its new headquarters. Hundreds of Mormon settlers from Kirtland and elsewhere poured into Missouri. They established new colonies outside of Caldwell County, including Adam-ondi-Ahman in Daviess County and De Witt in Carroll County.
In the eyes of many non-Mormon citizens (including Alexander Doniphan), these settlements outside of Caldwell County were a violation of the compromise.. Reprinted by Dale R. Broadhurst at sidneyrigdon.com The Mormons felt that the compromise only excluded major settlements in Clay and Ray counties, as they already had substantial population centers, but not the recently colonized Daviess and Carroll. The earlier settlers felt politically and economically threatened by the expanding Mormon communities outside of Caldwell County.
Salt Sermon and Danites
With the Kirtland-based presidency now in control of the Missouri church, a leadership struggle emerged between the Kirtland arrivals and the previously established Missouri church leadership. Many of the oldest and most prominent leaders of the church, including Oliver Cowdery (one of the Three Witnesses and the church's original "second elder"), David Whitmer (another of the Three Witnesses and Stake President of the Missouri Church), John Whitmer, and William W. Phelps, were excommunicated on allegations of misusing church property and finance amid tense relations between them and Smith. ; ; ;
These "dissenters", as they came to be called, owned a significant amount of land in Caldwell County, much of which they purchased when acting as agents of the church. Ownership became unclear and the dissenters threatened the church with lawsuits. The presidency responded by urging the dissenters to leave the county using strong words the dissenters interpreted as threats. In his famous Salt Sermon, Sidney Rigdon announced that the dissenters were as salt that had lost its savor and that it was the duty of the faithful to cast the dissenters out to be trodden beneath the feet of men.