1838 Mormon War
The Mormon War is a name sometimes given to the 1838 conflict which occurred between Latter Day Saints (Mormons) and their neighbors in the northwestern region of the US state of Missouri. This conflict is also sometimes referred to as the Missouri Mormon War to differentiate it from the Utah Mormon War (also known as the "Utah War") and the lesser known Illinois Mormon War.
The specific dates of the war are from August 6, 1838, (the Gallatin election battle) to November 1, 1838, when Joseph Smith surrendered at Far West. During the conflict 22 people were killed (3 Mormons and 1 non-Mormon at Crooked River, one Mormon prisoner fatally injured while in custody, and 17 Mormons at Haun’s Mill). An unknown number of non-combatants died due to exposure and hardship as a result of being expelled from their homes in Missouri.
The conflict was preceded by the eviction of the Mormons from Jackson County, Missouri, in 1833.
All of the conflicts in the Mormon War occurred in a corridor 100 miles (160 km) to the east and northeast of Kansas City, Missouri.
As a result of the war, nearly all Mormons in Missouri, estimated at more than ten thousand, were forced to leave the state. Most of these refugees settled in or near what would become the city of Nauvoo, Illinois.
Read more about 1838 Mormon War: Background, Compromise Breaks Down, 1838, Salt Sermon and Danites, Gallatin Election Day Battle, Mormons Expelled From De Witt, Daviess County Expedition, Battle of Crooked River, Extermination Order, Haun's Mill Massacre, Siege of Far West and Capture of Church Leaders, Trials of Mormon Leaders, Aftermath
Famous quotes containing the words mormon and/or war:
“If you excommunicate one of us there will be 10 more to step up and take her place. Excommunicate those 10 and there will be 100 to take their places.”
—Lynn Knavel Whitesides, U.S. Mormon feminist. As quoted in the New York Times, p. 7 (October 2, 1993)
“I realized how for all of us who came of age in the late sixties and early seventies the war was a defining experience. You went or you didn’t, but the fact of it and the decisions it forced us to make marked us for the rest of our lives, just as the depression and World War II had marked my parents.”
—Linda Grant (b. 1949)