Footnotes
For additional details on the events leading to the deaths of JS and Hyrum Smith, see Oaks and Hill, Carthage Conspiracy.
Oaks, Dallin H., and Marvin S. Hill. Carthage Conspiracy: The Trial of the Accused Assassins of Joseph Smith. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1975.
Ford had decided the previous day to take a large number of troops to Nauvoo and had told JS earlier that he (JS) and Hyrum Smith would accompany him. Ford later wrote that though he had planned to take JS and Hyrum Smith with him to Nauvoo, “a council of officers . . . determined that this would be highly inexpedient and dangerous, and offered such substantial reasons for their opinions as induced me to change my resolution.” (Ford, History of Illinois, 339–340.)
Ford, Thomas. A History of Illinois, from Its Commencement as a State in 1818 to 1847. Containing a Full Account of the Black Hawk War, the Rise, Progress, and Fall of Mormonism, the Alton and Lovejoy Riots, and Other Important and Interesting Events. Chicago: S. C. Griggs; New York: Ivison and Phinney, 1854.
According to James Woods, Justice Robert Smith “altered the return of the subpoenas until the 29th, and continued the hearing until that time, without consulting either their prisoners or the counsel.” (“Statement of Facts,” Times and Seasons, 1 July 1844, 5:564.)
Times and Seasons. Commerce/Nauvoo, IL. Nov. 1839–Feb. 1846.