According to William Clayton, JS and “those with him” had returned to Nauvoo around five o’clock in the evening on 23 June. Clayton also noted on 23 June that “preparations are making to get an early start in the morning.” Though JS had originally proposed to meet Ford at the mound in the afternoon on 24 June, contemporary letters indicate that by the evening of 23 June JS was instead planning to meet Ford’s posse at the mound sometime in the morning. At some point, however, the plan to meet Ford or his posse at the mound was abandoned entirely. According to the compilers of JS’s history, Ford initially agreed to escort JS to Carthage from the mound, but after talking with Wilson Law, Joseph H. Jackson, and a “Mr. Skinner,” he decided against it on the grounds that “it was an honor not given to any other citizen.” News of the governor’s refusal did not reach Nauvoo until about four o’clock in the morning. JS left Nauvoo accompanied by the seventeen other men accused of riot and by “some ten or twelve others,” including Willard Richards, Dan Jones, Henry G. Sherwood, Cyrus Wheelock, and JS’s legal counsel James Woods. (Clayton, Journal, 23 and 24 June 1844; JS, Nauvoo, IL, to Henry T. Hugins, 23 June 1844, copy; JS, Nauvoo, IL, to Joseph Wakefield, 23 June 1844, copy, JS Collection, CHL; JS, [Lee Co., Iowa Territory, or Nauvoo, IL?], to Edward Johnstone, Fort Madison, Iowa Territory, 23 June 1844, CHL; JS, “Bank of the River Mississippi,” IL, to Thomas Ford, Carthage, IL, 23 June 1844, JS Collection, CHL; Vilate Murray Kimball, Nauvoo, IL, to Heber C. Kimball, Baltimore, 9 and 24 June 1844, Kimball Family Correspondence, CHL; “Awful Assassination of Joseph and Hyrum Smith,” Times and Seasons, 1 July 1844, 5:560; JS History, vol. F-1, 149, 151.)

Clayton, William. Journals, 1842–1845. CHL.

Kimball Family Correspondence, 1838–1871. CHL. MS 6241.

Times and Seasons. Commerce/Nauvoo, IL. Nov. 1839–Feb. 1846.

Dunn was accompanied by a cavalry of about sixty men. Ford’s order was addressed to JS, lieutenant general of the Nauvoo Legion, Jonathan Dunham, acting major general of the legion, and “all Commissioned and Non Commisioned Officers and privates of the Nauvoo Legion.” JS and the others were “ordered and directed to deliver to Col James E. Dunn” the arms that had earlier been supplied to the Nauvoo Legion by the state. In the extant portion of the order, “three peices of Cannon, with the carriages and other appendages” are mentioned specifically. Ford later wrote that he learned of the cannons through Wilson Law. Ford also wrote that he demanded the state arms “because the legion was illegally used in the destruction of the press, and in enforcing martial law in the city, in open resistance to legal process, and the posse comitatus” and because of “the great prejudice and excitement which the possession of these arms by the Mormons had always kindled in the minds of the people.” On the back of Ford’s order, JS directed Dunham and the others “to comply strictly and without delay with the within order of Gov. Thomas Ford—Commander in chief.” (“Awful Assassination of Joseph and Hyrum Smith,” Times and Seasons, 1 July 1844, 5:560; “Statement of Facts,” Times and Seasons, 1 July 1844, 5:563; Thomas Ford, Carthage, IL, to JS et al., 24 June 1844, CHL; Ford, History of Illinois, 336; JS, “Prairie 4 miles W Carthage,” IL, to Jonathan Dunham, Nauvoo, IL, 24 June 1844, appended to Thomas Ford, Carthage, IL, to JS et al., 24 June 1844, JS Collection, CHL.)

Times and Seasons. Commerce/Nauvoo, IL. Nov. 1839–Feb. 1846.

Smith, Joseph. Collection, 1827–1846. CHL. MS 155.

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.

At the time he countersigned the order, JS wrote the governor that he would return with Dunn to Nauvoo to ensure that Ford’s order was carried out “properly and without trouble to the state.” William Clayton, who noted that JS and his party returned to Nauvoo at Dunn’s request, wrote that upon arriving in Nauvoo at two thirty in the afternoon, JS “immediately issued orders to have the State arms Collected and taken to the Masonic Hall without delay.” According to Clayton, “Many of the brethren looked upon this as another preparation for a Missouri massacre” and “very unwillingly gave up the arms.” Ford later wrote that the three cannons and 220 (of an expected 250) small arms were surrendered. (JS, “Four Miles West Carthage,” IL, to Thomas Ford, Carthage, IL, 24 June 1844, JS Collection, CHL; Clayton, Journal, 24 June 1844; Message of the Governor of the State of Illinois, 10–11.)

Clayton, William. Journals, 1842–1845. CHL.

Message of the Governor of the State of Illinois, in Relation to the Disturbances in Hancock County, December, 21, 1844. Springfield, IL: Walters and Weber, 1844.

William Clayton wrote that before leaving Nauvoo, JS “rode down home to bid his family farewell. He appeared to feel solemn & though[t]ful and from expressions made to several individuals, he expects nothing but to be massacred. This he expressed before he returned from over the river but their appearing no alternative but he must either give himself up or the City be massacred by a lawless mob under the sanction of the Governor.” A later account quotes JS as saying, “I am going like a lamb to the slaughter; but I am calm as a summer’s morning; I have a conscience void of offense towards God, and towards all men—I shall die innocent, and it shall yet be said of me, he was murdered in cold blood.” (Clayton, Journal, 24 June 1844; Doctrine and Covenants 111:4, 1844 ed. [D&C 135:4].)

Clayton, William. Journals, 1842–1845. CHL.

Fellows later recalled that JS and his party “stop[p]ed about half an hour” and “took supper principally of provisions brought with them but little conversation occurred.” (Albert G. Fellows, “Historical Item 24 June 1844,” 30 Nov. 1854, Historian’s Office, JS History Documents, ca. 1839–1860, CHL.)

Historian’s Office. Joseph Smith History Documents, 1839–1860. CHL. CR 100 396.

JS and his party spent the night at Artois Hamilton’s hotel in Carthage. Cyrus Wheelock later recalled that as they passed the public square, members of the Carthage Greys and other militia units threatened and taunted them. The crowd dispersed, Wheelock reported, after Ford called from a window that he would have JS “pass before the troops upon the Square” in the morning. (Clayton, Journal, 24 June 1844; “Awful Assassination of Joseph and Hyrum Smith,” Times and Seasons, 1 July 1844, 5:560; Cyrus Wheelock, London, England, to George A. Smith, 29 Dec. 1854, JS History Documents, ca. 1839–1860, CHL.)

Clayton, William. Journals, 1842–1845. CHL.

Times and Seasons. Commerce/Nauvoo, IL. Nov. 1839–Feb. 1846.

Historian’s Office. Joseph Smith History Documents, 1839–1860. CHL. CR 100 396.