A holy war, it had raged for years. Joseph Smith and his religious faithful had sought to establish their Zion in one community after another. Not even the wilderness would have them. At the end, there was no battleground but there were prisoners— celebrated ones, at that.
In the late afternoon on June 27, 1844, a mob craving its own frontier form of justice crept across an Illinois pasture and surrounded the jail at Carthage. The militia that had been mustered to keep the peace mounted no resistance. A small pack of the attackers stormed up the stairs and swiftly fired shots into the second-floor cell that housed the Mormon prophet, Joseph Smith, his brother Hyrum, and his friends John Taylor and Willard Richards. The melee ended as quickly as it had begun.
A dispatch from Willard Richards to the anxious citizens in nearby Nauvoo reported the grim news: "Joseph and Hyrum are dead. Taylor wounded, not very badly. I am well. Our guard was forced, as we believe, by a band of . . . 100 to 200. The job was done in an instant."
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