1838 Mormon War

1838 Mormon War
Part of the Mormon Wars
"Charge of the Danites" Preventing Latter-day Saints from voting in Gallatin led to a brawl in the 1838 Mormon War.
Date August 6, 1838 – November 1, 1838 Location Northwestern Missouri, United States (Caldwell County, Carroll County, Daviess County, Livingston County) Result Missourian victory Church members expelled from Missouri and resettled in Nauvoo, Illinois.
Belligerents
Missouri vigilantes  Missouri (after the Battle of Crooked River)	Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints members  Missouri (before the Daviess County Expedition)
Commanders and leaders
Samuel Bogart Thomas Jennings John Bullock Clark	George M. Hinkle David W. Patten † David Rice Atchison Alexander W. Doniphan
Casualties and losses
1 killed	21 killed (including 17 at Hawn's Mill massacre)
Unknown wounded Unknown civilian deaths

Part of a series on the
History of Missouri
Timeline Pre-colonial Colonial period Territorial period 1821–present
By topic Civil War Education Honey War Mormon War Platte Purchase St. Louis World's Fair Slavery
United States portal
v t e

Part of a series on
Mormon Militias
Lieutenant General Joseph Smith Addresses the Nauvoo Legion
Military Units Caldwell County Militia Danite Lot Smith Cavalry Company Mormon Battalion Nauvoo Legion Spartan Band State of Deseret Territorial Militia Utah Territorial Militia Whistling and Whittling Brigade Zion's Camp
Conflicts 1838 Mormon War Battle at Fort Utah Battle of Crooked River Battle Creek massacre William McBride Massacre (1851) Morrisite War Mormon War (Illinois) Utah War Wakara's War Mountain Meadows Massacre Black Hawk War (1865–1872)
Notable leaders George M. Hinkle Joseph Smith Brigham Young Sampson Avard John C. Bennett Daniel H. Wells William H. Dame Lot Smith
Related Topics Expulsion of Mormons from Jackson County, Missouri Missouri Executive Order 44
v t e

The 1838 Mormon War, also known as the Missouri Mormon War, was a conflict between Mormons and their neighbors in Missouri. Early in the third decade of the nineteenth century, members of the Church of Christ (Latter Day Saint) began to migrate into Jackson County, Missouri. Their religious and political beliefs and practices differed from those of their Missourian neighbors. This and their social and economic cohesiveness began to trigger tensions and episodes of vigilante violence.

Church members established several settlements and dedicated a temple site in Independence, the county seat. Nonmember residents grew increasingly hostile and violently evicted them. Caldwell County was created as the place where church members could legally settle. However, a second, larger, immigration of church members in 1837 overflowed into neighboring counties. Discord and friction erupted again there and in late October 1838 Missouri governor Lilburn Boggs issued Missouri Executive Order 44 ordering them to leave the state on pain of death. The Battle of Crooked River erupted in Ray County the following day.

On November 1, 1838 embattled church members surrendered at Far West in Caldwell county. Their leaders were accused of treason and jailed. Sympathetic guards allowed them to escape during a prison transfer and the free men joined the rest of the church who were gathering in Quincy, Illinois.

The conflict killed twenty-one combatants.^[1][2] An unknown number of noncombatant church members died of exposure and the hardship of being expelled from their homes in Missouri during the freezing conditions of winter.^[3] Sharp criticism of Governor Boggs' handling of the situation, including that from the citizens of Quincy, dissipated his political effectiveness as governor. Nearly seven hundred church members documented their experiences in affidavits sworn before judicial authorities.^[4]