Militia general and Mormon attorney

Alexander W. Doniphan

1808–1887

1 topic · 2 dated events

Violence and the Mormon Conflict

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Their part in each topic

Violence and the Mormon Conflict

Militia general and Mormon attorney

Doniphan had been the Saints' lawyer since the Jackson County expulsion and helped secure the creation of Caldwell County. As a militia general he refused to carry out Samuel Lucas's order to shoot Joseph Smith and the other prisoners, calling the court-martial illegal, and he treated the extermination clause of Boggs's order as without legal force.

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In the timeline

2 events across 1 topics, chronological. Only events this person was actually part of — present at, responsible for, or the subject of — not every event where the name comes up.

27 October 1838

Violence and the Mormon Conflict

Boggs issues Missouri Executive Order 44hinge

Acting on reports of Crooked River and on Marsh's affidavit, Governor Boggs ordered General John B. Clark to hasten to Richmond: "The Mormons must be treated as enemies, and must be exterminated or driven from the State, if necessary, for the publick good. Their outrages are beyond all description." Doniphan and other officers treated the extermination clause as illegal and disregarded it.

Why this is a hingeA state government put the extermination of a religious minority in writing as a military order; the document has shaped Latter-day Saint memory for two centuries.

Disputed Critics point out that Rigdon used the same word first in a published oration; defenders answer that Rigdon threatened mobs and Boggs threatened a whole people.

People: Lilburn W. Boggs · Alexander W. Doniphan

Sources: Executive Order of Lilburn W. Boggs, 27 Oc… · Document Containing the Correspondence, Or…

31 October – 1 November 1838

Violence and the Mormon Conflict

Far West surrenders; Doniphan refuses to execute the prisoners

Colonel George M. Hinkle brought Joseph Smith and other leaders into the militia camp, where they were taken prisoner. A militia court-martial sentenced them to be shot the next morning; General Doniphan refused to carry out the order, calling the proceeding illegal. Far West surrendered its arms and the inhabitants signed away property to cover the cost of the campaign.

Disputed Corrill and Peck said Smith was eager to sue for peace; Latter-day Saint accounts stress Hinkle's betrayal.

People: Joseph Smith Jr. · Alexander W. Doniphan · Hyrum Smith · Sidney Rigdon · Lyman Wight

Sources: Joseph Smith: Rough Stone Rolling · Joseph Smith: The Rise and Fall of an Amer…

Appears alongside

People who share the most dated events with Alexander W. Doniphan.

Hyrum Smith 1 event Joseph Smith Jr. 1 event Lilburn W. Boggs 1 event Lyman Wight 1 event Sidney Rigdon 1 event

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