Apostle, southern Utah emissary
George A. Smith
1817–1875
1 topic · 2 dated events · 1 source
Their part in each topic
The Mountain Meadows Massacre
Apostle, southern Utah emissary
Smith toured the southern settlements from early August 1857 carrying Brigham Young's war instructions — save the grain, sell nothing to passing emigrants, put the militia on alert. By his own account in the Journal of Discourses his preaching 'partook of the military more than the religious.' Critics read that tour as the transmission of an order; the Church's account reads it as instructions that contributed to a climate of hostility without authorizing the crime.
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.
George A. Smith carries the instructions south
Apostle George A. Smith began a tour of the southern settlements carrying Young's orders. Reporting on the trip from the Salt Lake Bowery on 13 September, he said that at one settlement 'in spite of all I could do, I found myself preaching a military discourse,' and that at Harmony his discourse 'partook of the military more than the religious.' He also camped near the Arkansas company on his return.
The Indian-blame story is put in place
Lee reported the massacre to Brigham Young as the work of Indians. Anson and Mary Call swore that Lee stayed at their house in early October 1857 and told them the massacre was perpetrated by Indians exclusively, and that he had told Young the same. George A. Smith's later account to T. B. H. Stenhouse describes Indians attacking, interpreters failing to intervene, and a relief party arriving 'too late to afford any other assistance than to rescue a few children.'
Sources in their own name
Source records in the database whose author line names this person. Each links to the topic that uses it.
Journal of Discourses, vols. 4–5 (1856–1857)
Brigham Young; Jedediah M. Grant; Heber C. Kimball; George A. Smith
The actual Reformation and blood-atonement rhetoric — Grant at JD 4:49–51, Young at JD 4:53–54 and 4:219–220 — and George A. Smith's own report of his southern tour at JD 5:36.
Appears alongside
People who share the most dated events with George A. Smith.
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