Nauvoo Legion

In 1839, Joseph Smith relocated his followers from a hostile environment in Missouri to Commerce, Illinois, which he renamed Nauvoo. Voter-conscious Illinois Democrats and Whigs (including Abraham Lincoln) passed a bipartisan city-state charter for Nauvoo in 1840. On December 16 the governor signed it into law, granting Smith and the city of Nauvoo broad powers. Among these was the authority to create a "body of independent militarymen". This military force was a militia similar to the Illinois State Militia, and it became known as the "Nauvoo Legion". At its peak, the militia had, by conservative estimates, at least 2,500 troops, in comparison to the approximately 8,500 troops within the entire United States Army as of 1845.[3] The Legion was organized into two regiments (called cohorts) of infantry and one regiment of cavalry. A few light cannons were also attached.

The Legion tended to be very top-heavy, in that there was a disproportionate number of high-ranking officers to regular soldiers. Supposedly, this was to elevate the social status and official standing of some members of the city.

Joseph Mustering the Nauvoo Legion by C.C.A. Christensen

Depiction of the Battle of Nauvoo by C.C.A. Christensen, which occurred from June 10, 1844, to September 16, 1846. The Nauvoo Legion was ordered to stand down by the church elders and not take part in the armed defense but withdrawal of the Saints from Nauvoo for the long trip to Utah.

Although the charter authorizing the Nauvoo Legion created an independent militia, it could be used at the disposal of the state governor or the President of the United States as well as for the mayor of Nauvoo. Joseph Smith himself was Nauvoo's second mayor, and the Nauvoo court martial also appointed him as highest-ranking officer of the Legion, a Lieutenant General. This rank is one step above Major General, which most contemporary militias employed as their commanding rank. One motive for the higher rank was to prevent Smith from being tried in a court-martial by officers of lesser rank. In 1838 the Missouri militia had contemplated a court-martial against Smith, an action that might have been illegal had it been carried out, as Smith was only a civilian at that time.

In the last month of his life, June 1844, Joseph Smith declared martial law in Nauvoo in response to various civil disturbances and initially deployed the Nauvoo Legion to defend the city, only to restrain the Legion from any action later. He urged Legion members to not take any action when the Illinois governor ordered the arrests of the Smith brothers, for violating state statutes and by not receiving authorized permission to impose martial law from the Governor of Illinois.

Joseph Smith and his brother Hyrum surrendered at the Carthage, Illinois, jail, with the promise of protection from Governor Thomas Ford and the Carthage Greys, the local state militia in Hancock County. However, on June 27, 1844, the Carthage Greys were vastly outnumbered by the mob surrounding the jail, and did not intervene in the ensuing assassination.

The Nauvoo Legion survived the loss of its commanding officer, Joseph Smith, when Brigham Young automatically assumed command as the new church president in August 1844, though he had never previously been active in Legion activities because Young was in England on a proselytizing mission for several years and only returned home to Nauvoo when hearing of the prophet's death to assist the family, church, and citizens of Nauvoo . Rather than employ the Legion to protect Nauvoo from increased mob violence, Young directed Nauvoo's tens of thousands of citizens to migrate peacefully to the western part of the continent which wasn't yet part of the United States and they founded the territory of Utah. Nauvoo was officially abandoned and the last remaining citizens had vacated Nauvoo by September 17, 1846, under gunfire and cannon artillery barrage as Illinois and Missouri militia and mobs raided and burned Nauvoo to the ground .

Upon the revocation of the Nauvoo Charter in the winter of 1844–1845, the Nauvoo Legion was no longer recognized as state militia, and its members returned the majority of its government-issued arms. Depleted of its official status, remnants assumed roles such as guardians of the handcart and wagon companies heading west after being reorganized by Hosea Stout on September 22, 1846, as they amassed on the other side of the Mississippi River in the territory of Iowa where the citizens of Nauvoo were safe from attack by mobs and Illinois and Missouri militia, and waited for winter to end so they could migrate . An area memorialized by the somber Far West cemetery and LDS Temple.

There are however some reported incidents in diaries of Saints concerning gunfire exchange between legion members and mobs during the Nauvoo era . And also legion members participated in the rescue of Joseph from the state Militia who had unlawfully arrested him after luring him to what was supposed to be a peaceful political debate and were going to hang him .

A cavalry guidon of the Utah-era version of the Nauvoo Legion

The Utah Territorial Militia was known as the Nauvoo Legion and accused of perpetrating the 1857 Mountain Meadows Massacre in which 120–140 non-Mormon settlers were murdered.

The Nauvoo Legion never gathered again, and the 1887 Edmunds-Tucker Act permanently disbanded it. In 1894, in anticipation of statehood, the non-sectarian Utah National Guard was organized as Utah's official state militia.

Joseph Smith addressing the Nauvoo Legion.This was a preliminary sketch done in 1845 for a panorama painting for the Nauvoo Temple that was never completed.[7]

The Nauvoo Legion in Illinois was able to draw on Federal stands of arms. The most common musket issued to these militiamen was the Model 1816 Musket. This flintlock musket was an American built copy of the French 1777 Musket Model. Also, the Harper's Ferry Model 1803 Rifle was issued in smaller quantities. Personal arms were also used. A small artillery piece, an 1841 12-pound mountain howitzer was issued to the territorial militia. It arrived in Salt Lake in 1852. A carronade, a ship cannon, was purchased by the legion in Nauvoo. It was carried to Salt Lake by the early party that occasionally used it as a speakers podium. It was nicknamed the "Old Sow" and is on display at the Church History Museum in Salt Lake City. When the Mormon Battalion was enlisted in July, 1846, about 450 Model 1816 muskets were issued to the infantry. Five 1803 Harpers Ferry rifles were issued to the hunters of company A. Records for the weapons issued to the other companies are missing. After the men were released from service in 1847, they headed for home, many stopping for temporary employment at Sutter's Fort. 6 of their group built the mill at Coloma, where gold was discovered. Many of them took time to pan for gold and they were quite successful. When they resumed their journey home, they bought two cannons from Sutter, a four pounder and a six pounder. These were thought at that time to have come from Sutter's purchase of the Russian Fort Ross and to have been either Russian or French cannons. This caused them to be lost after the deaths of the battalion members, because the source of the cannons was not written. Sutter wrote a letter to the pioneer society in the 1870s where he said that his cannons, except for one Russian 4-pounder, which he donated to a museum in San Francisco, were all Spanish guns. In 2001 three Spanish guns were identified in the LDS Church storage facility in Salt Lake City. The bronze 4-pounder was found to have the crest of King Carlos 3 of Spain. A 6-pound iron cannon, probably the other battalion cannon and a smaller, but similar, 2 pound cannon were in the warehouse. The provenance of the 2-pounder is currently unknown. All three Spanish cannons, which were brought to Salt Lake City on pallets, were mounted on carriages copied from the mountain howitzer carriage, probably in preparation for the Mormon defense against Johnston's army in 1857. Today the mountain howitzer is on display in the Fort Douglas museum in Salt Lake City. The 4 pound Spanish bronze is in the Mormon Battalion Visitor Center in San Diego, Calif. The is a copy of it in front of the center. The iron Spanish 2 and 6 pound cannons remain in storage in Salt Lake City.

• Nauvoo Brass Band
• Utah Army National Guard
• Green Mountain Boys
• Army of the Republic of Texas
• Texian Army
• Texas Navy
• California Republic (Bear Flaggers)

• Allaman, John Lee (1990), "Uniforms and Equipment of the Black Hawk War and the Mormon War", Western Illinois Regional Studies, vol. XIII, no. 1, p. 5.
• Allen, James B.; Leonard, Glen M. (1976), The Story of the Latter-day Saints, Salt Lake City, Utah: Deseret Book, ISBN 0-87747-594-6, OCLC 2493259.
• Bennett, Richard Edmond; Black, Susan Easton; Cannon, Donald Q. (2010), The Nauvoo Legion in Illinois: A History of the Mormon militia, 1841-1846, Norman, Oklahoma: University of Oklahoma Press, ISBN 978-0870623820, OCLC 354854384.
• Flammer, Philip M. (1992), "Nauvoo Legion", in Ludlow, Daniel H (ed.), Encyclopedia of Mormonism, New York: Macmillan Publishing, pp. 997–999, ISBN 0-02-879602-0, OCLC 24502140.
• Flanders, Robert Bruce (1975) [1965], Nauvoo: Kingdom on the Mississippi (3rd ed.), University of Illinois Press, ISBN 978-0-252-00561-9, OCLC 12060364.
• Gardner, Hamilton (Summer 1961), "Nauvoo Legion, 1840–1845 – A Unique Military Organization" (PDF), Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society, 54 (2): 181–197, JSTOR 40189784, archived from the original (PDF) on 2010-08-07
• Roberts, Richard C. (2003), Legacy: the history of the Utah National Guard from the Nauvoo Legion era to Enduring Freedom, Utah: National Guard Association of Utah, pp. 5, 9, ISBN 0972849068, OCLC 53168159
• Roberts, Richard C. (1994), "Utah National Guard and Territorial Militias", in Powell, Allan Kent (ed.), Utah History Encyclopedia, Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, ISBN 0874804256, OCLC 30473917, archived from the original on 2013-06-09
• Smith, Andrew F. (1997), The Saintly Scoundrel: The Life and Times of Dr. John Cook Bennett, University of Illinois Press, ISBN 0252022823
• "Series 2210: Territorial Militia Records, 1849–1877, 1905–[c. 1917]", archives.utah.gov, Division of Archives & Records Service, Utah Department of Administrative Services, OCLC 80116284, retrieved 2013-06-19