What was the Mountain Meadows Massacre?
Mountain Meadows Massacre
The Mountain Meadows Massacre was the September 11, 1857, killing of approximately 120 emigrants in the Baker–Fancher wagon train at Mountain Meadows in southern Utah. A group of Latter-day Saint militiamen, together with some Indigenous Americans they had recruited, attacked the company, conducted a siege, and then used a false surrender to kill the emigrants; 17 very young children were spared. The massacre was a terrible and inexcusable departure from the teachings and conduct of Jesus Christ, and it is regarded as the most tragic event in Latter-day Saint history.
The Church has explicitly rejected attempts to justify the massacre through so-called blood atonement; redemption comes only through the atoning blood of Jesus Christ. As more information became known, some principal participants were excommunicated, and John D. Lee was eventually convicted of murder and executed. Brigham Young’s instruction—sent before the massacre but arriving afterward—was that the emigrants should be allowed to pass peacefully and be protected out of the territory; the available record does not establish that he ordered the massacre.
And ye will not suffer your children that they go hungry, or naked; neither will ye suffer that they transgress the laws of God, and fight and quarrel one with another, and serve the devil, who is the master of sin, or who is the evil spirit which hath been spoken of by our fathers, he being an enemy to all righteousness.
And now, behold, I will testify unto you of myself that these things are true. Behold, I say unto you, that I do know that Christ shall come among the children of men, to take upon him the transgressions of his people, and that he shall atone for the sins of the world; for the Lord God hath spoken it.
In September 1857, a group of Latter-day Saint militiamen, along with some Indigenous Americans they had recruited, attacked an emigrant wagon train passing through southern Utah. In what came to be known as the Mountain Meadows Massacre, the militiamen killed 120 people, sparing only 17 very small children. It is considered the most tragic event in Latter-day Saint history.
Topic: The Mountain Meadows Massacre Source: Q&A The Mountain Meadows Massacre An engraving from the 1900 book Grandest Century in the World's History depicting the Mountain Meadows Massacre. What is the Mountain Meadows Massacre? On September 7, 1857, John D. Lee led a group of Paiute Indians and Mormon militiamen to attack the Baker-Fancher wagon train. After a prolonged gun battle, siege, and feigned ceasefire agreement, approximately 50 to 60 Mormon militiamen and a number of Paiute Indians arrived and massacred the wagon company on September 11, 1857. The attackers spared 17 children, all of whom were under the age of six, who were taken in by local Latter-day Saint families before eventually returning to Arkansas.
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