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Federal Investigations

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News of the massacre reached Arkansas in late December. The report claimed that an entire train of emigrants between the last settlements in Utah Territory and the boundary of this State had been massacred and only the children were spared and were being conveyed to San Bernardino.[1] WM. C. Mitchell had an extended family including grandchildren with the train, and demanded Arkansas Senator William K. Sebastian request an investigation.[2] A later report report claimed that the entire train had been massacred with the exception of fifteen children which were purchased with great difficulty from the Indians by Mormon interpeters.[3] the people of Carroll County held a town meeting concerning the massacre of the Baker Company and made several demands of the Government. Among them were to rescue the children and thoroughly investigate and punish those who committed the treasonous act.[4]

When acting Indian Commissioner Charles E. Mix of the Dept. of the Interior received the information from Sebastian and others he instructed Superintendent of Indians Affairs of California, Thomas Henley, and the newly appointed Indian Superintendent of the Utah Territory, Jacob Forney to locate the children, and to use every effort to get possession of them; and, if successful, to ensure that they were maintained and well taken care of until they could be turned over to their friends.[5] On June 22, 1858 Forney notified Mix that he met Jacob Hamblin in Salt Lake City. Hamblin had one child and claims all fifteen are in his neighbor hood in the care of whites who purchased the children with great difficulty from the Indians whom they were with several days. Forney said that he would leave in four weeks to retrieve the orphans.[6] Forney notified F. J. PORTER, the Assistant Adjutant General of Camp Floyd on September 10 that he had ten children in his procession and is making every effort to find the remainder.[7] Forney traveled South to Corn Creek to deliver gifts to the Indians. He was within 60 miles of Cedar City, where some of the children were housed but there is no mention of them in his report of December 7.[8] Hamblin notified Forney on December 9 that he has located fifteen orphans and has received information that there are two more. He traveled to the Navajo Nation, found a white child who was too ill to travel so left it to be retrieved later. [9] Forney notified James Denver, Commissioner of Indian Affairs,on January 28,1859 that he has located seven more children for a total of seventeen. He placed them in a respectable home in Santa Clara paying for board and clothing.[10]

On March 8,1859, United States associate justice John Cradlebaugh convened a grand jury in Provo, Utah concerning the Mountain Meadows massacre and several other unsolved murders and crimes that occurred in the territory.[11] Cradlebaugh requested General A. S. Johnson, in command of the military department, furnish a small military force for the purpose of protecting the court. Also United States Marshal Dotson having difficulty forming a volunteer posse requested and received a few troops. Since no judicial buildings were available, the seminary building was used as the court and to house the officers without the consent of the Mormons which caused no small annoyance to the citizens. After spending two weeks examining the evidence and interviewing the witnesses, the jury found no evidence guilt and the grand jury was discharged.[12]

On March 18,1859, Forney notified Denver that he had been detained to give evidence before the grand jury of the United States district court, in relation to the murder of several white persons last June and October, and also of the Mountain Meadow affair and that he would travel south in advance of a military force. It was his intention to bring the seventeen children to Salt Lake City and to recover some estimated $30,000 worth of property and also some cash that had been distributed a few days after the Mountain Meadow butchering affair among the leading church dignitaries.[13] At Nephi, WM. H. Rogers was employed by Forney as an assistant[14] and at Beaver he employed J. Lynch and two of his men to drive his teams after he was abandon by guides.[15] Forney was guided through Mountain Meadows by Ira Hatch who described the murder of a survivor of the massacre he was traveling with by Indians. After spending several hours burying the remains, they departed for Santa Clara for the children. At Santa Clara they found the children happy an content, but poorly clad. They had sore eyes because of an epidemic that affected all the children of the area.[16][17][18] After waiting three days for clothes to be made for the thirteen children, they left for the home of John D. Lee in Harmony to recover some of the plunder. Lee denied having any of the victims property and also claimed that he was not present during the massacre but arrived when it was over along with Isaac Haight and an unnamed man. At Cedar City, they interviewed Haight and Bishop Higbee who denied any involvement. After collecting three more children in the city they traveled north to Corn Creek where Indian chief Kanosh informed them that there were two children.

At Corn Creek on April 29 they met an US Army expedition under the command of Capt. Campbell, whose purpose was to protect the California Road, investigate the Mountain Meadows massacre and escort the army payroll to Camp Floyd.[19] Judge Cradlebaugh, who had previously joined the expedition, and Lt. Kearney interviewed the children.[20] While Forney and sixteen of the children continued towards Salt Lake City, the expedition along with Rogers who was sworn in as a US Deputy Marshal traveled to Cedar City. Writs were issued for President Hight, Bishop Higby and Bishop Lee were but they were not to be found. On May 6,1859 at Mountain Meadows, Assistant Surgeon Brewer, buried the remains of 39 victims.[21] The expedition then continued to the Santa Clara in southern U.T. where Campbell,Cradlebaugh and Rogers, interviewed Chief Jackson, head of a Paiute band at Santa Clara, who told them that after the attack was made upon the emigrants at the corral, a white man came to them with a letter from Brigham Young directing them help fight the emigrants. A portion of the band went but did not fight because the emigrants had long guns and were good shots.[22][23][24] Rogers found an infant in Pocketville an directed Hamblin to deliver it to Forney.

Forney returned to Salt Lake City May 10, 1859 with 16 children. He estimated that the train had 115 members, 40 wagons, and and from 200 to 700 head of cattle. Forney's investigation revealed that the Indians began the attack Monday,Sept.10. and the firing continued five to seven days. A treaty was made that gave all the property to the Indians in exchange for the lives of the whites. Forney stated that the Indians received assistance from whites.[25]

On May 15, 1859, Brevet Major J. H. Carleton escorting Major Henry Prince Paymaster U.S.A. and with orders to bury the remains of the massacre rendezvoused with Captain Campbell on the Santa Clara. From there both commands camped at Mountain Meadows. After passing all available information to Carleton, Cradlebaugh, Rogers and a small contingent of soldiers departed for Cedar City. Rogers soon found an infant of the massacre living in Pocketville and requested that Hamblin retrieve the child and deliver it to Forney.[26] Cradlebaugh interviewed several witnesses of the massacre and issued thirty-six arrest warrants of the accused. After a few days in Cedar City, Campbell notified Cradlebaugh that he was no longer able to supply soldiers to protect the courts or serve serve in a posse. No longer able to protect the witnesses, Cradlebaugh departed with Campbell for Fort Floyd.[27]


Notes

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  1. ^ Brown 1857
  2. ^ Thompson 1860 Mitchell to Sebastian(December 31,1857) p.43
  3. ^ Christian 1857.
  4. ^ Crump 1858
  5. ^ Thompson 1860 Mix to Forney & Henley, pp.43&44, March 4, 1858
  6. ^ Thompson 1860 Forney to Mix, will leave in 4 weeks to retrieve orphans, pp.44 & 45 June 22, 1858.
  7. ^ Thompson 1860 Forney to Porter has ten children in his procession, p7(September 10,1858)
  8. ^ Index 1858Forney to corn Creek (December 7, 1858)
  9. ^ Hamblin 1859Hamblin finds child among the Indians (December 9,1858
  10. ^ Thompson 1860 Forney to Denver, pp48&49(January 29,1859)
  11. ^ Cradlebaugh 1859 harvnb error: multiple targets (2×): CITEREFCradlebaugh1859 (help)
  12. ^ Cradlebaugh 1859 harvnb error: multiple targets (2×): CITEREFCradlebaugh1859 (help)
  13. ^ Thompson 1860 Forney to Denver, pp52&53(March 18,1859)
  14. ^ Rogers 1860
  15. ^ Lynch 1859
  16. ^ Thompson 1860 Forney to Gen Johnston,p.8
  17. ^ Rogers 1860
  18. ^ Thompson 1860 sworn testimony of James Lynch, p.81
  19. ^ Thompson 1860 p14
  20. ^ Kearney 1859
  21. ^ Thompson 1860 Assistant Surgeon Brewer to Capt.Campbell,pp16&17
  22. ^ >Thompson 1860 Capt. Campbell report. p.15
  23. ^ >Cradlebaugh 1863
  24. ^ Rogers 1860
  25. ^ Brooks,Juanita(1950),Appendix X
  26. ^ Rogers 1860
  27. ^ >Cradlebaugh 1863 pp122-123


References

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  • Bagley, Will (2002), Blood of the Prophets: Brigham Young and the Massacre at Mountain Meadows, Norman, Oklahoma: University of Oklahoma Press, ISBN 0-8061-3426-7.
  • Briggs, Robert H. (2006), "The Mountain Meadows Massacre: An Analytical Narrative Based on Participant Confessions", Utah Historical Quarterly 74 (4): 313-333.
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