Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1886-07-02
MEADOWS.
The Blackest Spot in the Dssrx History Of
the Mormon Church,

the Mormon Church,
Early in September, 1857, the com
pany of emigrants that had beef
ordered out of Salt Lake valley. ant
compelled to take the southern route
to the coast. entered the meadows anC
encampcd with the intention of resting
and recruiting before crossing the
desert. Nothing occurred to alarm
them the first day, and when night fell
they took no precautions except such
as had been customary with them dur
ing the journey. The valley seemed q
haven of safety, and they laid down te
rest with thankful hearts, but while
they slept a plot for their destruction
was maturing. The Nauvoo legion.
obedient to "orders from head.
quarters" had surrounded the unsus.
pecting emigrants on every side. A
portion of the legion, painted and dis.
guised as Indians had been sent on in
company with savages less cruel than
themselves to attack the train. The
remaining companies of Mormon militia
had other orders. At daybreak the
guard at the e%migrants' camp perceived
dark forms moving upon the surround.
ing hillsidcs. He aroused his comrades,
and as the dusky figures showed more
plainly in the growing light they
decided that they were Indians and that
an attack was intended. 1t was neces.
sary to think and act quickly, and a
barricade was formed at once with the
wagons of the company, but before
their hurried preparations for defense
were completed the sharp crack Of
rifles and the whizzing of bullets de-
noted that the battle had begun. 1t
was already only too plain that their
assailants greatly outnumbered them,
and from savages, as they supposed
them to be, no quarter was expected,
but love stronger than death nerved
their arms and strengthened their
hearts for the contest. Let the father
who reads these lines by his own fire.
side, with the bright heads of his chill
dren clustering around him, ask him
self against how great odds he could
fight if a cruel and lingering death
menaced his darlings. Let him take
his youngest born on his knee, and
while the soft, baby eyes are uplifted to
his face let him measure, if he can, tho
anguish of those fathers, who turned
from a last look at just such faces to
meet the fierce onset of their murdcrous
foes.
All day ongt the unequal battle ragged.
At night the fire of the assailants slack
ened, but the light from piles of burn
ing sage brush showed that they still
surrounded the emigrants' camp on
every side. Before sunrise a murder
Gus rain of bullets recommended, and
again continued until nightfall. The
third day was q repetition of the first,
but on the fourth day access to the
springs was cut off, and the horrors of
death from thirst stared them in the
face, yet they fought with desperate
courage, and when the sun went down
they still held their position and kept
the foe at bay. The morning of the
fifth day found them worn, exhausted,
tortured by burning thirst, but with
hearts as u%ndaunted as ever. Late in
the afternoon the steady firing of the
besiegers ceased, and when they looked
out to ascertain the cause, they saw a
party of white men approaching. their
leader bearing a flag of truce. Let it
be remembered the emigrants had new
er doubted that their assailants were
Indians, and the sight of white men.
coming as they believed to the rescue,
was as welcome as a vision of angels.
In answer to the flag of truce a little
girl was dressed in white, and placed
on one of the wagons In view of what
followed, this act was full of unuttera-
Bile pathos. Truly, they had decked a
lamb for sacrifice. The white men,, as
they drew near proved to be a body of
Mormon militia, headed by their Off
GERS, who were also the Bishops of the
surrounding settlements. They repre-
sented that they had done their best to
induce the ''Indians'' to leave, but they
would not do so unless the emigrants
would agree to give up their property,
stack their arms and march out of the
valley under the escort of the militia.
The %emigrants, seeing no other pros
pect of saving the lives of their fami-
lice, agreed to these hard conditions.
After making the required surrender
theywere divided into three companies.
The ome and children went first,
under the escort Of a detachment of the
legion The men followed atsome dis
lance, guarded by another body of mi
litia,and a wagon containing the wound
ed brought up the rear.
And now comes the BLACKLIST page in
this chapter of treachery and murder,
a page that the most callous historian
might shrink from recording. At a
given signal from the officers in COM
mand, the unarmed men were shot
down, and when the last one lay dead
or dying on the bloody soil, the
slaughter of the women and children
and the butchery Of the wounded began.
When the sun set that night on the
Redeemed and trampled Meadows, one
hundred and nineteen mangied corpses
strewed the ground. OF all the COM
pany that entered the valley none re-
manned alive except some of the smaller
children. Why they were saved when
SO many other children were shot down
without mercy. lone but the perpetra-
tors of the deed can explain.
The two Oldest of the. children thus
saved were for some weeks in the care.
of a friend of the writer, and from them
many Of the details of those dreadful
five days in Tremendous were obtained.