Nauvoo Legion

“ Agreeably to your orders, I assembled the Nauvoo Legion for the protection of Nauvoo and the surrounding country against an armed band of marauders; and ever since they have been mustered I have almost daily communicated with you in regard to all the leading events that have transpired; and whether in the capacity of mayor of the city, or lieutenant general of the Nauvoo Legion, I have striven, according to the best of my judgment, to preserve the peace and to administer even-handed justice ”

“ We may add also, that when a petition was sent to the governor to come to Nauvoo in person to investigate the cause of the disturbance, the service of the Legion was tendered him to keep the peace. But that Joseph had come to a settled determination to maintain the rights of the people at all hazards, and submit no longer to mob violence, may be clearly understood from the spirit of these extracts from the speech made to the Legion on the occasion of his taking command of it.
We are American citizens. ”

“ As a people, we perform military duty as the laws of the State of Illinois enjoin and require. The legion answers the purpose to keep the lawless and mobocratic at a respectful distance; and the more "earthquake and storm" our enemies raise about the Nauvoo Legion, and a military chieftain like the ancient Mahomet, the greater fear and dread of us will be conveyed to the minds of the lawless, who watch for prey, and spoil, and booty. ”

“ The lieutenant-general had invited the consolidated staff of the Legion to partake of a repast militaire on the occasion, at his house.
On the morning of the day appointed for the drill and review two thousand troops were in the field; and an immense concourse of spectators, both of Saints and strangers. Such was the interests taken in the movement of the people of Nauvoo, that a number of the prominent men of the State within reach of the city attended the review. Judge Stephen A. Douglass adjourned the circuit court, then in session at the county seat, Carthage, in order to attend. ”

“ Just then a party of immigrants encamping on the Malade River shot two Indian women. By way of reprisal the savages killed a pioneer named Campbell who was building a saw-mill near Ogden, and threatened to massacre the entire population of the town. Matters began to look serious, and the commander of the Nauvoo Legion gave the Indians chase, and so overwhelmed them that they at once retreated, taking with [503] them no captives more important than many horses and cattle belonging to the white settlers. ”

“ The Roman Catholics in Philadelphia were attacked by a lawless mob, and thousands turned out to demolish their churches and dwellings, and murder their people, and the perpetrators of such deeds are suffered to go unpunished—this fills the Nauvoo Legion with burning indignation. The legacy bequeathed to us by our forefathers was a constitution which will protect every man in his civil and religious rights ”

“ Mr. Macarthy related a characteristic trait concerning two warriors of the Nauvoo Legion. Unaccustomed to perpendicular fire, one proposed that his comrade should stand upon the crest of the precipice and see if the bullet reached him or not; the comrade, thinking the request highly reasonable, complied with it, and received a yäger-ball through his forehead.
Traces of beaver were frequent in the torrent-bed; the "broad-tailed animal" is now molested by the Indians rather than by the whites. ”

“ Dan Jones was sent to Quincy by the Prophet with a letter to lawyer O. H. Browning, applying for his professional services in the pending trial. The letter was handed to Jones by A. W. Babbitt, the former not being allowed to enter the jail after leaving it in the morning. The mob being informed by the guard of the letter, set up the cry that Joe Smith was sending an order by Jones to the Nauvoo Legion to come and rescue him. A crowd surrounded Jones and demanded the letter but the fearless Welshman refused to give it up ”

“ The Legion is not, as has been falsely represented by its enemies, exclusively a Mormon military association, but a body of citizen soldiers organized (without regard to political preferences or religious sentiments) for the public defense, the general good, and the preservation of law and order—to save the innocent, unoffending citizens from the iron grasp of the oppressor, and perpetuate and sustain our free institutions against misrule, anarchy and mob violence; no other views are entertained or tolerated.—Joseph Smith. ”

“ With the Nauvoo Legion at their back, the two brothers voluntarily placed themselves in the power of the governor who, demanding and accepting their surrender, though doubting their guilt, nevertheless declared that they were not his prisoners, but the pris- oners of the constable and jailer. Leaving two com- panies to guard the jail, he disbanded the main body of his troops, and proceeding to Nauvoo, addressed the people, beseeching them to abide by the law. "They claimed," he says, "to be a law-abiding people ”

“ The governor then sent word to Smith that he and his associates would be protected if they would surrender, but that arrested they should be, even if it took the whole militia force of the state to accomplish this. The constable and guards who carried the governor's mandate to Nauvoo found the city a military camp. Smith had placed it under martial law, assembled the Legion, called in all the outlying Mormons, and ordered that no one should enter or leave the place without submitting to the strictest inquiry. ”

“ The city of Nauvoo will surrender. The force of Colonel Brockman to enter and take possession of the city tomorrow, the seventeenth of September, at three o'clock p. m.
2. The arms to be delivered to the Quincy committee, to be returned on the crossing of the river.
3. The Quincy committee pledge themselves to use their influence for the protection of persons and property from all violence, and the officers of the camp and the men pledge themselves to protect all persons and property from violence.
4. The sick and helpless to be protected and treated with humanity. ”

“ The volunteers returned, after a hard fight, with a body past any human judgments. Kloof, Daimamoto, Sheffield, and Beziers, all of whom had lost their lives in the battle with the Beni Harb, were soon buried on the beach by the hungry, thirsty, sand-penetrated Legionaries. The shallow graves were piled with driftwood—rocks there were none, even in the wady, which' was of clay and gravel—and so, protected as best might be from beasts and birds, four of the Legion entered their long homes. The only ceremony over the fallen adventurers was the firing of a volley of six pistol-shots. ”

“ It is not the cruelties of the penal battalion, not the brutality of punishments, not the poor devils who for some mere trifle are shot under martial law, that illustrate best the horrors of the Legion system. It is the marches that do this; the marches of the Foreign Legion condemn the system of the Foreign Legion!
Our manœuvre march of 600 kilometres occupied sixteen days. On the stages in the far south the rations consisted almost entirely of rice, and to the hardships of the daily 40 kilometres the pangs of hunger were added. ”

“ Their pay was always ridiculously small, their punishments barbarous, and the discipline that they were subject to more than hard. And yet there were always thousands of recruits willing to shed their life's blood, who did not serve under the Legion's flag merely to earn their living, but formed one of the best bodies of troops in the world. What misery and misfortune must there be in Europe to bring thousands and thousands of poor and desperate men flocking to the Legion's standard, whose total in the eighty years of the regiment's existence must add up to an overwhelming figure. ”

“ Punctually at 6 A.M. we recruits mustered in the barrack-yard in drill uniform: white linen suit, blue sash, knapsack, cartridge-belt and rifle—uniforms and leather trappings of shining brightness. The almost pedantic cleanliness of the Legion, the coquetry of each individual légionnaire to put a certain amount of "chic" into his uniform, was the first thing Corporal Wassermann's vanity had taught us. ”

“ Men who stood nearest to the Prophet Joseph, and who were bound in honor to defend his life, not bare the knives that were to strike him down, combined together in secret covenant for his overthrow.
Owing to the constant efforts of the Prophet's enemies in Missouri, to capture him and drag him to Missouri where he might be murdered with impunity, the force of police in Nauvoo was increased by the appointment of forty night-guards to patrol the city. These made it less convenient for the conspirators, who worked, as men ever do when engaged in such business—in the darkness. ”

“ Is a sentinel attacked, then he must defend himself with his bayonet until he can alarm the guard and bring the officer on duty to the rescue with cartridges. Such things are significant. But they do not prevent the légionnaire from being a splendid soldier.
Individual training—Boer tactics—practical instruction ... that is the Legion. And it marches. Now and then its marching powers are increased artificially. The "compagnies montées" one with each regiment, companies mounted on mules, have even done seventy kilometres a day. Every two men have a mule. ”

“ He might even be punished with deportation into the penal battalion. Losing part of the uniform was the very worst crime known in the Legion.
The Swiss ran up and down the stairs hunting for his lost uniforms, but naturally found nothing.
Again the old légionnaires talked to him. They played their part very well.
"You're a poor devil," they said. "We're sorry for you. We'll try and help you. It's a very difficult case, but we might be able to do something. The non-commissioned officer of the third company's storeroom is a pretty decent fellow. He'll do something for an old légionnaire. ”

“ He talks about it with his friends; in every spare moment he washes and cleans for the non-commissioned officers to earn a few coppers, and every evening he sits with the veterans, with the old grey-haired fellows who have breathed the air of the Legion so long that they are no use for any other sort of work, and who, as if under a spell, no matter how often they have sworn never to don the red trousers again, always come back again to the Legion. They know Algeria like the palm of their own hand and gladly sell their priceless wisdom for a litre of canteen wine. ”

“ The renegade officer came running back, calling out, "McCraw has struck the Legion at the grist-mill!" In the intense silence around me the noise of the conflict grew, increasing, then became fainter and fainter until it died out to the westward and all was still.
The Indians came crowding back from the edge of the grove, shoving through the circle of those who guarded me, pushing, pressing, surging around me.
"Give him to us!" they muttered, under their breath. "The flag has not come; they will hang your Walter Butler! Give him to us! The Legion cavalry is driving your riders into the west! ”

“ The soldiery in Nauvoo numbered near four thousand, while those in alliance with the bloody perpetrators in the country, were not more than one-half the number. They would have been an easy prey to the merited revenge of the outraged force at Nauvoo; but that force bore the outrages with coolness and wisdom that has never been equalled by uninspired men. They governed themselves under circumstances the most extraordinary, and hearkened calmly to the voice of wisdom, when their pain and grief were almost insupportable. ”

“ The non-coms. are all-powerful and tyrannical; the officers are utterly uninterested in the men as individuals, and do not even know their names.
And I was not one of their own officers of the Legion. I was a Spahi officer, superintending the organising of mule-cavalry out of infantry; or rather, making ordinary infantry into mounted infantry, that the Legion might hope to compete with the Touaregs in mobility. We wanted mounted riflemen down there just as you did in the Boer War, or else the Arabs served us as the Boers did you at first. ”

“ I felt that an outbreak of some kind would occur, but the chief trouble was to persuade myself that it would be merely a rash act on the part of one man, who would free all from tyranny and take the punishment by himself, but as the days wore on I, who knew the Legion by heart, could see that there was a far greater chance of a number of men being concerned in the émeute. One thing delayed action, the newcomers and the rest had not sufficiently fraternised—four hundred strangers are too many for any battalion to assimilate quickly. ”

“ On September 10th, 11th, and 12th, there was some desultory firing on both sides, without much advantage being gained. On the thirteenth, however, the mob-forces advanced in solid column, making a desperate effort to reach Mulholland street, the principal street leading into Nauvoo from the east. If the onset was desperate, the resistance was equally determined. ”

“ At the request of Captain Dunn he countersigned the governor's order for the State arms. But the captain prevailed upon him to return to Nauvoo and assist in collecting the arms, promising that afterwards the militia under his command should escort himself and party into Carthage, and he would protect them even at the risk of his own life, to which his men assented by three hearty cheers. ”