Mormons At DeWitt

At Nauvoo, After Dewitt

The story from Chipman's Family's Life Among The Mormons from the History of Leeds and Grenville Ontario from 1749 to 1879... (links added):

At DeWitt [Missouri] the Mormons were surrounded by a mob and threatened with extermination. The Mormons numbered about two hundred men, women and children. Skirmishing was kept up for some time, until a steamboat arrived, by which a message was dispatched to the Governor of the State, asking for protection. The Governor, whose name was Boggs, paid no attention to the message but sent word to the mob "to kill every Mormon."

A compromise was effected by which it was agreed that the heads of the Mormon Church should surrender themselves as hostages, the remainder of the Mormons to be set free. Accordingly, Brigham Young, Lee, Lyman White, Lyman P. Pratt, Austin Pratt, and others, surrendered and were incarcerated in Clay County Gaol; subsequently they were tried and acquitted.