At Adam-ondi-Ahman the scenes of De Witt were repeated. Houses were burned, cattle were run off, women and children were driven out and exposed to a terrible storm which prevailed on the 17th and 18th of October. In many cases people in ill health were torn from their beds and were refused time to secure comfortable clothing in which to make their flight. Among the fugitives was Agnes Smith, the wife of the Prophet's brother, Don Carlos, who was absent on a mission to Tennessee. Her house had been burned by the mob, her property seized, and she had fled three miles, wading Grand River and carrying all the way two helpless babes in her arms—glad to escape death and outrage.
Joseph's soul rose in arms at these crimes. The sacrifice had been sufficient. Every possible appeal had been made and denied. Henceforth the Saints must protect themselves, and God arm the right! It was this resolve alone which saved the remaining element of the Church that finally escaped from Missouri. At Adam-ondi-Ahman the mob intended to make a work of extermination; but after the arrival of the troops there, promises were demanded and secured from General Parks for the organization of a militia company to resist the attack and quell the mob. The force was immediately raised and placed under the command of Colonel Lyman Wight who held a commission in the fifty-ninth regiment under General Parks. These troops went out with a determination to drive the mob or die. They no longer fought in the state of Missouri for their rights as American citizens; that day had passed. They fought for life, for home, and for that which was dearer than all, the honor and safety of their wives and daughters who had been threatened with ravishment.
A remembrance of the day at Gallatin, when twelve had put one hundred and fifty to flight, suddenly came upon the mob as they saw the advancing forces of the Saints; and they fled. But fleeing, they resorted to stratagem. They removed everything of value from some of their own old log cabins and then set fire to these structures, afterwards spreading abroad through all the country the declaration that the "Mormons" had plundered and burned the mansions of law-abiding citizens.
An incident of this period shows the Prophet's calmness and self-command in the face of danger, as well as the influence of his presence even upon sworn enemies.
He was sitting in his father's house near the edge of the prairie one day, writing letters, when a large party of armed mobocrats called at the place. Lucy Smith, the Prophet's mother, demanded their business, and they replied that they were on the way to kill "Joseph, the Mormon Prophet." His mother remonstrated with them; and Joseph, having finished his writing and hearing the threats against himself, walked to the door and stood before them with folded arms, bared head and such a look of majesty in his eyes that they quailed before him. Though they were unacquainted with his identity, they knew they were in the presence of greatness; and when his mother introduced him as the man they sought, they started as if they had seen a spectre.
The Prophet invited the leaders into the house, and without alluding to their purpose of murder, he talked to them earnestly with regard to the persecutions against the Saints. When he concluded, so deeply had they been impressed, that they insisted upon giving him an escort to protect him to his home.
As they departed, one of the mob leaders said to another:
Didn't you feel strange when Smith took you by the hand?
And his companion replied:
I could not move. I would not harm a hair of that man's head for the whole world.