I am Ryan McKnight.

I'm Kara Santa Maria.

I am Christopher Smith.

Hi, I'm Andrew Torres.

This is Naked Mormonism.

The Serial Mormon History podcast.

At first appearances, it may have looked like Joseph Smith was in a bad situation.

He was in custody of an Illinois sheriff and a sheriff from Missouri sent on a special assignment

with an order from the state's governors of Missouri and Illinois to bring Joe into Missouri to face trial.

Once there, he'd face all of those old charges of the Missouri

Mormon War and with being an accessory before the fact in the assassination attempt of

ex-governor Lilbert Boggs, shot down in his own home during his campaign for Missouri

State Senator. Any time that Joseph Smith was arrested, Mormon settlements went in lockdown mode.

In response to Joe's personal scribe, William Clayton, bringing intel back to Navu that Joe was arrested, the Navu Legion set out a night watch, and hundreds of legionnaires set out on land and water to search the entire state for Joe's arresting posse.

Now, what's interesting here is the lines between state militia and Joe's own private

army were very blurry.

The Navu Legion was established as a city militia, but in the bylaws of the Navu Charter,

they were subject to the command of the Illinois State Governor Thomas Ford.

Now, Ford had given the proper paperwork to Sheriff's Wilson and Reynolds for them to arrest

Joseph Smith.

So, of course, you know, Governor Ford wouldn't want the Navajo Legion interfering with the

arrest and extradition that these sheriffs were trying to, you know, carry out.

...