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.

It was unknown how much longer peace could be maintained between the Mormon settlement of Navu and the anti-Mormons in nearby Carthage and Warsaw, Illinois.

Both sides felt their rights had been infringed. Both sides considered the other antithetical to the existence of their own side.

Both of them wanted to get Governor Thomas Ford on their side, which would grant them license to do whatever they saw fit, at least in their eyes.

Neither party imagined a de-escalation of the conflict without some kind of climactic resolution.

For the Mormons, that might be warfare against yet another state.

For the anti-Mormans, it might be warfare against the Mormons in yet another state. Both sides were

ratcheting up the conflict, and only violent resolution of some kind seemed to be the pacification for all of these growing troubles.

Conflict, however, spelled disaster for all involved parties. But that didn't stop them from glorifying

in the destruction of their enemies, but war has some significant costs beyond human life.

How does a state sustain militias of men who are normally blacksmiths and farmers?

You know, those soldiers need to be fed, and the work that they'd be doing if they weren't engaged

in warfare still needs to be done.

The Mormons, on the other hand, had demonstrated in their past that if they're

unable to sustain themselves during warfare with their own provisions, they'll just raid local

non-Mormon settlements for supplies. So at the end of the day, this lawlessness gave the Mormons the

upper hand in any armed conflict, and it made the non-Mormon settlements surrounding Navu

...