The 1838 Mormon War was a series of armed conflicts between Latter Day Saints and other settlers in northern Missouri during the summer and fall of 1838. The conflict had deep historical roots, stemming from early Mormon settlement in Missouri driven by religious revelations instructing them to gather in Kirtland, Ohio, and Jackson County, Missouri. Facing increasing hostility from neighboring settlers, an 1833 crisis resulted in their forceful eviction from Jackson County by vigilantes. The Missouri legislature created Caldwell County in 1836 as a compromise for displaced Mormon settlers; however, the relocation of Mormon leaders from Kirtland in early 1838 intensified fears of Mormon consolidation and expansion in the state, setting the stage for renewed conflict.
Violence reignited on August 6, 1838, after a group attempted to prevent Mormons from voting in Gallatin, Daviess County, Missouri. This incident catalyzed the formation of vigilance committees and initiated a period of mutual vigilante violence between the two groups. The conflict was initially characterized by this reciprocal violence between Mormons and other settlers in the region.
The conflict escalated when the Missouri state militia intervened directly in the disputes between the parties. This escalation marked a significant shift from local vigilante confrontations to official state military involvement. The war concluded with the issuance of the Missouri Executive Order 44, which mandated the extermination or expulsion of the Mormons from the state. This executive order represented the ultimate consequence of the conflict, effectively ending the Mormon presence in Missouri through legal decree backed by state authority.
The early republic period saw the United States move from the weak Articles of Confederation to the federal Constitution ratified in 1788, with the Bill of Rights added in 1791. George Washington served two terms as president (1789–1797), establishing precedents for executive authority, and the federal capital moved permanently to Washington D.C. in 1800. The Louisiana Purchase (1803) doubled the nation's territory for roughly $15 million, opening vast trans-Mississippi lands to American expansion. The War of 1812 against Britain ended inconclusively but produced a surge of American national identity and eliminated most British support for Indigenous resistance east of the Mississippi. The Northwest Indian Wars (1785–1795) and the Creek War (1813–1814) broke Indigenous confederacies that had resisted US expansion. The Missouri Compromise of 1820 temporarily balanced slave and free states as the nation expanded westward, but embedded the contradiction of slavery in every subsequent territorial debate.
Light casualties
Content adapted from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Aubrey generates in-depth historical research for any location in the US, drawing on NRHP records, battlefield archives, census history and geological data to tell the full story of a place.