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Source: Church History Vol. 2 Chapter 13 Page: 232 (~1838)

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232 in prayer. Then they sang from the Mormon hymn book a selection entitled 'Moroni's Lamentation,' a dirge-like composition, lacking in poesy and deficient in rhythm, but giving something of comfort, let us hope, to the choristers. And so in prayer and song and ministration the remainder of the night was passed.

"The next morning the corpses had changed, and were changing fast. They must be buried. There were not enough men left to make coffins or even dig graves. It could not be determined when relief would come or when the Gentiles would return. There was a large unfinished well near the mill, which it was decided should be used as a common sepulcher. Four men, one of whom was Joseph W. Young, a brother of Brigham Young, gathered up the bodies, the women assisting, and bore them, one at a time, on a large plank to the well, and slid them in. Some hay was strewn upon the ghastly pile and then a thin layer of dirt thrown upon the hay.

"The next day Captain Comstock's company returned to the mill, as they said, to bury the dead. Finding that duty had been attended to, they expressed considerable satisfaction at having been relieved of the job, and, after notifying the people that they must leave the State, or they would all be killed, they rode away. The pit was subsequently filled by Mr. C. R. Ross, now a resident of Black Oak, Caldwell County.

"A day or two after the massacre, Colonel Jennings started with his battalion to join the State forces at Far West. He had not proceeded far when he met a messenger who informed him that the Mormons at Far West had surrendered, and gave him an order to move to Daviess County and join the forces under Gen. Robert Wilson, then operating against the Mormons at Adam-ondi-ahman. The battalion was present at the surrender at 'Diamon,' as it is generally called, and a day or two thereafter Captain Comstock's company was ordered to Haun's mill, where it remained in camp for some weeks. Herewith I give an extract from an affidavit made by Mrs. Amanda Smith, whose husband and little son were killed in the massacre,

(page 232)

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