Page:History of Utah.djvu/281

, passim.

Captain Anderson ^° at the head of thirty -five men, termed by the saints the Spartan band. The enemy now fired some rounds of grape-shot, forcing the be- sieged to retire out of range; and after some further cannonading, darkness put an end to the skirmish, the Mormons throwing up breastworks during the night. '«

On the morning of the 12th the demand of uncon- ditional surrender was promptly rejected; where- upon, at a given signal, several hundred men who had been stationed in ambush, on the west bank of the river, to cut off the retreat of the Mormons, appeared with red flags in their hands, thus portending massacre. The assailants now opened fire from all their batter- ies, and soon afterward advanced to the assault, slowly, and with the measured tramp of veterans, at their head being Constable Carlin and the Rev- erend Brockman, and unfurled above them — the stars and stripes. When within rifle-range of the breastworks the posse wheeled toward the south, at- tempting to outflank the saints and gain possession of the temple square. But this movement had been anticipated, and posted in the woods to the north of the Mormon position lay the Spartan band. Leading on his men at double-quick, Anderson suddenly con- fronted the enemy and opened a brisk fire from re- volving rifles.^^ The posse advanced no farther, but for an hour and a half held their ground bravely against the Spartan band, the expense of ammunition in proportion to casualties being greater than has yet been recorded in modern warfare. Then they re- treated in excellent order to the camp. The losses of the Mormons were three killed and a few slightly wounded; the losses of the gentiles are variously

MS., p. 7.
 * He was more than brave, he was presumptuous. Wells, in Utah Notes,

^^ 'Many of our log houses were torn down by the mob, which numbered 1.000 men; we made barricades of corn-stalks stacked up.' Wells, in Utah Notes, MS., 7.

^' Elder John S. Fullmer, then a colonel in the Nauvoo legion, claims that he directed this movement. Exp