Alexander and Eunice McRae, 7th installment

There had been trouble with mobs since the time of Joseph’s death two years earlier. The mobs were now growing more insistent that the remaining Mormons clear out of Nauvoo and out of Illinois immediately. However, it was September before there was a serious threat to the safety of the Saints. On September 10, 1846, the watchmen on the temple tower saw a mob approaching the city along the Carthage Road. The mob wanted Nauvoo surrendered immediately, and wanted its citizens to leave the state within thirty days. [Journal History, September 10, 1846.] Companies of volunteers had earlier been organized to defend the city. Alexander McRae was in command of the 2nd company. The 2nd, 3rd, and 4th Companies were ordered to advance to a cornfield north of the road and east of Calkin’s brick house, and 1st Company was posted in a hollow at the corner of the field by the graveyard.

The mob advanced and camped for the night. Captain McRae with four of his men crawled through the thick grass and weeds under cover of a fence to a place where the mob cannon had been. They hoped to get a shot at a guard stationed there, but the guard left before they got within shooting range. [Journal History, September 10, 1846.]

The next day the mob continued its attack on Nauvoo. No reinforcements arrived for the Mormons. William Anderson chose a band of select men as flankers and sharp shooters, mostly armed with repeating rifles. The new group was known as the Spartan Band.

The Spartan Band advanced to the New La Harpe Road, and ambushed the mob in a cornfield south of the road, but they had to fall back finally, or be surrounded by mob flankers. They retreated slowly. The mob continued to advance and the volunteers to retreat toward Nauvoo. [Journal History, September 11, 1846.] The volunteers remained during the night on Young and Winchester Streets and erected breastworks. On the 12th the mob sent a flag of truce and an offer of surrender terms. The Mormons would have to give up their arms and allow the mob to enter the city. Benjamin Clifford, commanding the Illinois militia in the city, refused to accept their terms.

The Spartan Band was now stationed in the extreme northern part of the city, in a thicket. Upon receiving Clifford’s reply to their surrender terms, the mob drew up in a column on ground between their camp and the city. Their cannon began firing. The Mormon cannon returned the fire. There was cannonading for fifteen or twenty minutes.

The Spartan Band began to move south. The other companies were also retreating before the mobs. At this point there was an engagement of an hour and twenty minutes between the mobbers and the Mormons, and the mob began to be driven back. After taking care of their dead and wounded, the volunteers resumed the positions they had held in the morning. The command of the Spartan Band now devolved on Alexander McRae and Almon L. Fullmer. They moved their company to a position on Knight Street.

The mob newspaper, the Warsaw Signal, complained after the battle that the mob would have taken the city if they had only had more cannon bails, but they had only 61 to begin with. The paper also reported the strength of the mob as 500 men, with four pieces of artillery. [Journal History, September 12, 1846; Documentary History, 1846:331.]

The next day, which was a Sunday, was not disturbed by a major battle. Several scouting parties on both sides were constantly on the move, and occasionally exchanged shots. About dusk the Mormons advanced and fired into the mob camp. [Journal History, September 13, 1846; Documentary History, 1846:333.]

On the 14th there was some firing of small arms. The volunteers spent the day repairing and extending their batteries. There was some cannonading. [Journal History, September 14, 1846; Documentary History, 1846:333.]

The next day the Spartan Band kept a close watch on the movements of the mob troops, but there was no attack. A committee of 100 new mobbers arrived in the camp of the mob from Quincy. [Journal History, September 15, 1846; Documentary History, p 334.]

On September 16, there was a conference between the trustees-in-trust for the Church, who had been left in charge of Nauvoo when the Quorum of the Twelve had gone to Winter Quarters, the commanders of the mob, and the chairman of the Quincy “committee”. An agreement was reached whereby the city of Nauvoo would be surrendered to the mob the next day at 3 p.m., the Mormons would deliver up their arms, to receive them again upon crossing the Mississippi, and would leave the state. [Journal History, September 16, 1846; Warsaw Signal, Oct. 13, 1846; Documentary History, p.334.]

Many of the volunteers were outraged over the action of the Church trustees. A good many of them felt incensed. Because of their success on the 12th, they felt they could beat the mob. However, the trustees decided that the city could not be defended, and that it ought to be surrendered without further bloodshed, as it would soon be abandoned in any event. The volunteer troops were disbanded, and preparations were made to leave the city. At 3 p.m., September 17, 1846, 1,500 mobbers marched into the city. [Journal History, September 17, 1846; Documentary History, p. 340.] Charles Middleton said he was an eye-witness to the surrender of the various companies of the Nauvoo Legion. Of Captain Alexander McRae he said: “He marched his company up, then drew his sword from the scabbard and drove it into the ground. (He was a giant of a man). He twisted the handle from the blade and threw it on the ground in front of the receiving officer, and said, ‘Take it, if it will do you any good!’ He was ordered shot. Several guns were snapped, but none of them went off, and he escaped.” [Joseph A. and Eunice H. McRae, Historical Facts Regarding the Liberty and Carthage Jails, p. 46.] He was a hunted man for a long while, while his wife and family were wondering what had become of him. Eunice had to take care of the family, which probably included getting them across the river into Iowa. [Joseph A. and Eunice H. McRae, Historical Facts Regarding the Liberty and Carthage Jails, p. 46.]