them & it was thought advisable by and & others that they should return home Major ordered to call out the militia of & defend the against the mob for said he you have great reason to be alarmed for he said from the Platte Country had come down with 200 armed men and had taken up their station at Hunter’s Mill a place distant about 17 or 18 miles north west of the Town of , and also that an armed force had collected <​again​> at Millport, in again <​consisting​> of several hundred men and that an<​other​> armed force had collected at in Carroll County about 50 miles of South east of where about 70 families of the mormon people had settled upon the Bank of the at a little Town called “.” Immediately a messenger, whilst he was yet talking, came in from , stating that three or four hundred men had assembled together <​at that place​> armed cap-a-pie and that they threatened the utter extinction of the citizens of that place if they did not leave the place immediately and that they had also surrounded the town & cut off all supplies of food, so that many of them were suffering with hunger. seemed to be very much alarmed, <​&​> he seemed <​appeared​> to be willing to do all he could to assist and to relieve the sufferings of the mormon people; he advised that a petition be immediately got up & sent to the . A petition was accordingly prepared and a messenger despatched immediately to the and another petition was sent to . The <​mormon​> people throughout the Country were in <​a​> great state of alarm and also in great distress; they saw themselves completely surrounded with armed forces on the north & on the north west and on the South & also , who had formerly been <​was​> a methodist preacher, & who was then a captain over a militia company of 50 soldiers <​but​> who had added to his <​number​> [p. 4]