On 18 December 1843, in , Illinois, JS issued an order to , major general of the , instructing him to detach members of the legion to help enforce an arrest warrant. Ten days earlier, JS had ordered Law to mobilize a portion of the legion to be held in readiness to defend the city. However, since that time, JS had apparently not issued any further orders for the mobilized troops. On 18 December, testimony given during a hearing before Justice of the Peace implicated , a leader in the Anti-Mormon Party, in the kidnapping of member , and Johnson accordingly issued a warrant for Williams’s arrest. Johnson gave the warrant to that afternoon. Stout soon left Nauvoo to serve the warrant, but at ten o’clock that night word reached Nauvoo that Williams was assembling a mob to resist any arrests. Johnson petitioned JS to supply one hundred Nauvoo Legion members to help enforce laws. Straightaway, JS granted Johnson’s petition and issued an order to Law instructing him to detach one hundred men under Johnson’s direction. JS’s scribe made a copy of the order that night before midnight on the same sheet as his copy of Johnson’s petition.

Acting on JS’s order, immediately sent one hundred men under the command of to reinforce . That night, the men traveled to southern but stopped within two miles of ’s location when they “were informd that a body of men had collected around him armd with rifles.” The posse decided to return to , where JS instructed them that “it was best not to [go] down again at present but let the mob abide there for a public disgrace, and when the mob had dispersd then our men could go down & bring Colonel Williams without trouble.”

JS’s original order is not extant. ’s copy is featured here.