Carthage Gray Militia

The Carthage Gray Militia enters the narrative through the men who guarded the jail where Joseph Smith was killed and the officers later named in the murder case. The account makes a specific connection between the militia’s lieutenant, Frank Worrell, and the failure of the guard to prevent the killing, while distinguishing his reported actions from the organization as a whole.

Identity and Local Role

The Carthage Gray Militia was a local military force in Hancock County. The evidence identifies officers by rank, including a lieutenant, a colonel, a major, and two captains, but does not describe the militia’s broader organization or membership. Its significance in the narrative rests on the involvement of particular officers in the events surrounding the jail and the subsequent prosecution.

The Jail Guard

Frank Worrell, a lieutenant in the Carthage Gray Militia, was in charge of guarding the jail on the evening Joseph Smith was murdered. According to the account, Worrell commanded the militiamen to fire blank cartridges at the approaching mob, then stepped aside, leaving the mob able to kill Smith. The narrative thus links the militia’s presence at the jail to the circumstances that allowed the attack, while attributing the described conduct to Worrell and the guards under his command rather than asserting that every member of the militia took part.

Indictment and Aftermath

In May 1845, nine men were indicted for the murders of Joseph Smith and Hyrum Smith. The account identifies several defendants as leading figures in western Illinois, including a colonel, a major, and two captains in the Carthage Gray Militia. The proceedings took place amid intense anti-Mormon feeling in Hancock County, and the two surviving Mormon witnesses to the murders, John Taylor and Willard Richards, refused to appear because they feared they would be killed if they came near Carthage, Illinois. The account reports that the defendants were found not guilty on May 30.

Worrell remained a figure in the continuing violence after the trial. On September 16, Porter Rockwell encountered him while Worrell was pursuing a local sheriff who had expressed sympathy for the Mormons, and Rockwell shot him dead. The killing further worsened relations between Mormons and their adversaries. In this sequence, the Carthage Gray Militia is not presented as a fully developed institution so much as a local force whose officers became entangled in the jail attack, an unsuccessful prosecution, and the retaliatory violence that followed.