Thursday, February 21, 2013

Another LDS First—The Medal of Honor


Medal of Honor

1.                  Just this week we witnessed as a nation a soldier receiving the highest military award—the Medal of Honor (awarded for bravery in action). When was the first Medal of Honor awarded to a private in the U.S. army (by the way, the recipient was LDS)?


A)                 During the Blackhawk War

B)                 During the Korean War

C)                 During the Civil War

D)                 During the 1st World War



Yesterday’s answer


D.   A flash of lightening


The following incident is well recorded in both LDS and non LDS sources.  This fact can be found in various books and also affidavits, including the affidavit of Charles Foster who was one of Joseph Smith’s most bitter enemies.  I record only the account given by George Q. Cannon. The following is in reference to the martyrdom of the Prophet Joseph Smith. The Prophet has been shot and plunged from the upper window in the jail when the following occurrence takes place:

     Among the murderers outside (Carthage Jail) was a man, barefoot and bareheaded, without a coat, his shirt-sleeves rolled up above his elbows and his pants above his knees; he lifted Joseph and propped him against the south side of the well curb which stood a few feet from the jail. Colonel Levi Williams then ordered four men to shoot him. They stood about eight feet from the curb, and fired simultaneously. A slight cringe of the body was noticed as the balls struck him, and he fell on his face. The ruffian who set him against the well-curb, then took a bowie-knife, with the evident intention of cutting off his head. It was reported that a considerable sum of money had been offered, by the mob, for his head. As he raised the knife, and was in the attitude of striking, a light, so sudden and powerful, burst from the heavens upon the bloody scene, (passing its vivid chain between Joseph and his murderers) that they were struck with terror. The arm of the ruffian that held the knife fell powerless; the muskets of the four who fired fell to the ground, and they all stood like marble statues, not having the power to move a single limb of their bodies.

Life of Joseph the Prophet, George Q. Cannon, Instructor, 15:110-11


Additional interesting information:

In the Millennial Star, in reference to the above situation, it is interesting to note that the money offered by the mob for the head of Joseph Smith was from his old enemies in Missouri.

Millennial Star, Vol. 64:411-14


What was the amount of this “reward” money?

$1000.00

When an average man worked for $1 a day is it any wonder that Satan put into the hearts of men the money “reward” and a man willing to mutilate the Prophet.

N.B. Lundwall, The Fate of the Persecutors of the Prophet Joseph Smith (Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1952), 233.

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