Fulfilled Prophecy

Improvement Era

Vol. XIX FEBRUARY, 1916 No. 4

Fulfilled Prophecy

New Evidence of Divine Inspiration in the Prophet Joseph

Smith

BY B. II. ROBERTS

"When a prophet speaketh in the name of the Lord, if the thing-follow not, nor come to pass, that is the thing which the Lord hathnot spoken, but the prophet hath spoken it presumptuously: thou shaltnot be afraid of him" (Deut. 18:21, 22).

And conversely, if the thing which the prophet speaks in thename of the Lord comes to pass, then the prophet has spoken thething commanded him by the Lord—he has not spoken presumptu-ously, and the people are under obligation to respect his message,since he has furnished them the highest possible evidence of hisdivine inspiration.

Of the value of the fulfilment of prophecy as evidence of di-vine inspiration, it is scarcely necessary to speak. It has ever beenrecognized, and that properly, as a species of miracle; and there-fore has been accorded all the value attached to miracles as evi-dence of Divine Power. The Lord himself has recognized thevalue of the evidence of prophecy; for when he would have Israeldistinguish between himself and the gods of the heathens, heissued this challenge to them:

"Produce your cause, saith the Lord: bring forth your strongreasons, saith the King of Jacob. Let them bring them forth, and showus what shall happen: let them show the former things, what theybe, that we may consider them, and know the latter end of them; ordeclared us things for to come. Show the things that are to comehereafter, that we may know that ye are gods" (Isaiah 41:21-23).

From this it appears that the power to foretell future eventsis regarded peculiarly as one belonging to God alone, or that spiritwhich emanates from him ; and those who possess that power, andcan point to the fulfilment of their prophecies in attestation of

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their inspiration and divine authority, may be looked uonn as pos-sessing evidence of .special and peculiar force in their favor.

In the light of these scriptures and principles, I would like toMil unit to the readers of the Era the account of the fulfilment ofa prophecy made hy Joseph Smith, two days before his martyrdom,and which, so far as 1 know, has never been pointed out, but whicha<Ids an item of great importance to the constantly growing volumeof the evidences of divine inspiration of the Prophet of the NewI )ispensation. How it has escaped attention until now is a matterof astonishment to me, but" surely it will not be the less welcomebecause of it's late appearance.

The Prophet Joseph Smith and his brother Hyrum, on the25th of June, 1844, had been presented to the militia companiesfrom McDonough county, being introduced by Brigadier GeneralMiner R. Deming, of the state militia, as General Joseph Smithand General Hyrum Smith of the Nauvoo Legion—at which the< arthage Greys, acting as escort, revolted, and had to be putun ler arrest for their insubordination. Shortly after this inci-dent, a number of the officers of other militia companies, andother gentlemen curious to see the Prophet, crowded into thehotel at Carthage—the Hamilton House. President Smith tookoccasion to ask them if there was anything in his appearanceto indicate that he was the desperate character his enemies rep-resented him to be. To which they replied, "No, sir, your ap-pearance would indicate the very contrary, General Smith; butwe cannot see what is in your heart, neither can we tell whatare your intentions." To which President Smith promptly re-plied :

"Very true, gentlemen, you cannot see what is in my heart, andyou are therefore unable to judge me or my intentions; but I can seewhat is in your hearts, and I will tell you what I can see. I can seethat you thirst for blood, and nothing but my blood will satisfy you. Itis not for crime of any description that I and my brethren are thuscontinually persecuted, and harassed by our enemies, but there areother motives, and some of them I have expressed, so far as relatesto myself; and inasmuch as you and the people thirst for blood, Iprophesy in the name of the Lord that you shall witness scenes ofblood and sorrow to your entire satisfaction. Your souls shall beperfectly satiated with blood, and many of you who are now presentshall have an opportunity to face the cannon's mouth from sourcesyou think not of, and those people that desire this great evil upon meand my brethren shall be filled with sorrow because of the scenesof desolation and distress that await them" (Church Historian'sCompilation of data, Millennial Star, Vol. 24, p. 358).

This prediction was fulfilled to the men of Western Illinoisduring the Mexican war in which the 1st and 2nd Illinois regi-ments led by Cols. John J. Hardin and William H. Bissel, and theKentucky 2nd regiment, led bv Col. McKee, were nearly annihi-lated in the Battle of Buena Vista. The event is described byGregg, the author of the History of Hancock County, as the

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"saddest, and for Illinois, the most mournful event of that battle-worn day," the 23rd of February, 1847, the day on which theprincipal engagement of the battle of Buena Vista was fought.

It will be remembered that in 1846 the president of theUnited States called upon Illinois to furnish four regiments ofvolunteers to engage in the war with Mexico, that number beingIllinois' quota of the 50,000 troops authorized by congress for thewar with that country. "This was no sooner known in the state,"says Gregg, "than nine regiments, numbering 8,370 men, an-swered the call, though only four of them, amounting to 3,720men, could be taken." These served chiefly under Taylor innortheastern Mexico, and the 1st and 2nd regiments, as statedabove, took a promiment and disastrous part in the battle ofBuena Vista. For the part taken in that battle by the two regi-ments named, and the overwhelming disaster which befell them,I give the narrative of Colton's History of the Battle of BuenaVista, quoted by Gregg in his History of Illinois, included in hisHistory of Hancock County, pp. 120-124.

It will be remembered that the Mexican commander inthis famous battle, General Santa Anna, confronted GeneralTaylor's little army of less than five thousand men, with aforce popularly held to be 20,000, and by Santa Anna's officialreport acknowledged to be 17,000 (Marcus Wilson's History ofthe United States, subdivision Texas, Appendix, p. 684). Withthis superior force, Santa Anna poured into the valley of AquaNuva, early on the morning of the 22nd of February. Therewas intermittent fighting throughout the day, and both armiesbivouacked on the field, resting on their arms. Early the nextmorning the battle was resumed and raged through that daymost fiercely. And now, Colton's account of the disaster to the1st and 2nd Illinois, and the 2nd Kentucky regiments:

"As the enemy on our left was moving in retreat along the headof the plateau, our artillery was advanced until within range, andopened a heavy fire upon him, while Cols. Hardin, Bissel and McKee,with their Illinois and Kentucky troops, dashed gallantly forward inhot pursuit. A powerful reserve of the Mexican army was then justemerging from the ravine, where it had been organized, and advancedon the plateau, opposite the head of the southermost gorge. Thosewho were giving way rallied quickly upon it; when the whole force,thus increased to over 12,000 men, came forward in a perfect blazeof fire. It was a single column, composed of the best soldiers of therepublic, having for its advanced battalions the veteran regiments.The Kentucky and Illinois troops were soon obliged to give groundbefore it and seek the shelter of the second gorge. The enemy pressedon arriving opposite the head of the second gorge. One-half of thecolumn suddenly enveloped it, while the other half pressed on acrossthe plateau, having for the moment nothing to resist them but thethree guns in their front. The portion that was immediately opposedto the Kentucky and Illinois troops, ran down along each side of thegorge, in which they had sought shelter, and also circled around itshead, leaving no possible way of escape for them except by its mouth,

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which opened upon the road. Its sides, which were steep,—at least anangle o: 45 degrees,—were covered with loose pebbles and stones, andconverged to a point at the bottom. Down there were our poor fel-lows, nearly three regiments of them (1st and 2nd Illinois and 2ndKentucky), with bu1 little opportunity to load or tire a gun, bein^hardly able to keep their feet. Above the whole edge of the gorge,all the way around, was darkened by the serried masses of the enemy,and was bristling with muskets directed on the crowd beneath. It wasno time to pause. Those who were not immediately shot down rushedOH toward the road, their number growing less and less asthey went. Kentuckians and Illinoisans, officers and men, all mixedup in confusion, and all pressing on over the loose pebbles and rollingstones of those shelving, precipitous banks, and having lines and linesof the enemy firing down from each side and rear as they went. Justthen the enemy's cavalry, which had gone to the left of the reserve,had come over the spur that divides the mouth of the second gorgefrom that of the third, and were now closing up the only door throughwhich there was the least shadow of a chance for their lives. Manyof those ahead endeavored to force their way out, but few succeeded.The lancers were fully six to one, and their long weaponswere already reeking with blood. It was at this time that those whowere still back in that dreadful gorge heard, above the din of themusketry and the shouts of the enemy around them, the roar of Wash-ington's battery. No music could have been more grateful to theirears. A moment only, and the whole opening, where the lancers werebusy, rang with the repeated explosions of spherical-case shot. Theygave way. The gate, as it were, was clear, and out upon the road astream of our poor fellows issued. They ran panting down towardthe battery, and directly under the flight of iron then passing overtheir heads, into the retreating cavalry. Hardin, McKee, Clay, Willis,Sabriskie, Houghton—but wby go on? It would be a sad task, in-deed, to name over all who fell during this twenty minutes'' slaughter.The whole gorge, from the plateau to its mbuth, was strewed with ourdead. All dead! No wounded there—not a man; for the infantry hadrushed down the sides and completed the work with the bayonet."

Surely those Illinois regiments, recruited chiefly from West-ern Illinois, and among them doubtless a number of those wholistened to Joseph Smith's prediction, were surfeited with scenesof blood that day, and faced the cannon's mouth from sources ofwhich thev had not thought.

The late President Wilford Woodruff, in his journal, makesreference to the report that reached the camps of Israel, on theMissouri river, respecting the disaster that had overtaken theIllinois regiments, so largely recruited from the western coun-ties of the state. The entry in the journal bears date of October3, 1847. After refering to th^ return from the east of ElderWilliam T. Appleby to the camps, and the council of the Twelve\postles holding a meeting with him. Elder Woodruff says:

"We also learned that many who had been enemies to the Churchwere dead. Jackson CJoseph H.), who had a hand in the death of theProphet, died in Mexico with the 'black vomit'. Mr. Eagle [editor ofa paper in Nauvoo, at the time tbe last remnant of the Saints weredriven from that city] is also dead Wc were informed that General

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Hardin, Major Warren and Captain Morgan, with halt of the QuincyGreys, were killed in the Mexican war."

In addition to this very ample fulfilment of the Prophet'sprediction to the men of western Illinois, there was the furtherfulfilment of the prophecy hy the terrible casualties to the men ofthat state in the war between the states. Doubtless because thepresident of the republic "during the war was from Illinois—Abraham Lincoln—and because the greatest general developed inthe war on the side of the north—U. S. Grant—was also fromthat state, Illinois furnished a larger number of soldiers for thefederal armies, in proportion to her population, than any otherstate of the Union, save Kansas; and she stands fourth in rankin the number of men furnished to the federal armies by any ofthe states, being exceeded only by the states of New York, Penn-sylvania, and Ohio" (The Making of Illinois, Mather, p. 200).The following "summary" of the volunteer troops organized inIllinois for the war, and the casualties which befell them, is takenfrom the Adjutant General's Report, quoted by Gregg in his His-tory of Illinois, in History of Hancock County, pp. 12Q-130:

"The number of the regiment, name of original Colonel, callunder wich recruited, date of organization and muster into the UnitedStates' service, place of muster, and aggregate strength of each or-ganization—from which we find that Illinois put into her one hundredand eighty regiments 256,000 men, and into the United States army,through other states, enough to swell the number to 290,000. Thisfar exceeds all the soldiers of the Federal Government in all the warof the Revolution. Her total years of service were over 600,000. Sheenrolled men from eighteen to forty-five years of age when the lawof Congress in 1864—the test time—only asked for those from twentyto forty-five. Her enrollments were otherwise excessive. Her peoplewanted to go, and did not take the pains to correct the enrollment;thus the basis of fixing the quota was too great, and the quota itself,at least in the trying time, was far above any other state. The demandon some counties (as Monroe, for example), took every able bodiedman in the county, and then did not have enough to fill the quota.Moreover, Illinois sent 20,844 men for one hundred days, for whom nocredit was asked. She gave to the country 73,000 years of serviceabove all calls. With the one-thirteenth of the population of the loyalStates, she sent regularly one-tenth of all the soldiers, and in the perilsof the closing calls, when patriots were few and weary, she sent one-eighth of all that were called for by her loved and honored son inthe White House. Of the brave boys Illinois sent to the front, therewere killed in action, 5,888; died of wounds. 3,032; of disease, 19,496; inprison, 967; lost at sea, 205; aggregate 29,588. As upon every field andupon every page of the history of this war. Illinois bore her part ofthe suffering in the prison-pens of the South. More than 800 namesmake up the awful column of Illinois' brave sons who died in the rebelprison of Andersonville, Ga. Who can measure or imagine the atroc-ities which would be laid before the world were the panorama of suf-ferings and terrible trials of these gallant men but half unfolded toview? But this can never be done until new words of horror are in-vented, and new arts discovered by which demoniacal fiendishness can

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b< portrayed, and the intensesl anguish of the human m>u1 in ten thou

-.mil forms be painted."

In these appalling figures otic sees further fulfilment of theprophetic words of Joseph Smith, to the men of Illinois, that 25thday of Iuik\ 1S44. They certainly witnessed scenes of blood andsorrow to their entire satisfaction; their souls, in the experiencesat the battle of Buena Vista, and in the many battles of the warbetween the States, in which the men of Illinois figured so largelyin suffering and sacrifices, became "perfectly satiated with blood."They bad ample opportunity to "face the cannon's mouth" from"sources they thoughl not of;" and were filled with sorrow be-cause of the scenes of desolation and distress that overtook them.

Another item of interest in relation to the prophecies ofJoseph Smith, on the subject of the wars in the last days, was re-cently called to my attention, by one of the brethren, in the follow-ing statement and question : In the History of the Church—Jour-nal History, by Joseph Smith—where the revelation on ^'ar isgiven (Vol. I p. 302) there is a slight verbal alteration to be notedin paragraph three of the revelation. In the Doctrine and Cove-nants, current edition, in the revelation, it is represented thatCreat Britain shall call upon other nations, "in order to fief en 1themselves against other nations, and 'thus1 war shall be poure 1out upon all nations." But in the History, cited above, it is writ-ten that Great Britain shall call upon other nations "in order todefend themselves against other nations, and 'then' war shall bepoured out upon all nations." The question is, was the changemade advisedly or was it a typographical error in the publishedHistory? The change was made advisedly: when the committeewas comparing a number of the many editions of the publishe 1copies of the revelation, they found that in the manuscript Historyof the Church, from which the copy for publication must firsthave been made, the word "then" was used, and the change wasmade by the historians of the Church accordingly, and was pub-lished in 10Q2. The same correction should be made in all futureeditions of the Doctrine and Covenants.