Minutes, 4 February 1841
Nauvoo Legion Court-Martial, Minutes, , Hancock Co., IL, 4 Feb. 1841. Featured version copied in “Record of the ‘Nauvoo Legion,’” pp. 1–2; handwriting of ; Nauvoo Legion Records, CHL. Includes docket.Single leaf, measuring 12 × 7½ inches (30 × 19 cm), with thirty-four horizontal lines printed in blue ink and two vertical lines printed in red ink. Minutes were written in ink on the recto and verso. The top, right, and bottom edges of the leaf have the square cut of manufactured paper, whereas the left edge is uneven, suggesting it was cut from a blank book; the leaf was folded for filing.The document was docketed by James Ure, who served as a clerk in the Church Historian’s Office from 1852 to 1855. copied the minutes into his “Record of the ‘Nauvoo Legion,’” of which only three loose leaves are extant. These loose leaves, including the following minutes, have likely remained in institutional custody since their creation.
After the , Illinois, city council passed an ordinance organizing the on 3 February 1841, the newly authorized militia unit met for the first time on the morning of 4 February in a court-martial in JS’s in Nauvoo. The Nauvoo charter, passed on 16 December 1840, authorized the city council to organize a city militia that would be independent of the local state militia in —the Fifty-Ninth Illinois Regiment—but would operate as an official unit of the state militia and therefore be subject to the Illinois governor.Most militias conducted their business in regular meetings for commissioned officers, called courts-martial. The city charter had designated the court-martial of the Nauvoo legion as the “law making department, with full powers and authority to make, ordain, establish, and execute, all such laws” necessary for governance of the militia. Like other militias, the legion conducted two types of courts-martial. One consisted of general regulation of duties, expectations, and the proposition of resolutions, as was the case with this first meeting. The other enforced bylaws and ordinances through judiciary measures and discipline for members accused of breach of conduct.Historical records suggest the legion met almost weekly for the first year, even though minutes are extant for only a fraction of these gatherings. JS presided at this initial court-martial, and acted as secretary. Bennett likely recorded the proceedings in a document that is no longer extant and then copied his notes into a larger document titled “Record of the ‘Nauvoo Legion.’”