Epilogue Summary and Analysis

If the mobs expected the Nauvoo Legion to find revenge by killing Governor Ford, or marching on Carthage, they were mistaken. Rather than surging out in force to attack and seek revenge, the city was quiet, held in the profound depth of loss. The martyrs were returned to Nauvoo, where they were met by "ten thousand weeping citizens"(p. 396). Emma was distraught, throwing herself across his body crying that they had killed him at last. She did not follow the Saints west, and her sons organized a church in an attempt to build upon the work of their father.

Twenty-thousand Saints passed by the coffins in a silent gesture of homage. They thronged to the cemetery, where the coffins were lowered into the ground. Fearing that the graves would be desecrated, Joseph and Hyrum were actually buried in the basement of...