Nauvoo Legion

The Nauvoo Legion was a state authorized militia of the city of Nauvoo, Illinois. With growing antagonism from surrounding settlements it came to have as its main function the defense of the city of Nauvoo, Illinois, and surrounding Latter Day Saint areas of settlement. To curry political favor with the Saints, the Illinois state legislature granted Nauvoo a liberal city charter that gave the Nauvoo Legion extraordinary independence. Led by Joseph Smith, founder of the Latter Day Saint movement and mayor of Nauvoo, the Legion quickly became a formidable concentration of military power in the American West. In 1844, after a controversy stemming from the Nauvoo city council's suppression of a Nauvoo newspaper critical of Smith and his church's policies, Smith mobilized the Legion and declared martial law. Arrested for treason, Smith was assassinated by a mob. Soon thereafter, the Nauvoo charter was revoked, and the Nauvoo Legion lost its official sanction as an arm of the Illinois militia.

After the revocation of the Nauvoo Charter, the unsanctioned Nauvoo Legion continued to operate under the command of Brigham Young, leader of the movement's largest faction, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church). Young led the Latter-day Saints to what later became the Territory of Utah. In Utah the Territorial militia used the name of Nauvoo Legion. It was mobilized in opposition to the United States Army during the Utah War. It was permanently disbanded in 1887 as part of the Edmunds-Tucker Act, which disincorporated the LDS Church as part of Congress's efforts to punish it for its practice of polygamy.

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