title: Russo-Turkish War (1877–1878)

text: As the fighting in Bosnia and Herzegovina continued, Serbia suffered a string of setbacks and asked the European powers to mediate an end to the war. A joint ultimatum by the European powers forced the Porte to give Serbia a one-month truce and start peace negotiations. Turkish peace conditions however were refused by European powers as too harsh. In early October, after the truce expired, the Turkish army resumed its offensive and the Serbian position quickly became desperate. On 31 October, Russia issued an ultimatum requiring the Ottoman Empire to stop the hostilities and sign a new truce with Serbia within 48 hours. This was supported by the partial mobilization of the Russian army (up to 20 divisions). The Sultan accepted the conditions of the ultimatum.


title: Russo-Turkish War (1877–1878)

text: To resolve the crisis, on 11 December 1876, the Constantinople Conference of the Great Powers was opened in Constantinople (to which the Turks were not invited). A compromise solution was negotiated, granting autonomy to Bulgaria, Bosnia and Herzegovina under the joint control of European powers. The Ottomans, however, refused to sacrifice their independence by allowing international representatives to oversee the institution of reforms and sought to discredit the conference by announcing on 23 December, the day the conference was closed, that a constitution was adopted that declared equal rights for religious minorities within the Empire. The Ottomans attempted to use this manoeuver to get their objections and amendments to the agreement heard. When they were rejected by the Great Powers, the Ottoman Empire announced its decision to disregard the results of the conference.


title: Russo-Turkish War (1877–1878)

text: On 15 January 1877, Russia and Austria-Hungary signed a written agreement confirming the results of an earlier Reichstadt Agreement in July 1876. This assured Russia of the benevolent neutrality of Austria-Hungary in the impending war. These terms meant that in case of war Russia would do the fighting and Austria would derive most of the advantage. Russia therefore made a final effort for a peaceful settlement. After reaching an agreement with its main Balkan rival and with anti-Ottoman sympathies running high throughout Europe due to the Bulgarian atrocities and the rejection of the Constantinople agreements, Russia finally felt free to declare war.


title: Russo-Turkish War (1877–1878)

text: On 12 April 1877, Romania gave permission to the Russian troops to pass through its territory to attack the Turks.


title: Russo-Turkish War (1877–1878)

text: On 24 April 1877 Russia declared war on the Ottomans, and its troops entered Romania through the newly built Eiffel Bridge near Ungheni, on the Prut river, resulting in Turkish bombardments of Romanian towns on the Danube.


title: Russo-Turkish War (1877–1878)

text: On 10 May 1877, the Principality of Romania, which was under formal Turkish rule, declared its independence.


title: Russo-Turkish War (1877–1878)

text: At the beginning of the war, the outcome was far from obvious. The Russians could send a larger army into the Balkans: about 300,000 troops were within reach. The Ottomans had about 200,000 troops on the Balkan peninsula, of which about 100,000 were assigned to fortified garrisons, leaving about 100,000 for the army of operation. The Ottomans had the advantage of being fortified, complete command of the Black Sea, and patrol boats along the Danube river. They also possessed superior arms, including new British and American-made rifles and German-made artillery.


title: Russo-Turkish War (1877–1878)

text: In the event, however, the Ottomans usually resorted to passive defense, leaving the strategic initiative to the Russians, who, after making some mistakes, found a winning strategy for the war. The Ottoman military command in Constantinople made poor assumptions about Russian intentions. They decided that Russians would be too lazy to march along the Danube and cross it away from the delta, and would prefer the short way along the Black Sea coast. This would be ignoring the fact that the coast had the strongest, best supplied and garrisoned Turkish fortresses. There was only one well manned fortress along the inner part of the river Danube, Vidin. It was garrisoned only because the troops, led by Osman Pasha, had just taken part in defeating the Serbs in their recent war against the Ottoman Empire.


title: Russo-Turkish War (1877–1878)

text: The Russian campaign was better planned, but it relied heavily on Turkish passivity. A crucial Russian mistake was sending too few troops initially; an expeditionary force of about 185,000 crossed the Danube in June, slightly fewer than the combined Turkish forces in the Balkans (about 200,000). After setbacks in July (at Pleven and Stara Zagora), the Russian military command realized it did not have the reserves to keep the offensive going and switched to a defensive posture. The Russians did not even have enough forces to blockade Pleven properly until late August, which effectively delayed the whole campaign for about two months.


title: Russo-Turkish War (1877–1878)

text: At the start of the war, Russia and Romania destroyed all vessels along the Danube and mined the river, thus ensuring that Russian forces could cross the Danube at any point without resistance from the Ottoman Navy. The Ottoman command did not appreciate the significance of the Russians' actions. In June, a small Russian unit crossed the Danube close to the delta, at Galați, and marched towards Ruschuk (today Ruse). This made the Ottomans even more confident that the big Russian force would come right through the middle of the Ottoman stronghold.


title: Russo-Turkish War (1877–1878)

text: On 25–26 May, a Romanian torpedo boat with a mixed Romanian-Russian crew attacked and sank an Ottoman monitor on the Danube. Under the direct command of Major-General Mikhail Ivanovich Dragomirov, on the night of 27/28 June 1877 (NS) the Russians constructed a pontoon bridge across the Danube at Svishtov. After a short battle in which the Russians suffered 812 killed and wounded, the Russian secured the opposing bank and drove off the Ottoman infantry brigade defending Svishtov. At this point the Russian force was divided into three parts: the Eastern Detachment under the command of Tsarevich Alexander Alexandrovich, the future Tsar Alexander III of Russia, assigned to capture the fortress of Ruschuk and cover the army's eastern flank; the Western Detachment, to capture the fortress of Nikopol, Bulgaria and cover the army's western flank; and the Advance Detachment under Count Joseph Vladimirovich Gourko, which was assigned to quickly move via Veliko Tarnovo and penetrate the Balkan Mountains, the most significant barrier between the Danube and Constantinople.


title: Russo-Turkish War (1877–1878)

text: Responding to the Russian crossing of the Danube, the Ottoman high command in Constantinople ordered Osman Nuri Paşa to advance east from Vidin and occupy the fortress of Nikopol, just west of the Russian crossing. On his way to Nikopol, Osman Pasha learned that the Russians had already captured the fortress and so moved to the crossroads town of Plevna (now known as Pleven), which he occupied with a force of approximately 15,000 on 19 July (NS). The Russians, approximately 9,000 under the command of General Schilder-Schuldner, reached Plevna early in the morning. Thus began the Siege of Plevna.


title: Russo-Turkish War (1877–1878)

text: Osman Pasha organized a defense and repelled two Russian attacks with colossal casualties on the Russian side. At that point, the sides were almost equal in numbers and the Russian army was very discouraged. A counter-attack might have allowed the Ottomans to control and destroy the Russians' bridge, but Osman Pasha did not leave the fortress because he had orders to stay fortified in Plevna.


title: Russo-Turkish War (1877–1878)

text: Russia had no more troops to throw against Plevna, so the Russians besieged it, and subsequently asked the Romanians to cross the Danube and help them. On 9 August, Suleiman Pasha made an attempt to help Osman Pasha with 30,000 troops, but he was stopped by Bulgarians at the Battle of Shipka Pass. After three days of fighting, the volunteers were relieved by a Russian force led by General Radezky, and the Turkish forces withdrew. Soon afterwards, Romanian forces crossed the Danube and joined the siege. On 16 August, at Gorni-Studen, the armies around Plevna were placed under the command of the Romanian Prince Carol I, aided by the Russian general Pavel Dmitrievich Zotov and the Romanian general Alexandru Cernat.


title: Russo-Turkish War (1877–1878)

text: The Turks maintained several fortresses around Pleven which the Russian and Romanian forces gradually reduced. The Romanian 4th Division led by General Gheorghe Manu took the Grivitsa redoubt after four bloody assaults and managed to keep it until the very end of the siege. The siege of Plevna (July–December 1877) turned to victory only after Russian and Romanian forces cut off all supply routes to the fortified Ottomans. With supplies running low, Osman Pasha made an attempt to break the Russian siege in the direction of Opanets. On 9 December, in the middle of the night the Ottomans threw bridges over the Vit River and crossed it, attacked on a front and broke through the first line of Russian trenches. Here they fought hand to hand and bayonet to bayonet, with little advantage to either side. Outnumbering the Ottomans almost 5 to 1, the Russians drove the Ottomans back across the Vit. Osman Pasha was wounded in the leg by a stray bullet, which killed his horse beneath him. Making a brief stand, the Ottomans eventually found themselves driven back into the city, losing 5,000 men to the Russians' 2,000. The next day, Osman surrendered the city, the garrison, and his sword to the Romanian colonel, Mihail Cerchez. He was treated honorably, but his troops perished in the snow by the thousands as they straggled off into captivity.


title: Russo-Turkish War (1877–1878)

text: At this point Serbia, having finally secured monetary aid from Russia, declared war on the Ottoman Empire again. This time there were far fewer Russian officers in the Serbian army but this was more than offset by the experience gained from the 1876–77 war. Under nominal command of prince Milan Obrenović (effective command was in hands of general Kosta Protić, the army chief of staff), the Serbian Army went on offensive in what is now eastern south Serbia. A planned offensive into the Ottoman Sanjak of Novi Pazar was called off due to strong diplomatic pressure from Austria-Hungary, which wanted to prevent Serbia and Montenegro from coming into contact, and which had designs to spread Austria-Hungary's influence through the area. The Ottomans, outnumbered unlike two years before, mostly confined themselves to passive defence of fortified positions. By the end of hostilities the Serbs had captured Ak-Palanka (today Bela Palanka), Pirot, Niš and Vranje.


title: Russo-Turkish War (1877–1878)

text: Russians under Field Marshal Joseph Vladimirovich Gourko succeeded in capturing the passes at the Stara Planina mountain, which were crucial for maneuvering. Next, both sides fought a series of battles for Shipka Pass. Gourko made several attacks on the Pass and eventually secured it. Ottoman troops spent much effort to recapture this important route, to use it to reinforce Osman Pasha in Pleven, but failed. Eventually Gourko led a final offensive that crushed the Ottomans around Shipka Pass. The Ottoman offensive against Shipka Pass is considered one of the major mistakes of the war, as other passes were virtually unguarded. At this time a huge number of Ottoman troops stayed fortified along the Black Sea coast and engaged in very few operations.


title: Russo-Turkish War (1877–1878)

text: A Russian army crossed the Stara Planina by a high snowy pass in winter, guided and helped by local Bulgarians, not expected by the Ottoman army, and defeated the Turks at the Battle of Tashkessen and took Sofia. The way was now open for a quick advance through Plovdiv and Edirne to Constantinople.


title: Russo-Turkish War (1877–1878)

text: Besides the Romanian Army (which mobilized 130,000 men, losing 10,000 of them to this war), more than 12,000 volunteer Bulgarian troops ("Opalchenie") from the local Bulgarian population as well as many "hajduk" detachments fought in the war on the side of the Russians.


title: Russo-Turkish War (1877–1878)

text: The Russian Caucasus Corps was stationed in Georgia and Armenia, composed of approximately 50,000 men and 202 guns under the overall command of Grand Duke Michael Nikolaevich, Governor General of the Caucasus. The Russian force stood opposed by an Ottoman Army of 100,000 men led by General Ahmed Muhtar Pasha. While the Russian army was better prepared for the fighting in the region, it lagged behind technologically in certain areas such as heavy artillery and was outgunned, for example, by the superior long-range Krupp artillery that Germany had supplied to the Ottomans.


title: Russo-Turkish War (1877–1878)

text: The Caucasus Corps was led by a quartet of Armenian commanders: Generals Mikhail Loris-Melikov, Arshak Ter-Gukasov (Ter-Ghukasov/Ter-Ghukasyan), Ivan Lazarev and Beybut Shelkovnikov. Forces under Lieutenant-General Ter-Gukasov, stationed near Yerevan, commenced the first assault into Ottoman territory by capturing the town of Bayazid on 27 April 1877. Capitalizing on Ter-Gukasov's victory there, Russian forces advanced, taking the region of Ardahan on 17 May; Russian units also besieged the city of Kars in the final week of May, although Ottoman reinforcements lifted the siege and drove them back. Bolstered by reinforcements, in November 1877 General Lazarev launched a new attack on Kars, suppressing the southern forts leading to the city and capturing Kars itself on 18 November. On 19 February 1878, the strategic fortress town of Erzurum was taken by the Russians after a lengthy siege. Although they relinquished control of Erzerum to the Ottomans at the end the war, the Russians acquired the regions of Batum, Ardahan, Kars, Olti, and Sarikamish and reconstituted them into the Kars Oblast.


title: Russo-Turkish War (1877–1878)

text: As the Russo-Turkish war came to a close, a Kurdish uprising began. It was led by two brothers, Husayn and Osman Pasha. The rebellion held most of the region of Bohtan for 9 months. It was ended only through duplicity, after force of arms had failed. In Kars, Kurdish notables like Abdürrezzak Bedir Khan and a son of Sheikh Ubeydullah were supporters of the Russians.


title: Russo-Turkish War (1877–1878)

text: After Bulgarian territories were liberated by the Imperial Russian Army during the war, they were governed initially by a provisional Russian administration, which was established in April 1877. The Treaty of Berlin (1878) provided for the termination of this provisional Russian administration in May 1879, when the Principality of Bulgaria and Eastern Rumelia were established. The main objectives of the temporary Russian administration were to secure peace and order and to prepare for a revival of the Bulgarian state.


title: Russo-Turkish War (1877–1878)

text: Under pressure from the British, Russia accepted the truce offered by the Ottoman Empire on 31 January 1878, but continued to move towards Constantinople.


title: Russo-Turkish War (1877–1878)

text: The British sent a fleet of battleships to intimidate Russia from entering the city, and Russian forces stopped at San Stefano. Eventually Russia entered into a settlement under the Treaty of San Stefano on 3 March, by which the Ottoman Empire would recognize the independence of Romania, Serbia, and Montenegro, and the autonomy of Bulgaria.


title: Russo-Turkish War (1877–1878)

text: Alarmed by the extension of Russian power into the Balkans, the Great Powers later forced modifications of the treaty in the Congress of Berlin. The main change here was that Bulgaria would be split, according to earlier agreements among the Great Powers that precluded the creation of a large new Slavic state: the northern and eastern parts to become principalities as before (Bulgaria and Eastern Rumelia), though with different governors; and the Macedonian region, originally part of Bulgaria under San Stefano, would return to direct Ottoman administration.


title: Russo-Turkish War (1877–1878)

text: The was a further continuation of negotiations between Russia and the Ottoman Empire. While reaffirming provisions of the Treaty of San Stefano which had not been modified by the Berlin Treaty, it set compensation terms owed by Ottoman Empire to Russia for losses sustained during the war. It contained terms to release prisoners of war and to grant amnesty to Ottoman subjects, as well as providing terms for the inhabitants nationality after the annexations. Article VII allowed subjects to opt within six months of the signing of the treaty to retain Ottoman subjecthood or become Russian subjects.


title: Russo-Turkish War (1877–1878)

text: A surprising consequence came in Hungary (part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire). Despite memories of the terrible defeat at Mohács in 1526, elite Hungarian attitudes were becoming strongly anti-Russian. This led to active support for the Turks in the media, but only in a peaceful way, since the foreign policy of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy remained neutral.


title: Russo-Turkish War (1877–1878)

text: Many Jewish communities in their entirety fled with the retreating Turks as their protectors. The "Bulletins de l'Alliance Israélite Universelle" reported that thousands of Bulgarian Jews found refuge at the Ottoman capital of Constantinople.


title: Russo-Turkish War (1877–1878)

text: The conclusion of the Russo-Turkish war also led to the internationalization of the Armenian Question. Many Armenians in the eastern provinces (Turkish Armenia) of the Ottoman Empire greeted the advancing Russians as liberators. Violence and instability directed at Armenians during the war by Kurd and Circassian bands had left many Armenians looking toward the invading Russians as the ultimate guarantors of their security. Influential pro-Russian Armenian thinker Grigor Artsruni encouraged Armenians to migrate to Russia in order to form a more concentrated block. In January 1878, Armenian Patriarch of Constantinople Nerses II Varzhapetian approached the Russian leadership with the view of receiving assurances that the Russians would introduce provisions in the prospective peace treaty for self-administration in the Armenian provinces. Though not as explicit, Article 16 of the Treaty of San Stefano read:


title: Russo-Turkish War (1877–1878)

text: Armenian Patriarch discouraged Armenian migration to Russia and encouraged Armenians to “remain faithful to the Sultan”.Patriarch held the belief that Armenian-inhabited areas could remain under Ottoman rule, but under Christian control, and that Muslims who were dissatisfied with how the Ottomans had been governing the provinces would tolerate life under Christian leadership. In attempting to persuade the British to drive a hard bargain with the Ottoman Empire, he asserted to British Ambassador Henry Layard that the “only thing … that could induce the Armenians to refrain from listening to the advice of Russia to emigrate, and to be content to remain under the rule of the Sultan, would be the appointment of an Armenian as Vali of Armenia”.Great Britain, however, took objection to Russia holding on to so much Ottoman territory and forced it to enter into new negotiations by convening the Congress of Berlin in June 1878. An Armenian delegation led by prelate Mkrtich Khrimian traveled to Berlin to present the case of the Armenians but, much to its chagrin, was left out of the negotiations. Article 16 was modified and watered down, and all mention of the Russian forces remaining in the provinces was removed. In the final text of the Treaty of Berlin, it was transformed into Article 61, which read:


title: Russo-Turkish War (1877–1878)

text: As it turned out, the reforms were not forthcoming. Khrimian returned to Constantinople and delivered a famous speech in which he likened the peace conference to a big cauldron of Liberty Stew' into which the big nations dipped their 'iron ladles' for real results, while the Armenian delegation had only a 'Paper Ladle'. 'Ah dear Armenian people,' Khrimian said, 'could I have dipped my Paper Ladle in the cauldron it would sog and remain there! Where guns talk and sabers shine, what significance do appeals and petitions have? Given the absence of tangible improvements in the plight of the Armenian community, a number of Armenian intellectuals living in Europe and Russia in the 1880s and 1890s formed political parties and revolutionary societies to secure better conditions for their compatriots in Ottoman Armenia and other parts of the Ottoman Empire.


title: Russo-Turkish War (1877–1878)

text: In January 1878, advancing coalition forces started committing atrocities against Muslim populations in the region. British reports from that time have detailed information about atrocities and massacres. According to those reports, in the village of İssova Bâlâ, the school and 96 of the 170 houses were burned to the ground. The inhabitants of Yukarı Sofular were slaughtered and 12 of the 130 houses in village, a mosque, and a school were burned. In Kozluca, 18 Turks were killed. Massacres of Muslim inhabitants occurred in Kazanlak too. In the village of Muflis, 127 Muslim inhabitants were kidnapped by a group of Russian and Bulgarian troops. 20 managed to escape. The rest were killed. 400 people from Muflis were killed according to Ottoman sources. 11 inhabitants were killed in Keçidere. According to John Joseph the Russian troops frequently killed Muslim peasants to prevent them from disrupting their supply and troop movements. During the Battle of Harmanli accompanying this retaliation on Muslim non-combatants, it was reported that a huge group of Muslim townspeople were attacked by the Russian army. Thousands died and their goods were confiscated. The correspondent of the "Daily News" describes as an eyewitness the burning of four or five Turkish villages by the Russian troops in response to the Turks firing at the Russians from the villages, instead of behind rocks or trees, which must have appeared to the Russian soldiers as guerrilla attempts by the local Muslim populace upon the Russian contingencies operating against the Ottoman forces embedded in the area. During the conflict a number of Muslim buildings and cultural centres were also destroyed. A large library of old Turkish books was destroyed when a mosque in Turnovo was burned in 1877. Most mosques in Sofia were destroyed, seven of them in one night in December 1878 when "a thunderstorm masked the noise of the explosions arranged by Russian military engineers."


title: Russo-Turkish War (1877–1878)

text: Many villages in the Kars region were pillaged by Russian army during the war. The war in Caucasus caused many Muslims to migrate to remaining Ottoman lands, mostly in poverty and with poor conditions. Between 1878 and 1881, 82,000 Muslims migrated to the Ottoman Empire from lands ceded to Russia in Caucasus.


title: Russo-Turkish War (1877–1878)

text: There are different guesses about losses during the Russo-Turkish war. Dennis Hupchik and Justin McCarthy says that 260,000 people went missing and 500,000 became refugees. Turkish historian Kemal Karpat claims that 250–300,000 people, about 17% of the former Muslim population of Bulgaria, died as a consequence of famine, disease, and massacres, and 1 to 1.5 million people were forced to migrate. Turkish author Nedim İpek gives the same numbers as Karpat. Another source claims 400,000 Turks were massacred and 1,000,000 Turks had to migrate during the war. The perpetrators of those massacres are also disputed, with Justin McCarthy claiming that they were carried out by Russian soldiers, Cossacks as well as Bulgarian volunteers and villagers, though there were few civilian casualties in battle. while James J. Reid claims that Circassians were significantly responsible for the refugee flow, that there were civilian casualties from battle and even that the Ottoman army was responsible for casualties among the Muslim population. The number of Muslim refugees is estimated by R.J. Crampton to be 130,000. Richard C. Frucht estimates that only half (700,000) of the prewar Muslim population remained after the war, 216,000 had died and the rest emigrated. Douglas Arthur Howard estimates that half the 1.5 million Muslims, for the most part Turks, in prewar Bulgaria had disappeared by 1879. 200,000 had died, the rest became permanently refugees in Ottoman territories.


title: Russo-Turkish War (1877–1878)

text: The most notable massacre of Bulgarian civilians took part after the July battle of Stara Zagora when Gurko's forces had to retreat back to the Shipka pass. In the aftermath of the battle Suleiman Pasha's forces burned down and plundered the town of Stara Zagora which by that time was one of the largest towns in the Bulgarian lands. The number of massacred Christian civilians during the battle is estimated at 15,000. Suleiman Pasha's forces also established in the whole valley of the Maritsa river a system of terror taking form in the hanging at the street corners of every Bulgarian who had in any way assisted the Russians, but even villages that had


title: Russo-Turkish War (1877–1878)

text: Russians raped Circassian girls during the 1877 Russo-Turkish war from the Circassian refugees who were settled in the Ottoman Balkans. After the signing of the Treaty of San Stefano, the 10,000-strong Circassian minority in Dobruja was expelled.


title: Russo-Turkish War (1877–1878)

text: This war caused a division in the emblems of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement which continues to this day. Both Russia and the Ottoman Empire had signed the First Geneva Convention (1864), which made the Red Cross, a colour reversal of the flag of neutral Switzerland, the sole emblem of protection for military medical personnel and facilities. However, during this war the cross instead reminded the Ottomans of the Crusades; so they elected to replace the cross with the Red Crescent instead. This ultimately became the symbol of the Movement's national societies in most Muslim countries, and was ratified as an emblem of protection by later Geneva Conventions in 1929 and again in 1949 (the current version).


title: Russo-Turkish War (1877–1878)

text: Iran, which neighbored both the Russian Empire and Ottoman Empire, considered them to be rivals, and probably considered the Red Crescent in particular to be an Ottoman symbol; except for the Red Crescent being centred and without a star, it is a colour reversal of the Ottoman flag (and the modern Turkish flag). This appears to have led to their national society in the Movement being initially known as the Red Lion and Sun Society, using a red version of the Lion and Sun, a traditional Iranian symbol. After the Iranian Revolution of 1979, Iran switched to the Red Crescent, but the Geneva Conventions continue to recognize the Red Lion and Sun as an emblem of protection.


title: Russo-Turkish War (1877–1878)

text: The novella "Jalaleddin", published in 1878 by the novelist Raffi describes the Kurdish massacres of Armenians in the eastern Ottoman Empire at the time of the Russo-Turkish war. The novella follows the journey of a young man through the mountains of Anatolia. The historical descriptions in the novella correspond with information from British sources at the time.


title: Russo-Turkish War (1877–1878)

text: The novel "The Doll" (Polish title: "Lalka"), written in 1887–1889 by Bolesław Prus, describes consequences of the Russo-Turkish war for merchants living in Russia and partitioned Poland. The main protagonist helped his Russian friend, a multi-millionaire, and made a fortune supplying the Russian Army in 1877–1878. The novel describes trading during political instability, and its ambiguous results for Russian and Polish societies.


title: Mountain Meadows Massacre

text: The Mountain Meadows Massacre (September 7–11, 1857) was a series of attacks during the Utah War that resulted in the mass murder of at least 120 members of the Baker–Fancher emigrant wagon train. The massacre occurred in the southern Utah Territory at Mountain Meadows, and was perpetrated by the Mormon settlers belonging to the Utah Territorial Militia (officially called the Nauvoo Legion) who recruited and were aided by some Southern Paiute Native Americans. The wagon train, made up mostly of families from Arkansas, was bound for California, traveling on the Old Spanish Trail that passed through the Territory.


title: Mountain Meadows Massacre

text: After arriving in Salt Lake City, the Baker–Fancher party made their way south along the Mormon Road, eventually stopping to rest at Mountain Meadows. As the party was traveling west there were rumors about the party's behavior towards Mormons, and war hysteria towards outsiders was rampant as a result of a military expedition dispatched by President Buchanan and Territorial Governor Brigham Young's declaration of martial law in response to the invasion. While the emigrants were camped at the meadow, local militia leaders, including Isaac C. Haight and John D. Lee, made plans to attack the wagon train. The leaders of the militia, wanting to give the impression of tribal hostilities, persuaded Southern Paiutes to join with a larger party of militiamen disguised as Native Americans in an attack. During the militia's first assault on the wagon train, the emigrants fought back, and a five-day siege ensued. Eventually, fear spread among the militia's leaders that some emigrants had caught sight of the white men, likely discerning the actual identity of a majority of the attackers. As a result, militia commander William H. Dame ordered his forces to kill the emigrants. By this time, the emigrants were running low on water and provisions, and allowed some members of the militia—who approached under a white flag—to enter their camp. The militia members assured the emigrants they were protected, and after handing over their weapons, the emigrants were escorted away from their defensive position. After walking a distance from the camp, the militiamen, with the help of auxiliary forces hiding nearby, attacked the emigrants. The perpetrators killed all the adults and older children in the group, in the end sparing only seventeen young children under the age of seven.


title: Mountain Meadows Massacre

text: Following the massacre, the perpetrators buried some of the remains but ultimately left most of the bodies exposed to wild animals and the climate. Local families took in the surviving children, with many of the victims' possessions and remaining livestock being auctioned off. Investigations, which were interrupted by the American Civil War, resulted in nine indictments in 1874. Of the men who were indicted, only John D. Lee was tried in a court of law. After two trials in the Utah Territory, Lee was convicted by a jury, sentenced to death, and executed by Utah firing squad on March 23, 1877.


title: Mountain Meadows Massacre

text: Historians attribute the massacre to a combination of factors, including war hysteria about a possible invasion of Mormon territory and Mormon teachings against outsiders, which were part of the Mormon Reformation period. Scholars debate whether senior Mormon leadership, including Brigham Young, directly instigated the massacre or if responsibility for it lay only with the local leaders in southern Utah.


title: Mountain Meadows Massacre

text: In early 1857, the Baker–Fancher party was formed from several groups mainly from Marion, Crawford, Carroll, and Johnson counties in northwestern Arkansas. They assembled into a wagon train at Beller's Stand, south of Harrison, to emigrate to southern California. The group was initially referred to as both the Baker train and the Perkins train, but later referred to as the Baker–Fancher train (or party). It was named after "Colonel" Alexander Fancher who, having already made the journey to California twice before, had become its main leader. By contemporary standards the Baker–Fancher party was prosperous, carefully organized, and well-equipped for the journey. They were joined along the way by families and individuals from other states, including Missouri. The group was relatively wealthy, and planned to restock its supplies in Salt Lake City, as did most wagon trains at the time.


title: Mountain Meadows Massacre

text: At the time of the Fanchers' arrival, the Utah Territory was organized as a theocratic democracy under the leadership of Brigham Young, who had established colonies along the California Trail and the Old Spanish Trail. President James Buchanan had recently issued an order to send troops to Utah which led to rumors being spread in the territory about its motives. Young issued various orders that urged the local population to prepare for the arrival of the troops. Eventually Young issued a declaration of martial law.


title: Mountain Meadows Massacre

text: The Baker–Fancher party was refused stocks in Salt Lake City and chose to leave there and take the Old Spanish Trail, which passed through southern Utah. In August 1857, the Mormon apostle George A. Smith traveled throughout the southern part of the territory instructing the settlers to stockpile grain. While on his return trip to Salt Lake City, Smith camped near the Baker–Fancher party on August 25 at Corn Creek. They had traveled the south from Salt Lake City, and Jacob Hamblin suggested that the wagon train continue on the trail and rest their cattle at Mountain Meadows, which had good pasture and was adjacent to his homestead.


title: Mountain Meadows Massacre

text: While most witnesses said that the Fanchers were in general a peaceful party whose members behaved well along the trail, rumors spread about their supposed misdeeds. U.S. Army Brevet Major James Henry Carleton led the first federal investigation of the murders, published in 1859. He recorded Hamblin's account that the train was alleged to have poisoned a spring near Corn Creek; this resulted in the deaths of 18 head of cattle and two or three people who ate the contaminated meat. Carleton interviewed the father of a child who allegedly died from this poisoned spring, and accepted the sincerity of the grieving father. But, he also included a statement from an investigator who did not believe the Fancher party was capable of poisoning the spring, given its size. Carleton invited readers to consider a potential explanation for the rumors of misdeeds, noting the general atmosphere of distrust among Mormons for strangers at the time, and that some locals appeared jealous of the Fancher party's wealth.


title: Mountain Meadows Massacre

text: The Baker–Fancher party left Corn Creek and continued the to Mountain Meadows, passing Parowan and Cedar City, southern Utah communities led respectively by Stake Presidents William H. Dame and Isaac C. Haight. Haight and Dame were, in addition, the senior regional military leaders of the Nauvoo Legion. As the Baker–Fancher party approached, several meetings were held in Cedar City and nearby Parowan by the local Latter Day Saint (LDS) leaders pondering how to implement Young's declaration of martial law. On the afternoon of Sunday, September 6, Haight held his weekly Stake High Council meeting after church services and brought up the issue of what to do with the emigrants. The plan for a Native American massacre was discussed, but not all the Council members agreed it was the right approach. The Council resolved to take no action until Haight sent a rider, James Haslam, out the next day to carry an express to Salt Lake City (a six-day round trip on horseback) for Brigham Young's advice, as Utah did not yet have a telegraph system. Following the council, Isaac C. Haight decided to send a messenger south to John D. Lee. What Haight told Lee remains a mystery, but considering the timing it may have had something to do with Council's decision to wait for advice from Brigham Young.


title: Mountain Meadows Massacre

text: The dispirited Baker–Fancher party found water and fresh grazing for its livestock after reaching grassy, mountain-ringed Mountain Meadows, a widely known stopover on the old Spanish Trail, in early September. They anticipated several days of rest and recuperation there before the next would take them out of Utah. On September 7, the party was attacked by Nauvoo Legion militiamen dressed as Native Americans and some Native American Paiutes. The Baker–Fancher party defended itself by encircling and lowering their wagons, wheels chained together, along with digging shallow trenches and throwing dirt both below and into the wagons, which made a strong barrier. Seven emigrants were killed during the opening attack and buried somewhere within the wagon encirclement. Sixteen more were wounded. The attack continued for five days, during which the besieged families had little or no access to freshwater or game food and their ammunition was depleted. Meanwhile, organization among the local Mormon leadership reportedly broke down. Eventually, fear spread among the militia's leaders that some emigrants had caught sight of white men, and had probably discerned the identity of their attackers. This resulted in an order to kill all the emigrants, with the exception of small children.


title: Mountain Meadows Massacre

text: On Friday, September 11, 1857, two militiamen approached the Baker–Fancher party wagons with a white flag and were soon followed by Indian Agent and militia officer John D. Lee. Lee told the battle-weary emigrants that he had negotiated a truce with the Paiutes. Under Mormon protection, the wagon-train members would be escorted safely back to Cedar City, away, in exchange for turning all of their livestock and supplies over to the Native Americans. Accepting this offer, the emigrants were led out of their fortification, with the adult men being separated from the women and children. The men were paired with a militia escort and when the signal was given, the militiamen turned and shot the male members of the Baker–Fancher party standing by their side. The women and children were then ambushed and killed by more militia that were hiding in nearby bushes and ravines. Members of the militia were sworn to secrecy. A plan was set to blame the massacre on the Native Americans.


title: Mountain Meadows Massacre

text: The militia did not kill small children who were deemed too young to relate what had happened. Nancy Huff, one of the seventeen survivors and just over four years old at the time of the massacre, recalled in an 1875 statement that an eighteenth survivor was killed directly in front of the other children. "At the close of the massacre there was eighteen children still alive, one girl, some ten or twelve years old, they said was too big and could tell, so they killed her, leaving seventeen." The survivors were taken in by local Mormon families. Seventeen of the children were later reclaimed by the U.S. Army and returned to relatives in Arkansas. The treatment of these children while they were held by the Mormons is uncertain, but Captain James Lynch's statement in May 1859 said the surviving children were "in a most wretched condition, half starved, half naked, filthy, infested with vermin, and their eyes diseased from the cruel neglect to which had been exposed." Lynch's July 1859 affidavit added that they when they first saw the children they had "little or no clothing" and were "covered with filth and dirt".


title: Mountain Meadows Massacre

text: Leonard J. Arrington, founder of the Mormon History Association, reports that Brigham Young received the rider, James Haslam, at his office on the same day. When he learned what was contemplated by the militia leaders in Parowan and Cedar City, he sent back a letter stating the Baker–Fancher party was not to be meddled with, and should be allowed to go in peace (although he acknowledged the Native Americans would likely "do as they pleased"). Young's letter arrived two days too late, on September 13, 1857.


title: Mountain Meadows Massacre

text: The livestock and personal property of the Baker–Fancher party, including women's jewelry, clothing and bedstuffs were distributed or auctioned off to Mormons. Some of the surviving children saw clothing and jewelry that had belonged to their dead mothers and sisters subsequently being worn by Mormon women and the journalist J.H. Beadle said that jewelry taken from Mountain Meadows was seen in Salt Lake City.


title: Mountain Meadows Massacre

text: An early investigation was conducted by Brigham Young, who interviewed John D. Lee on September 29, 1857. In 1858, Young sent a report to the Commissioner of Indian Affairs stating that the massacre was the work of Native Americans. The Utah War delayed any investigation by the U.S. federal government until 1859, when Jacob Forney and U.S. Army Brevet Major James Henry Carleton conducted investigations. In Carleton's investigation, at Mountain Meadows he found women's hair tangled in sage brush and the bones of children still in their mothers' arms. Carleton later said it was "a sight which can never be forgotten." After gathering up the skulls and bones of those who had died, Carleton's troops buried them and erected a cairn and cross.


title: Mountain Meadows Massacre

text: Carleton interviewed a few local Mormon settlers and Paiute Native American chiefs and concluded that there was Mormon involvement in the massacre. He issued a report in May 1859, addressed to the U.S. Assistant Adjutant-General, setting forth his findings. Jacob Forney, Superintendent of Indian Affairs for Utah, also conducted an investigation that included visiting the region in the summer of 1859. Forney retrieved many of the surviving children of massacre victims who had been housed with Mormon families and gathered them up for transportation to their relatives in Arkansas. He concluded that the Paiutes did not act alone and the massacre would not have occurred without the white settlers, while Carleton's report to the U.S. Congress called the mass killings a "heinous crime", blaming both local and senior church leaders for the massacre.


title: Mountain Meadows Massacre

text: In March 1859, Judge John Cradlebaugh, a federal judge brought into the territory after the Utah War, convened a grand jury in Provo concerning the massacre, but the jury declined any indictments. Nevertheless, Cradlebaugh conducted a tour of the Mountain Meadows area with a military escort. He attempted to arrest John D. Lee, Isaac Haight, and John Higbee, who fled before they could be found. Cradlebaugh publicly charged Brigham Young as an instigator to the massacre and therefore an "accessory before the fact". Possibly as a protective measure against the mistrusted federal court system, Mormon territorial probate court judge Elias Smith arrested Young under a territorial warrant, perhaps hoping to divert any trial of Young into a friendly Mormon territorial court. Apparently because no federal charges ensued, Young was released.


title: Mountain Meadows Massacre

text: Further investigations were cut short by the American Civil War in 1861, but proceeded in 1871 when prosecutors obtained the affidavit of militia member Philip Klingensmith. Klingensmith had been a bishop and blacksmith from Cedar City; by the 1870s, however, he had left the church and moved to Nevada.


title: Mountain Meadows Massacre

text: Lee was arrested on November 7, 1874. Dame, Philip Klingensmith, Ellott Willden, and George Adair, Jr. were indicted and arrested while warrants to pursue the arrests of four others who had gone into hiding (Haight, Higbee, William C. Stewart, and Samuel Jukes) were being obtained. Klingensmith escaped prosecution by agreeing to testify. Brigham Young removed some participants including Haight and Lee from the LDS Church in 1870. The U.S. posted bounties of $5000 ($ in present-day funds) each for the capture of Haight, Higbee, Stewart, and Klingensmith.


title: Mountain Meadows Massacre

text: Lee's first trial began on July 23, 1875, in Beaver, before a jury of eight Mormons and four non-Mormons. One of Lee's defense attorneys was Enos D. Hoge, a former territorial supreme court justice. The trial led to a hung jury on August 5, 1875. Lee's second trial began September 13, 1876, before an all-Mormon jury. The prosecution called Daniel Wells, Laban Morrill, Joel White, Samuel Knight, Samuel McMurdy, Nephi Johnson, and Jacob Hamblin. Lee also stipulated, against advice of counsel, that the prosecution be allowed to re-use the depositions of Young and Smith from the previous trial. Lee called no witnesses in his defense, and was convicted.


title: Mountain Meadows Massacre

text: Lee was entitled under Utah Territorial statute to choose the method of his execution from three possible options: hanging, firing squad, or decapitation. At sentencing, Lee chose to be executed by firing squad. In his final words before his sentence was carried out at Mountain Meadows on March 23, 1877, Lee said that he was a scapegoat for others involved. Brigham Young stated that Lee's fate was just, but it was not a sufficient blood atonement, given the enormity of the crime.


title: Mountain Meadows Massacre

text: Initial published reports of the incident date back at least to October 1857 in the "Los Angeles Star". A notable report on the incident was made in 1859 by Carleton, who had been tasked by the U.S. Army to investigate the incident and bury the still exposed corpses at Mountain Meadows. The first period of intense nationwide publicity about the massacre began around 1872 after investigators obtained Klingensmith's confession. In 1868 C. V. Waite published "An Authentic History Of Brigham Young" which described the events. In 1872, Mark Twain commented on the massacre through the lens of contemporary American public opinion in an appendix to his semi-autobiographical travel book "Roughing It". In 1873, the massacre was given a full chapter in T. B. H. Stenhouse's Mormon history "The Rocky Mountain Saints". The massacre itself also received international attention, with various international and national newspapers also covering John D. Lee's 1874 and 1877 trials as well as his execution in 1877.


title: Mountain Meadows Massacre

text: The massacre has been treated extensively by several historical works, beginning with Lee's own "Confession" in 1877, expressing his opinion that George A. Smith was sent to southern Utah by Brigham Young to direct the massacre.


title: Mountain Meadows Massacre

text: In 1910, the massacre was the subject of a short book by Josiah F. Gibbs, who also attributed responsibility for the massacre to Young and Smith. The first detailed and comprehensive work using modern historical methods was "The Mountain Meadows Massacre" in 1950 by Juanita Brooks, a Mormon scholar who lived near the area in southern Utah. Brooks found no evidence of direct involvement by Brigham Young, but charged him with obstructing the investigation and provoking the attack through his rhetoric.


title: Mountain Meadows Massacre

text: Initially, the LDS Church denied any involvement by Mormons, and was relatively silent on the issue. In 1872, it excommunicated some of the participants for their role in the massacre. Since then, the LDS Church has condemned the massacre and acknowledged involvement by local Mormon leaders. In September 2007, the LDS Church published an article marking 150 years since the tragedy occurred, containing its first official apology about the massacre.


title: Mountain Meadows Massacre

text: As described by Richard E. Turley Jr., Ronald W. Walker, and Glen M. Leonard, historians from different backgrounds have taken different approaches to describe the massacre and those involved:


title: Mountain Meadows Massacre

text: Prior to 1985, many textbooks available in Utah Public Schools blamed the Paiute people as primarily responsible for the massacre, or placed equal blame on the Paiute and Mormon settlers (if they mentioned the massacre at all).


title: Mountain Meadows Massacre

text: Historians have ascribed the massacre to a number of factors, including strident Mormon teachings in the years prior to the massacre, war hysteria, and alleged involvement of Brigham Young.


title: Mountain Meadows Massacre

text: For the decade prior to the Baker–Fancher party's arrival there, Utah Territory existed as a theodemocracy led by Brigham Young. During the mid-1850s, Young instituted a Mormon Reformation, intending to "lay the axe at the root of the tree of sin and iniquity". In January 1856, Young said "the government of God, as administered here" may to some seem "despotic" because "...judgment is dealt out against the transgression of the law of God."


title: Mountain Meadows Massacre

text: In addition, during the preceeding decades, the religion had undergone a period of intense persecution in the American Midwest. In particular, they were officially expelled from, and an Extermination Order was issued by Governor Boggs, of the state of Missouri during the 1838 Mormon War, during which prominent Mormon apostle David W. Patten was killed in battle. After Mormons moved to Nauvoo, Illinois, the religion's founder Joseph Smith and his brother Hyrum Smith were killed in 1844. Following these events, faithful Mormons migrated west hoping to escape persecution. However, in May 1857, just months before the Mountain Meadows massacre, apostle Parley P. Pratt was shot dead in Arkansas by Hector McLean, the estranged husband of Eleanor McLean Pratt, one of Pratt's plural wives. Parley Pratt and Eleanor entered a Celestial marriage (under the theocratic law of the Utah Territory), but Hector had refused Eleanor a divorce. "When she left San Francisco she left Hector, and later she was to state in a court of law that she had left him as a wife the night he drove her from their home. Whatever the legal situation, she thought of herself as an unmarried woman."


title: Mountain Meadows Massacre

text: Mormon leaders immediately proclaimed Pratt as another martyr, with Brigham Young stating, "Nothing has happened so hard to reconcile my mind to since the death of Joseph." Many Mormons held the people of Arkansas collectively responsible. "It was in accordance with Mormon policy to hold every Arkansan accountable for Pratt's death, just as every Missourian was hated because of the expulsion of the church from that state."


title: Mountain Meadows Massacre

text: Mormon leaders were teaching that the Second Coming of Jesus was imminent – "...there are those now living upon the earth who will live to see the consummation" and "...we now bear witness that his coming is near at hand". Based on a somewhat ambiguous statement by Joseph Smith, some Mormons believed that Jesus would return in 1891 and that God would soon exact punishment against the United States for persecuting Mormons and martyring Joseph Smith, Hyrum Smith, Patten and Pratt. In their Endowment ceremony, faithful early Latter-day Saints took an oath to pray that God would take vengeance against the murderers. As a result of this oath, several Mormon apostles and other leaders considered it their religious duty to kill the prophets' murderers if they ever came across them. The sermons, blessings, and private counsel by Mormon leaders just before the Mountain Meadows massacre can be understood as encouraging private individuals to execute God's judgment against the wicked.


title: Mountain Meadows Massacre

text: In Cedar City, the teachings of church leaders were particularly strident. Mormons in Cedar City were taught that members should ignore dead bodies and go about their business. Col. William H. Dame, the ranking officer in southern Utah who ordered the Mountain Meadows massacre, received a patriarchal blessing in 1854 that he would "be called to act at the head of a portion of thy Brethren and of the Lamanites (Native Americans) in the redemption of Zion and the avenging of the blood of the prophets upon them that dwell on the earth". In June 1857, Philip Klingensmith, another participant, was similarly blessed that he would participate in "avenging the blood of Brother Joseph".


title: Mountain Meadows Massacre

text: Thus, historians argue that southern Utah Mormons would have been particularly affected by an unsubstantiated rumor that the Baker–Fancher wagon train had been joined by a group of eleven miners and plainsmen who called themselves "Missouri Wildcats", some of whom reportedly taunted, vandalized and "caused trouble" for Mormons and Native Americans along the route (by some accounts claiming that they had the gun that "shot the guts out of Old Joe Smith"). They were also affected by the report to Brigham Young that the Baker–Fancher party was from Arkansas where Pratt was murdered. It was rumored that Pratt's wife recognized some of the Mountain Meadows party as being in the gang that shot and stabbed Pratt.


title: Mountain Meadows Massacre

text: The Mountain Meadows massacre was caused in part by events relating to the Utah War, an 1857 deployment toward the Utah Territory of the United States Army, whose arrival was peaceful. In the summer of 1857, however, the Mormons expected an all-out invasion of apocalyptic significance. From July to September 1857, Mormon leaders and their followers prepared for a siege that could have ended up similar to the seven-year Bleeding Kansas problem occurring at the time. Mormons were required to stockpile grain, and were enjoined against selling grain to emigrants for use as cattle feed. As far-off Mormon colonies retreated, Parowan and Cedar City became isolated and vulnerable outposts. Brigham Young sought to enlist the help of Native American tribes in fighting the "Americans", encouraging them to steal cattle from emigrant trains, and to join Mormons in fighting the approaching army.


title: Mountain Meadows Massacre

text: Scholars have asserted that George A. Smith's tour of southern Utah influenced the decision to attack and destroy the Fancher–Baker emigrant train near Mountain Meadows, Utah. He met with many of the eventual participants in the massacre, including W. H. Dame, Isaac Haight, John D. Lee and Chief Jackson, leader of a band of Paiutes. He noted that the militia was organized and ready to fight and that some of them were eager to "fight and take vengeance for the cruelties that had been inflicted upon us in the States."


title: Mountain Meadows Massacre

text: Among Smith's party were a number of Paiute Native American chiefs from the Mountain Meadows area. When Smith returned to Salt Lake, Brigham Young met with these leaders on September 1, 1857, and encouraged them to fight against the Americans in the anticipated clash with the U.S. Army. They were also offered all of the livestock then on the road to California, which included that belonging to the Baker–Fancher party. The Native American chiefs were reluctant, and at least one objected they had previously been told not to steal, and declined the offer.


title: Mountain Meadows Massacre

text: There is a consensus among historians that Brigham Young played a role in provoking the massacre, at least unwittingly, and in concealing its evidence after the fact. However, they debate whether Young knew about the planned massacre ahead of time and whether he initially condoned it before later taking a strong public stand against it. Young's use of inflammatory and violent language in response to the Federal expedition added to the tense atmosphere at the time of the attack. Following the massacre, Young stated in public forums that God had taken vengeance on the Baker–Fancher party. It is unclear whether Young held this view because he believed that this specific group posed an actual threat to colonists or because he believed that the group was directly responsible for past crimes against Mormons. However, in Young's only known correspondence prior to the massacre, he told the Church leaders in Cedar City:


title: Mountain Meadows Massacre

text: According to historian MacKinnon, "After the [Utah] war, U.S. President James Buchanan implied that face-to-face communications with Brigham Young might have averted the conflict, and Young argued that a north-south telegraph line in Utah could have prevented the Mountain Meadows massacre." MacKinnon suggests that hostilities could have been avoided if Young had traveled east to Washington D.C. to resolve governmental problems instead of taking a five-week trip north on the eve of the Utah War for church related reasons.


title: Mountain Meadows Massacre

text: A modern forensic assessment of a key affidavit, purportedly given by William Edwards in 1924, has complicated the debate on complicity of senior Mormon leadership in the Mountain Meadows massacre. Analysis indicates that Edwards's signature may have been traced and that the typeset belonged to a typewriter manufactured in the 1950s. The Utah State Historical Society, which maintains the document in its archives, acknowledges a possible connection to Mark Hofmann, a convicted forger and extortionist, via go-between Lyn Jacobs who provided the society with the document.


title: Mountain Meadows Massacre

text: The first monument for the victims was built two years after the massacre, by Major Carleton and the U.S. Army. This monument was a simple cairn built over the gravesite of 34 victims, and was topped by a large cedar cross. The monument was found destroyed and the structure was replaced by the U.S. Army in 1864. By some reports, the monument was destroyed in 1861, when Young brought an entourage to Mountain Meadows. Wilford Woodruff, who later became President of the Church, claimed that upon reading the inscription on the cross, which read, "Vengeance is mine, thus saith the Lord. I shall repay", Young responded, "it should be vengeance is mine and I have taken a little." In 1932 residents of the surrounding area constructed a memorial wall around the remnants of the monument.


title: Mountain Meadows Massacre

text: Starting in 1988, the Mountain Meadows Association, composed of descendants of both the Baker–Fancher party victims and the Mormon participants, designed a new monument in the meadows; this monument was completed in 1990 and is maintained by the Utah State Division of Parks and Recreation. In 1999 The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints replaced the U.S. Army's cairn and the 1932 memorial wall with a second monument, which it now maintains. In August 1999, when the LDS Church's construction of the 1999 monument had started, the remains of at least 28 massacre victims were dug up by a backhoe. The forensic evidence showed that the remains of the males had been shot by firearms at close range and that the remains of the women and children showed evidence of blunt force trauma.


title: Mountain Meadows Massacre

text: In 1955, to memorialize the victims of the massacre, a monument was installed in the town square of Harrison, Arkansas. On one side of this monument is a map and short summary of the massacre, while the opposite side contains a list of the victims. In 2005 a replica of the U.S. Army's original 1859 cairn was built in the community of Carrollton, Arkansas, the former county seat of Carroll County, Arkansas. it is maintained by the Mountain Meadows Monument Foundation.


title: Mountain Meadows Massacre

text: In 2007, the 150th anniversary of the massacre was remembered by a ceremony held in the meadows. Approximately 400 people, including many descendants of those slain at Mountain Meadows and Elder Henry B. Eyring of the LDS Church's Quorum of the Twelve Apostles attended this ceremony.


title: Mountain Meadows Massacre

text: In 2011, the site was designated as a National Historic Landmark after joint efforts by descendants of those killed and the LDS Church.


title: Mountain Meadows Massacre

text: In 2014, archaeologist Everett Bassett discovered two rock piles he believes mark additional graves. The locations of the possible graves are on private land and not at any of the monument sites owned by the LDS Church. The Mountain Meadows Monument Foundation has expressed their desire that the sites are conserved and given national monument status. Other descendant groups have been more hesitant in accepting the sites as legitimate grave markers.


title: Balrog

text: A Balrog () is a powerful demonic monster in J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth. One first appeared in print in his high-fantasy novel "The Lord of the Rings", where the Fellowship of the Ring encounter a Balrog known as Durin's Bane in the Mines of Moria. Balrogs appear also in Tolkien's "The Silmarillion" and other posthumously published books. Balrogs are tall and menacing beings who can shroud themselves in fire, darkness, and shadow. They are armed with fiery whips "of many thongs", and occasionally use long swords.


title: Balrog

text: In Tolkien's later conception, they could not be readily vanquished—a certain stature was required by the would-be hero. Only dragons rivalled their capacity for ferocity and destruction, and during the First Age of Middle-earth, they were among the most feared of Morgoth's forces. Their power came from their nature as Maiar, angelic beings like the Valar.


title: Balrog

text: Tolkien invented the name "Balrog", providing an in-universe etymology for it as a word in his invented Sindarin language. He may have gained the idea of a fire demon from his philological study of the Old English word "Sigelwara", which he studied in detail in the 1930s.


title: Balrog

text: Balrogs appear in the film adaptations of "The Lord of the Rings" by Ralph Bakshi and Peter Jackson, in the TV series "", and in computer and video games based on Middle-earth.


title: Balrog

text: According to the fictional history in "The Silmarillion", the evil Vala Melkor corrupted lesser Maiar (angelic beings) to his service, as Balrogs, in the days of his splendour before the making of Arda. Upon the awakening of the Elves, the Valar captured Melkor and destroyed his fortresses Utumno and Angband. But they overlooked the deepest pits, where, with many of Melkor's other allies, the Balrogs fled into hiding. When Melkor returned to Middle-earth from Valinor, now bearing the epithet "Morgoth", he was attacked by the evil giant spider Ungoliant; his scream drew the Balrogs out of hiding to his rescue.


title: Balrog

text: Tolkien's conception of Balrogs changed over time. In all his early writing, they are numerous. A host of a thousand is mentioned in the "Quenta Silmarillion", while at the storming of Gondolin Balrogs in the hundreds ride on the backs of the Dragons. They are roughly of twice human size, and were occasionally killed in battle by Elves and Men. They were fierce demons, associated with fire, armed with fiery whips of many thongs and claws like steel, and Morgoth delighted in using them to torture his captives.


title: Balrog

text: In the published version of "The Lord of the Rings", however, Balrogs became altogether more sinister and more powerful. Christopher Tolkien notes the difference, saying that in earlier versions they were "less terrible and certainly more destructible". He quotes a very late marginal note that was not incorporated into the text saying "at most seven" ever existed; though in the "Annals of Aman", written as late as 1958, Melkor still commands "a host of Balrogs". In later writings they ceased to be creatures, but are instead Maiar, lesser Ainur like Gandalf or Sauron, spirits of fire whom Melkor had corrupted before the creation of the World. Power of the order of Gandalf's was necessary to destroy them, as when Gandalf at the Bridge of Khazad-dûm tells the others "This is a foe beyond any of you."


title: Balrog

text: As Maiar, only their physical forms could be destroyed. Tolkien says of the Valar (including the Maiar) that they can change their shape at will, and move "unclad in the raiment of the world", meaning invisible and without form. But it seems that Morgoth, Sauron, and their associated Maiar could lose this ability: Morgoth, for example, was unable to heal his burns from the Silmarils or wounds from Fingolfin and the eagle Thorondor; and Sauron lost his ability to assume a fair-seeming form after his physical body was destroyed in the downfall of Númenor.


title: Balrog

text: Tolkien does not address this specifically for Balrogs, though in his later conception, as at the Bridge of Khazad-dûm, the Balrog appears "like a great shadow, in the middle of which was a dark form, of man-shape maybe, yet greater". Though previously the Balrog had entered the "large square chamber" of Mazarbul, at the Bridge of Khazad-dûm it "drew itself to a great height, and its wings spread from wall to wall" in the vast hall.


title: Balrog

text: The Balrog's size and shape, therefore, are not given precisely. When Gandalf threw it from the peak of Zirakzigil, the Balrog "broke the mountain-side where he smote it in his ruin".


title: Balrog

text: Whether Balrogs had wings (and if so, whether they could fly) is unclear. This is due both to Tolkien's changing conception of Balrogs, and to the imprecise but suggestive and possibly figurative description of the Balrog that confronted Gandalf.


title: Balrog

text: The Balrog of Moria used a flaming sword ("From out of the shadow a red sword leapt flaming") and a many-thonged whip that "whined and cracked" in its battle with Gandalf. In "The Silmarillion", they also used black axes and maces. Earlier writings also speak of steel claws and iron mail.


title: Balrog

text: In earlier drafts of "The Lord of the Rings", some further indications of Tolkien's evolving conceptions appear, as when


title: Balrog

text: At this writing Tolkien contemplated an edict of the Valar concerning Balrogs, having Gandalf challenge the Balrog by saying "It is forbidden for any Balrog to come beneath the sky since Fionwë son of Manwë overthrew Thangorodrim."


title: Balrog

text: Gothmog is developed in successive versions of "Silmarillion" material. He is physically massive and strong, and in one version he is some 12 feet tall. He wields a black axe and whip of flame as his weapons. He holds the titles of the Lord of the Balrogs, the High Captain of Angband, and Marshal of the Hosts. In the Second Battle, Dagor-nuin-Giliath, he leads a force that ambushes Fëanor and wounds him mortally. He leads Balrogs, Orc-hosts, and Dragons as Morgoth's commander in the field in the Fifth Battle, Nírnaeth Arnoediad, and slays Fingon, High King of the Noldor. In that same battle, he captures Húrin of Dor-lómin, who had slain his personal guard of Battle-trolls, and brings him to Angband. As Marshal of the Hosts, he is in command of the Storming of Gondolin. He is about to kill Tuor when Ecthelion of the Fountain, a Noldorin Elf-lord, intervenes. Gothmog fights Ecthelion in single combat, and they kill each other.


title: Balrog

text: In "The Book of Lost Tales", Tolkien describes "Kosomot", the original version of Gothmog, as a son of Morgoth and the ogress Fluithuin or Ulbandi. "Gothmog" is Sindarin for "Dread Oppressor". "Kosomot" is often considered Gothmog's Quenya name; however, in the Quenya name-list of "The Fall of Gondolin" another version appears, "Kosomoko".


title: Balrog

text: In Tolkien's early "Lay of the Children of Húrin" is "Lungorthin, Lord of Balrogs". This might be another name for Gothmog, though Christopher Tolkien thought it more likely that Lungorthin was simply "a Balrog lord".


title: Balrog

text: This Balrog appears in "The Lord of the Rings", encountered by the Fellowship of the Ring in the Mines of Moria. It survived the defeat of Morgoth in the War of Wrath, escaping to hide beneath the Misty Mountains. For more than five millennia, the Balrog remained in its deep hiding place at the roots of Caradhras, one of the Mountains of Moria, until in the Third Age, the "mithril"-miners of the Dwarf-kingdom of Khazad-dûm disturbed it. The Balrog killed Durin VI, the Dwarf-King of Khazad-dûm, whereafter it was called Durin's Bane by the Dwarves. Avarice, principally for "mithril", drove the dwarves to go too deep and awaken the Balrog.


title: Balrog

text: The Dwarves attempted to fight the Balrog, but its power was far too great for them. In their efforts to hold Khazad-dûm against it, many Dwarves were killed: Durin's successor Náin ruled for only a year. The survivors were forced to flee. This disaster reached the Silvan Elves of Lothlórien, many of whom fled the "Nameless Terror". From this time Khazad-dûm was known as "Moria", Sindarin for "Black Pit" or "Black Chasm".


title: Balrog

text: For another 500 years, Moria was left to the Balrog; though according to "Unfinished Tales", Orcs crept in soon after the Dwarves were driven out, leading to Nimrodel's flight. Sauron began to put his plans for war into effect, and he sent Orcs and Trolls to the Misty Mountains to bar the passes.


title: Balrog

text: During the reign of Thráin II, the Dwarves attempted to retake Moria in the War of the Dwarves and Orcs, culminating in the Battle of Azanulbizar before the eastern gate of Moria. This was a victory for the Dwarves, but the Balrog prevented them from reoccupying Moria. Dáin II Ironfoot, having slain the Orc Azog near the gate, perceived the terror of the Balrog within and warned Thráin that Moria was unachievable until some greater force could remove the Balrog. The Dwarves departed and resumed their exile. Despite Dáin's warning, Balin made another attempt to retake Moria. His party managed to start a colony, but was massacred a few years later.


title: Balrog

text: The Fellowship of the Ring travelled through Moria on the quest to destroy the One Ring in Mount Doom. They were attacked in the Chamber of Mazarbul by Orcs. The Fellowship fled through a side door, but when the wizard Gandalf the Grey tried to place a "shutting spell" on the door to block the pursuit behind them, the Balrog entered the chamber on the other side and cast a "terrible" counterspell. Gandalf spoke a word of Command to stay the door, but the door shattered and the chamber collapsed. Gandalf was weakened by this encounter. The company fled with him, but the Orcs and the Balrog, taking a different route, caught up with them at the Bridge of Khazad-dûm. The Elf Legolas instantly recognized the Balrog and Gandalf tried to hold the bridge against it. As Gandalf faced the Balrog, he proclaimed, "You cannot pass, flame of Udûn!", and broke the bridge beneath the Balrog. As it fell, the Balrog wrapped its whip about Gandalf's knees, dragging him to the brink. As the Fellowship looked on in horror, Gandalf cried "Fly, you fools!" and plunged into the darkness below.


title: Balrog

text: After a long fall, the two crashed into a deep subterranean lake, which extinguished the flames of the Balrog's body; however it remained "a thing of slime, stronger than a strangling snake". They fought in the water; the Balrog clutched at Gandalf to strangle him, and Gandalf hewed the Balrog with his sword, until finally the Balrog fled into the primordial tunnels of Moria's underworld. Gandalf pursued the monster for eight days, until they climbed to the peak of Zirakzigil, where the Balrog was forced to turn and fight, its body erupting into new flame. Here they fought for two days and nights. In the end, the Balrog was defeated and cast down, breaking the mountainside where it fell "in ruin". Gandalf himself died shortly afterwards, but he returned to Middle-earth with greater powers, as "Gandalf the White", "until his task was finished". Critics such as Jerram Barrs have recognised this as a transfiguration similar to that of Jesus Christ, suggesting Gandalf's prophet-like status.


title: Balrog

text: The critic Clive Tolley notes that the contest between Gandalf and the Balrog on Durin's bridge somewhat recalls a shamanistic contest, but that a far closer parallel is medieval vision literature, giving the example of "St Patrick's Purgatory", and even Dante's "Divine Comedy".


title: Balrog

text: The name "Balrog", but not the meaning, emerges early in Tolkien's work: it appears in the "Fall of Gondolin", one of the earliest texts Tolkien wrote, around 1918. Tolkien began a poem in alliterative verse about the battle of Glorfindel with the Balrog in that text, where both were killed by falling into the abyss, just like Gandalf and the Balrog in "The Lord of the Rings".


title: Balrog

text: An early list of names described "Balrog" as "an Orc-word with no pure equivalent in Tolkien's invented language of Quenya: 'borrowed Malaroko-' ".


title: Balrog

text: In Gnomish (another of Tolkien's invented languages), "Balrog" is parsed as "balc" 'cruel' + "graug" 'demon', with a Quenya equivalent "Malkarauke". Variant forms of the latter include "Nalkarauke" and "Valkarauke".


title: Balrog

text: By the 1940s, when Tolkien began writing "The Lord of the Rings", he had come to think of Balrog as Noldorin "balch" 'cruel' + "rhaug" 'demon', with a Quenya equivalent "Malarauko" (from "nwalya-" 'to torture' + "rauko" 'demon').


title: Balrog

text: The last etymology, appearing in the invented languages Quendi and Eldar, derives "Balrog" as the Sindarin translation of the Quenya form "Valarauko" (Demon of Might). This etymology was published in "The Silmarillion".


title: Balrog

text: Gandalf on the bridge of Khazad-dûm calls the Balrog "flame of Udûn" ("Udûn" being the Sindarin name of Morgoth's fortress "Utumno").


title: Balrog

text: Tolkien was a professional philologist, a scholar of comparative and historical linguistics. The Balrog and other concepts in his writings derived from the Old English word "Sigelwara", used in texts such as the "Codex Junius" to mean "Aethiopian". He wondered why the Anglo-Saxons would have had a word with this meaning, conjecturing that it had formerly had a different meaning. He emended the word to "Sigelhearwan", and in his essay "Sigelwara Land", explored in detail the two parts of the word. He stated that "Sigel" meant "both "sun" and "jewel"", the former as it was the name of the Sun rune *sowilō (ᛋ), the latter connotation from Latin "sigillum", a seal. He decided that "Hearwa" was related to Old English "heorð", "hearth", and ultimately to Latin "carbo", "soot". He suggested from all this that "Sigelhearwan" implied "rather the sons of Muspell than of Ham", a class of demons in Northern mythology "with red-hot eyes that emitted sparks and faces black as soot". The Tolkien scholar Tom Shippey states that this both "helped to naturalise the Balrog" and contributed to the Silmarils, which combined the nature of the sun and jewels. The Aethiopians suggested to Tolkien the Haradrim, a dark southern race of men.


title: Balrog

text: A real-world etymological counterpart for the word "Balrog" existed long before Tolkien's languages, in Norse mythology; an epithet of the Norse god Odin was "Báleygr", "fire-eyed".


title: Balrog

text: Joe Abbott, writing in "Mythlore", notes that the Old Norse "Voluspa" mentions that the fire-demon Surt carries both a sword and a "sviga laevi", a deadly whipping-stick or switch; he suggests that it is "a short step" from that to the Balrog's flaming whip. Abbott makes a connection, too, with the "Beowulf" poet's account of the monster Grendel: he notes that Tolkien wrote that Grendel was "physical enough in form and power, but vaguely felt as belonging to a different order of being, one allied to the malevolent 'ghosts' of the dead", and compares this with Aragorn's description of the Balrog as "both a shadow and a flame, strong and terrible".


title: Balrog

text: Tolkien felt acutely the error made by the Anglo-Saxon commander, the ealdorman Byrhtnoth, at the Battle of Maldon, allowing the Vikings to step ashore and win the battle. Alexander Bruce, in "Mythlore", comments that Tolkien may have used the battle with the Balrog on the narrow bridge in Moria to "correct the behavior of the self-serving Byrhtnoth through the actions of the self-less Gandalf". Bruce notes that the Tolkien scholar Janet Brennan Croft also contrasts the two leaders.


title: Balrog

text: There are multiple parallels between the "Fall of Gondolin" and the fall of Troy, as told in the "Iliad", but again the tales differ. The Elf Ecthelion leads the charge against the Orcs, and fights Gothmog, the greatest Balrog; they wound each other and both fall into the king's fountain in Gondolin; both drown. Bruce compares this to how Aeneas rallies the Trojans, but fails, and sees king Priam perish.


title: Balrog

text: The Balrog in Ralph Bakshi's 1978 animated version was named Durin's Bane and had large wings like those of a bat. Peter Jackson's 2001 and 2002 films "" and "" had similar wings, expressing its "satanic, demonic nature". Earlier artists such as Ted Nasmith had depicted Balrogs without wings; Jackson's films used the design of Tolkien illustrator John Howe, making wings standard, in the same way that Jackson has made pointed ears standard for elves. A Balrog is to appear in "", with a similar visual design to Jackson's monster.


title: Balrog

text: Balrogs appear in Middle-earth computer and video games and merchandise. In the real-time strategy game "", and its , both based on Jackson's movies, the Balrog can use its wings, although only in short leaps. In the role-playing game "", also based on the Jackson movies, the Balrog uses its wings to fly into the air, and comes crashing down, sending a damaging shockwave of flames at the player. In another game based on Jackson's movies, "", the Balrog is a playable hero.


title: Balrog

text: A Balrog features in King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard's 2017 album "Murder of the Universe" (2017) as a giant reanimated monster. Songwriter Stu Mackenzie explained: "It might not be the Balrog from Middle Earth, but he is a sort of fire demon."


title: Balrog

text: Early "Dungeons and Dragons" books featured Balrogs among other Middle-earth characters like Hobbits and Ents; after a lawsuit brought by the Tolkien Estate, these Tolkien-specific names were changed, the Balrogs becoming Balor, after the one-eyed monster of Irish mythology.


title: Balrog

text: An astrophysical method for locating gamma ray bursts has been named BALROG, for "BAyesian Location Reconstruction Of GRBs".


title: Balrog

text: In taxonomy, a new species of ant in 2017 was named "Terataner balrog", for the animal's "dark" lifestyle as a predator, and for its robustly armoured and horned body. A large fossil crocodyliform, "Anthracosuchus balrogus", the generic name meaning "coal crocodile", was so named for being found in a mine, like Durin's Bane.


title: Balrog

text: A now-defunct fantasy writing prize, the Balrog Award, was named after the monsters. The Japanese manga "Restaurant to Another World" introduces a Balrog as a butler. Unlike the Balrogs as depicted by Tolkien, the Balrog in the anime is polite.


title: Brandi Rhodes

text: Brandi Alexis Runnels (née Reed; born June 23, 1983), known professionally as Brandi Rhodes, is an American professional wrestler, ring announcer, model, businesswoman and television personality. She is known for her time as the former Chief Brand Officer of wrestling promotion All Elite Wrestling (AEW), where she also performed as a wrestler.


title: Brandi Rhodes

text: She began her career in WWE, where she was assigned to the farm territory Florida Championship Wrestling. She worked as a ring announcer under the name of Eden Stiles. During that time, she married Cody Rhodes. After her husband left WWE in 2016, she left a few days later. During the following years, she worked as a wrestler in several promotions, most notably Impact Wrestling, Ring of Honor, and World Wonder Ring Stardom. In 2019, she joined the newly created promotion All Elite Wrestling.


title: Brandi Rhodes

text: She was also a cast member on the E! reality television series "WAGS Atlanta". Prior to her wrestling career, she was a figure skater and a television news anchor.


title: Brandi Rhodes

text: Brandi Alexis Reed was born and raised in the Canton, Michigan suburb of Detroit, Michigan and has an older brother named Jason Reed. She was a competitive figure skater for 17 years, beginning at the age of four. As a sophomore in college, Reed stopped ice skating competitively to focus on academics and a future broadcasting career. Reed graduated from the University of Michigan on a full-ride scholarship. She worked as a local news reporter for two years before relocating to Miami, Florida, to pursue a career in modeling and acting. While living in Miami, Reed completed a Master's degree in broadcast journalism from the University of Miami.


title: Brandi Rhodes

text: While working as a model after completing her master's degree, Reed was invited to a WWE tryout in 2011. She signed a developmental contract with WWE in March 2011 and was assigned to Florida Championship Wrestling (FCW). The following month, she debuted under the ring name Brandi, accompanying Lucky Cannon at an FCW house show. On May 12, she began working as a ring announcer on weekly episodes of "Superstars". On July 11, Reed also began announcing duties on "NXT", under the ring name Eden Stiles. She filled in as the ring announcer for "SmackDown" on the July 15 and November 11 episodes. Her only match took place on July 16 at "FCW Summer SlamaRama", where she was involved in a battle royal, which was won by Sonia. In December, at her request, Reed was released from her WWE contract.


title: Brandi Rhodes

text: In November 2013, Rhodes announced on Twitter that she would be returning to WWE. Her ring name was shortened to Eden and resumed her role as a ring announcer, first appearing on "NXT". In February 2014, Eden began a video blog, which ran until January 2015 and was published on the WWE website. In October 2014, Eden became the regular ring announcer and backstage interviewer for "SmackDown" and "Main Event". In late-March 2015, Eden made her pay-per-view ring announcing debut at WrestleMania 31, as well as becoming the backup ring announcer for "Raw", while Lilian Garcia was recovering from surgery. On May 24, 2016, Rhodes was granted her release from WWE, just days after her husband Cody Rhodes also requested his release.


title: Brandi Rhodes

text: On June 3, 2016, it was announced that Rhodes would be in Cody Rhodes' corner in his match against Mike Bennett at "Wrestling Under the Stars" on August 26 in Pittsfield, Massachusetts. On October 10, it was announced that Rhodes will make her singles wrestling debut against Jordynne Grace at Pro Wrestling Magic, defeating her on October 15. On July 15, 2017, she defeated Tessa Blanchard at Northeast Wrestling. In 2018, she wrestled for United Kingdom promotion Fight Forever Wrestling and defeated Bea Priestley and Viper. Rhodes made a surprise appearance alongside Britt Baker and Nyla Rose at Rise Wrestling in 2019, coming to the aid of Kylie Rae, and setting up a match between the three at Double or Nothing.


title: Brandi Rhodes

text: On September 16, 2016, it was reported by TMZ that Rhodes had signed with TNA. Three days later, TNA confirmed Rhodes' signing. At Bound for Glory, Rhodes, alongside her husband Cody, made her TNA debut as a face, attacking Maria and her husband Mike Bennett to begin a feud between the two couples. Brandi made her in ring debut, in October, 28 in the episode of "Impact Wrestling" alongside her husband Cody against Maria and Mike Bennett in intergender tag team match. On February 16, 2017, in the episode of "Impact Wrestling" Brandi and Moose defeated Decay (Crazzy Steve and Rosemary) in a mix tag team match. On the February 23, 2017, in the episode of "Impact Wrestling" Brandi's husband Cody returned but attacked Moose out of jealousy after finding out she had Moose's phone number. On April 6, 2017, during the episode of "Impact Wrestling", Rhodes participated in a gauntlet match for being the number one contender to Rosemary's Knockouts Championship, which was won by ODB. Rhodes then parted ways with Impact Wrestling. Reportedly the promotion wanted a percentage from a non-wrestling related television appearance Rhodes had made, which led to her requesting her release.


title: Brandi Rhodes

text: Rhodes made her Ring of Honor in-ring debut at its July 29, 2017, television tapings at the Cabarrus Arena in Concord, North Carolina. She teamed with Sumie Sakai to battle Jenny Rose and Mandy Leon. She had previously briefly appeared in ROH to introduce Cody for his match against Jay Lethal at the Final Battle PPV on December 2, 2016.


title: Brandi Rhodes

text: Prior to entering World Wonder Ring Stardom's 2018 Cinderella Tournament, it was announced that Rhodes would be joining the Oedo Tai stable. In the tournament, she defeated fellow stablemate Natsu Sumire in the first round, but lost to Io Shirai in the quarterfinals. Rhodes wrestled in three tag team matches alongside Oedo Tai stablemates, winning all three. It was later revealed that she had suffered a broken collarbone during this time.


title: Brandi Rhodes

text: In 2019, Rhodes became Chief Brand Officer of All Elite Wrestling (AEW), a new wrestling promotion co-founded by her husband. At Double or Nothing, AEW's first pay-per-view, on May 25, 2019, Rhodes appeared during the women's triple threat match between Britt Baker, Nyla Rose, and Kylie Rae and announced that she was adding Awesome Kong to the match, which Baker won, establishing Rhodes as a heel. Rhodes made her AEW in-ring debut at Fight for the Fallen on July 13, defeating Allie due to interference from Kong. At All Out, she wrestled in the Casino Battle Royale and was eliminated by Baker and Allie. During the following months, Rhodes and Kong began cutting off and collecting women's hair. The Nightmare Collective later gained new members Mel and Luther. At Bash at the Beach, Mel and Kong were originally scheduled to face Kris Statlander and Hikaru Shida, however Kong was not medically cleared and Rhodes would replace her in a losing effort. The Nightmare Collective was badly received by fans and in February, Rhodes left the group and Kong was off TV to film GLOW.


title: Brandi Rhodes

text: During the following weeks, she accompanied her husband Cody to his matches, as well as the team of The Natural Nightmares Dustin Rhodes and QT Marshall. She also formed a tag team called The Nightmare Sisters with Allie. On the November 18, 2020, episode of "AEW Dynamite", Jade Cargill, who interrupted Cody the previous week, attacked Brandi backstage, wrapped her arm in a chair and stomped on it while Vickie Guerrero and Nyla Rose prevented assistance. On the December 9, 2020, episode of "Dynamite", Brandi confronted NBA legend Shaquille O'Neal during his interview with Tony Schiavone, Shaq claimed Cargill could give Brandi pointers, leading to her throwing a glass of water on him. She made sporadic appearances on AEW after the birth of her daughter, most recently as a tweener while verbal sparring with Dan Lambert, and getting into a physical altercation with Paige VanZant; however, before the storyline could be continued, she and Cody left AEW on February 15, 2022.


title: Brandi Rhodes

text: Rhodes has appeared in national advertisements for Budweiser and KFC, as well as "Maxim". Rhodes has launched her own line of swimwear called "Confection Swimwear".


title: Brandi Rhodes

text: In 2015 at WrestleMania, Rhodes became the first African-American woman to be a ring announcer for a major American wrestling promotion. She then became the first woman of color to appear in a match at Wrestle Kingdom in 2018. As AEW's Chief Branding Officer, Rhodes became the first African-American woman to hold an executive position in a major North American wrestling promotion. With AEW, she secured a partnership with KultureCity, a nonprofit that makes large-scale events inclusive for people with sensory needs.


title: Brandi Rhodes

text: Runnels married professional wrestler Cody Rhodes in September 2013. The couple have one child together.


title: Brampton

text: Brampton ( or ) is a city in the Canadian province of Ontario. Brampton is a city in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) and is a lower-tier municipality within Peel Region. The city has a population of 656,480 as of the 2021 Census, making it the ninth most populous municipality in Canada and the third most populous city in the Greater Golden Horseshoe urban area, behind Toronto and Mississauga.


title: Brampton

text: Indigenous peoples have inhabited the Brampton area for thousands of years. Named after the town of Brampton in Cumberland, England, Brampton was incorporated as a village in 1853 and as a town in 1873, and became a city in 1974.


title: Brampton

text: The city was once known as "The Flower Town of Canada", a title referring to its large greenhouse industry. Nowadays, Brampton's major economic sectors include advanced manufacturing, retail administration, logistics, information and communication technologies, food and beverage, life sciences, and business services.


title: Brampton

text: Before the arrival of British settlers, the Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation held of land north of the head of the Lake Purchase lands and extending to the unceded territory of the Chippewa of Lakes Huron and Simcoe. European settlers began to arrive in the area in the 1600s. In October 1818, the chief of the Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation signed Treaty 19, also known as the Ajetance Purchase, surrendering the area to the British Crown.


title: Brampton

text: Prior to the 1830s, most business in Chinguacousy Township took place at Martin Salisbury's tavern. One mile from the corner of Hurontario Street and the 5th Sideroad (now Main and Queen Streets in the centre of Brampton), William Buffy's tavern was the only significant building. At the time, the intersection was referred to as "Buffy's Corners". By 1834, John Elliott laid out the area in lots for sale, calling it "Brampton", which was soon adopted by others.


title: Brampton

text: In 1853, a small agricultural fair was set up by the newly initiated County Agricultural Society of the County of Peel and was held at the corner of Main and Queen streets. Grains, produce, roots, and dairy products were up for sale. Horses and cattle, along with other lesser livestock, were also sold at the market. This agricultural fair eventually became the modern Brampton Fall Fair.


title: Brampton

text: In that same year Brampton was incorporated as a village. In 1866, the town became the county seat and the location of the Peel County Courthouse which was built in 1865–66; a three-storey County jail was added at the rear in 1867.


title: Brampton

text: Edward Dale, an immigrant from Dorking, England, established a flower nursery in Brampton shortly after his arrival in 1863. Dale's Nursery became the town's largest and most prominent employer, developed a flower grading system, and established a global export market for its products. The company chimney was a town landmark, until Brampton Town Council allowed it to be torn down in 1977. At its height, the company had 140 greenhouses, and was the largest cut flower business in North America, producing 20 million blooms and introducing numerous rose and orchid varietals and species to the market. It also spurred the development of other nurseries in the town. Forty-eight hothouse flower nurseries once did business in the town.


title: Brampton

text: In January 1867, Peel County separated from the County of York, a union which had existed since 1851.


title: Brampton

text: A federal grant had enabled the village to found its first public library in 1887, which included 360 volumes from the Mechanic's Institute (established in 1858). In 1907, the library received a grant from the Carnegie Foundation, set up by United States steel magnate and philanthropist Andrew Carnegie, to build a new, expanded library; it serves several purposes, featuring the Brampton Library. The Carnegie libraries were built on the basis of communities coming up with matching funds and guaranteeing maintenance.


title: Brampton

text: In 1902, Sir William J. Gage (owner of Gage Publishing, a publishing house specializing in school textbooks) purchased a portion of the gardens and lawns of the Alder Lea estate (now called Alderlea) that had been built on Main Street by Kenneth Chisolm in 1867 to 1870. (Chisholm, a merchant and founding father of Brampton, had been the Town reeve, then warden of Peel County, then MPP for Brampton and eventually, Registrar of Peel County.) Gage donated of the property to the town, with a specific condition that it be made into a park. Citizens donated $1,054 and the town used the funds to purchase extra land to ensure a larger park.


title: Brampton

text: A group of regional farmers in Brampton had trouble getting insurance from city-based companies. After several meetings in Clairville Hall, they decided to found the County of Peel Farmers Mutual Fire Insurance Company. In 1955, when the company moved to its third and current location, 103 Queen Street West, it took the new name of Peel Mutual Insurance Company. It reigns as the longest-running company in modern Brampton. Harmsworth Decorating Centre was established in 1890, as Harmsworth and Son, operated out of the family's house on Queen Street West. The current location was purchased on September 1, 1904, after a fire destroyed their original store. Purchased for $1,400, the 24 Main Street South location is the longest-operating retail business in what is now Brampton.


title: Brampton

text: In 1974, the two townships of Chinguacousy and Toronto Gore were incorporated into Brampton. The small pine added to the centre of the shield on the Brampton city flag represents Chinguacousy, honouring the Chippewa chief "Shinguacose," "The Small Pine." After this merger, outlying communities such as Bramalea, Heart Lake and Professor's Lake, Snelgrove, Tullamore, and Mayfield, were developed.


title: Brampton

text: In 1963, the town established "The Flower Festival of Brampton", based on the "Rose Festival" of Portland, Oregon, in the United States. It began to market itself as the "Flower Town of Canada".


title: Brampton

text: In a revival of this theme, on 24 June 2002, the City Council established the "Flower City Strategy", to promote a connection to its flower-growing heritage. The intention was to inspire design projects and community landscaping to beautify the city, adopt a sustainable environmental approach, and to protect its natural and cultural heritage. The Rose Theatre was named in keeping with this vision and is to serve as a cultural institution in the city. In addition, the city participates in the national Communities in Bloom competition as part of that strategy.


title: Brampton

text: The Old Shoe Factory, located on 57 Mill Street North, once housed the Hewetson Shoe Company. It was listed as a historical property under the Ontario Heritage Act in 2008. Today it is occupied by various small businesses. The lobby and hallways retain details from 1907. Walls are decorated with pictures and artifacts of local Brampton history and old shoemaking equipment.


title: Brampton

text: A self-guided historical walking tour of downtown Brampton called "A Walk Through Time" is available at Brampton City Hall and online at no cost.


title: Brampton

text: Planned as an innovative "new town", Bramalea was developed immediately east of the Town of Brampton in Chinguacousy Township. It was Canada's first satellite community developed by one of the country's largest real estate developers, "Bramalea Limited." The name "Bramalea" was created by the farmer William Sheard, who combined "BRAM" from Brampton, "MAL" from Malton (then a neighbouring town which is now part of the city of Mississauga), and "LEA", an Old English word meaning meadow or grassland. He sold the land to Brampton Leasing (the former name of the developer) and built one of Bramalea's first houses on Dixie Road.


title: Brampton

text: The community was developed according to its detailed master plan, which included provisions for a parkland trail system and a "downtown" to include essential services and a shopping centre. The downtown's centrepiece was the Civic Centre, built in 1972 to include the city hall and library. Directly across Team Canada Drive, a shopping centre named Bramalea City Centre was built. These developments were connected by a long tunnel, planned to provide protection from winter weather. But, the tunnel has long since been closed due to safety issues. Other features included a police station, fire hall, bus terminal, and a collection of seniors' retirement homes.


title: Brampton

text: Each phase of the new city was marked with progressing first letters of street names. Development started with the "A" section, with street names such as Argyle, Avondale, and Aloma. Developers then created a "B" section, "C" section, and so forth. Children on the boundaries of these divisions would regularly compete in street hockey games, pitting, for example, the "D" section versus the "E" section.


title: Brampton

text: The community was initially developed with a large number of recreational facilities, including tennis courts, playgrounds, hockey/lacrosse rinks and swimming pools. An extensive parkland trail and sidewalk system connects the entire community.


title: Brampton

text: In 1974, the Ontario provincial government decided to update Peel County's structure. It amalgamated several towns and villages into the new City of Mississauga. In addition, it created the present City of Brampton from the town and the greater portion of the Townships of Chinguacousy and Toronto Gore, and the northern extremity of Mississauga south of Steeles Avenue, including Bramalea and the other communities such as Churchville, Claireville, Ebenezer, Victoria, Springbrook, Coleraine, and Huttonville. While only Huttonville and Churchville still exist as identifiable communities, other names like Claireville are re-emerging as names of new developments.


title: Brampton

text: The province converted Peel County into the Regional Municipality of Peel. Brampton retained its role as the administrative centre of Peel Region, which it already had as county seat. The regional council chamber, the Peel Regional Police force, the public health department, and the region's only major museum, the Peel Art Gallery, Museum and Archives, are all located in Brampton.