On sending a statement to Utah Territory, in April last, Brigadier General Clarke directed the officer in command, Major J. H. Carleton, 1st Dragoons, to collect and decently to bury the remains of the victims of the Mountain Meadow Massacre.
Arriving at Mountain Meadows, Maj. Carleton found that the General's wishes had been in part anticipated by Captain R. Campbell, 2nd Dragoons, who, "on his way down," says Major Carleton, "passed this spot, and before my arrival caused to be collected and buried the bones of twenty-six of the victims."
Major Carleton continues: "On the 20th instant, I took a wagon and a party of men and made a thorough search for others amongst the sage bushes for at least a mile back from the road that leads to Hamblin's house. Hamblin, himself, showed Sergeant Fritz, of my party, a spot on the right hand side of the road where he had partially covered up a great many of the bones. These were collected, and a large number of others on the left hand side of the road, up the slope of the hill, and in the ravines and among the bushes. I gathered many of the disjointed bones of thirty-four persons. The number could easily be told by the number of pairs of shoulderblades, and by lower jaws, skulls, and parts of skulls, etc., etc. These, with the remains of two others, gotten in a ravine to the east spring, where theyhad been interred at but little depth -- thirty-four in all -- I buried in a grave on the northern side of the ditch. Around and above this grave, I caused to be built ofloose granite stones, hauled from the neighboring hills, a rude monument, conical in form and fifty feet in circumference at the base and twelve feet in height.
This is surmounted by a cross, hewn from red cedar wood, from the ground to the top of the cross is twenty-four feet. On the transverse part of the cross, facing towards the north, is an inscription carved deeply in the wood: " VENGENCE IS MINE: I WILL REPAY SAITH THE LORD ." List of Massacre Victims|Biography|Desecration of the Christian Cross
