The Danites' War on the Mormons

The story that mobilized the Mormons morphed into a tale of gross intimidation by the time it reached the establishment. A circuit court judge named Austin King, whose brother-in-law had been killed in a Jackson County Mormon riot issued a warrant for Joseph Smith's arrest. So after Joseph was arrested, the Danites gathered an army of 350 men, which again was magnified in rumor to actually be 15,000 men. This is the Blackbeard effect. The Missouri militia fled under the rumors, and with the militia out of town, the Mormons plundered the Gentiles of Gallatin burning cabins and stealing livestock before returning to far west.