The Army of the Lord Summary and Analysis

Philastus Hurlburt was one of the apostates who had been excommunicated and now sought to defame and cause the end of Joseph Smith. To his delight, he heard of an old man in Ohio who had written a story about the ancestors of the Indians. He could not find the manuscript, so he interviewed the neighbors and convinced them to remember, twenty years after hearing the story only once, details that remarkably mirrored the Book of Mormon. He convinced them to write out affidavits to that effect. He then went searching for more evidence in Palmyra, and got supposed affidavits from the locals. They were admittedly negative toward Joseph Smith, describing all the supposed evidence against him. Among these was the "folklore of Joseph's money digging" (p. 159). He later located the actual manuscript...