Was Joseph Smith a coward at Carthage Jail? Certainly not! And this wonderfully researched illustration by Andrew Knaupp shows us the courage of the Prophet before his martyrdom. The name of this painting is "All They Want Is Hyrum and Myself."
FROM THE ARTIST:
This painting is titled "All They Want Is Hyrum and Myself." It takes place in the upstairs bedroom of the Carthage Jail in Carthage, Illinois on June 27, 1844.
A few days before the martyrdom, Joseph had said: "All they want is Hyrum and myself." It was the belief of Willard Richards, and it is my belief, that the Prophet jumped out the window not to save his own life but to save the lives of his brethren.
Clearly, there was death at the door. Joseph had just seen Hyrum shot through the thin panel and his body still lay on the floor.
Clearly, there was death at the window. John Taylor had just tried to leap from the window moments before and had been shot four times. Balls were flying through the window, shattering the class and the sill. The Prophet still managed to cross the room, push himself up on the wide sill and dive, probably headfirst, through the open bottom half of the window.
All this was done against the force of musket balls that pierced him twice in the back, once in the right collarbone, and once in the right breast.
In this image, I tried to portray the moment of decision when, looking back at the lone figure of Willard Richards beside the door, the Prophet decided that if he got out of the room the mobbers would follow and Richards and Taylor would have a chance to survive.
So, you've got glass shattering. You've got the sill kind of exploding. You've got bits of glass on the floor, on the sill, it's ripping through the curtains, not a place you go if you think: "I want to be safe." It's exploding, it's shattering, it's—it's where you want to be away from—you want to be away from that window and you want to be away from the door. You're not escaping, you're going right into the line of fire to go in front of the window.
So, the idea that he's thinking: "Hey, if I get out this window I'll be safe,"—I don't think he's thinking he's going to be safe. I think he thinks: "If I can get out this window, they'll chase me and they'll leave Taylor and Richards alone, they'll have a chance. I'll draw their fire."
Willard Richards recounted, quote: "Joseph attempted, as the last resort, to leap the same window from whence Mr. Taylor fell, when two balls pierced him from the door, and one entered his right breast from without, and he fell outward, exclaiming,--Oh Lord, my God!"
I think it's one of the Psalms that starts that way and there's a similar thing that happens when Christ is on the cross. When he says: "My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken me?" That's one of the Psalms. The Psalm that says that talks about Christ being crucified. It's a prophetic Psalm that describes what's happening to him and that he actually quotes the Psalm to basically say to them: "You're doing what the prophets said you would do."
I was trying to show a look of concern—concern for the life of Willard Richards, seeing him back there at the door and he's thinking, in that moment, not of himself but of what he can do to try and save the lives of his brothers.
