considered a religious duty and a just act. Lee refused to be killed in the same manner for his conviction, requesting instead that he be executed by firing squad, rejecting the notion that he needed to atone for the Mountain Meadows massacre. Mountain Meadows massacre The Mountain Meadows massacre of September 7–11, 1857 was widely blamed on the church's doctrine of blood atonement and the anti-United States rhetoric of LDS Church leaders during the Utah War. The widely publicized massacre was a mass killing of Arkansan emigrants by a Mormon militia led by prominent Mormon leader John D. Lee, who was later executed for his role in the killings. After escalating rumors that the emigrants participated in early Mormon persecution, the militia conducted a siege, and when the emigrants surrendered, the militia killed men, women, and children in cold blood, adopted some of the surviving children, and attempted a cover-up. The Doctrine of Vengeance and Blood Atonement may have been a motivation behind the massacre, as the wagon train had accepted disillusioned Mormons (or "apostates" as they are known) into their midst. Philip Klingensmith, a Bishop in the church and a private in the militia and the only Mormon who admitted to obeying direct orders that commanded the murder of unarmed men, reported that he saw one man beg for life, saying, "'Higbee, I wouldn't do this you.' He knew Higbee it appears." John H Higbee allegedly replied, "you would have done the same to me or just as bad" and cut the man's throat. Another account tells that many apostates were killed, "when their dead bodies were found, after the massacre, it is said they were clothed in their endowment shirts." Even though the massacre was widely connected with the blood atonement doctrine by both the United States press and the general public, there is no direct evidence to suggest that it was related to "saving" the emigrants by the shedding of their blood (because they had not entered into Mormon covenants); rather, most commentators view it as an act of intended retribution. Young was accused of either directing or being complicit in the massacre after the fact. When Brigham Young was interviewed about the matter and asked if he believed in blood atonement 20 years later, however, he replied, "I do, and I believe that Lee has not half atoned for his great crime." He said "we believe