Missouri Executive Order 44, also known as the Extermination Order, was an executive order issued on October 27, 1838, by the Governor of Missouri, Lilburn Boggs. The order was issued in the aftermath of the Battle of Crooked River, a clash between members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (known as Mormons) and a unit of the Missouri State Militia in northern Ray County, Missouri, during the 1838 Mormon War. Claiming that the church members had committed open and avowed defiance of the law and had made war upon the people of Missouri, Governor Boggs directed that "the Mormons...