SIR:--I have been informed that a writ issued by me for the body of Levi Williams, for kidnapping Daniel Avery, will be resisted by an armed force: Therefore, according to the provision of the Charter, I wish you to order me a detachment of the Nauvoo Legion--say 100 men, to enforce the law of the State, and bring the said Williams to justice. AARON JOHNSON, J. P. Which demand I complied with by writing to Major-General Wilson Law. _Detachment of the Legion Ordered into Service_. CITY OF NAUVOO, Dec. 18, 1843. SIR:--You will detach 100 men, under the direction of Aaron Johnson, a Justice of the Peace, for the purpose of assisting the constable in executing the law of the State in taking Levi Williams, who is charged with kidnapping Daniel Avery. Yours, JOSEPH SMITH, Lieut-Gen., N. L. To MAJOR-GEN. WILSON LAW, Commanding Nauvoo Legion. Gen. Wilson detached Colonel Stephen Markham with 100 men for that purpose. [Sidenote: Rumors of Mob Risings.] About 10 p.m., two young men arrived as express, stating that a mob was collecting at Warsaw, also at Colonel Levi Williams' house; and messengers had gone to the mob in Missouri to reinforce their number there. Dr. Richards made the following affidavit:-- _Affidavit of Willard Richards that Nauvoo was in Danger_. STATE OF ILLINOIS, CITY OF NAUVOO, December 18, 1843. Personally appeared Willard Richards before me, Joseph Smith, Mayor of said city, and upon his oath deposeth and saith that from information he has received, he verily believes that the peace of said city is in danger from a mobocratic assemblage at Warsaw, and a force collected under the command of Colonel Levi Williams in the lower part of the county, and runners having been sent to Missouri to excite the Missourians to join the mobbers in this county, for the purpose of making {120} a descent on said city, or disturbing its peaceable inhabitants; and further your deponent saith not. WILLARD RICHARDS. Subscribed and sworn to before me this 18th December, 1843. W. W. PHELPS, Clerk of the Mayor's Court. Whereupon I wrote to Major-General Wilson Law:-- _Legion Ordered into Service_. CITY OF NAUVOO, Dec. 18, 1843. SIR:--I am credibly informed that a warlike force is collecting at or near Warsaw, for the purpose of some violent move towards this city or some of the inhabitants thereof. You will therefore order out such a portion of the Nauvoo Legion as may be necessary to repel any such mobocratic or hostile design of the same unlawful force, and also as may be sufficient to secure the peace of the citizens, according to law. Yours, JOSEPH SMITH, Lieut-Gen. N. L. MAJOR-GEN. WILSON LAW, Commanding Nauvoo Legion. I returned home to rest about one o'clock in the morning of the 19th. [Sidenote: Moves and Counter Moves of Forces.]