Townsend's Divine Judgment after assaulting the Carthage Jail

Townsend, one of the mob who assaulted the Carthage Jail, was wounded in the arm by Joseph Smith. The wound would not heal and continued to rot. He later confessed to Mrs. Lawn that he knew Joseph Smith was a Prophet of God and lamented that he had not stayed home, suffering from a guilty conscience and the rot until his death.

Fuller account of this event (as retold in The Latter-day Saints' Millennial Star, Vol. 38, No. 11 (13 March 1876), p. 167):

A man named Townsend, living in Iowa, near Fort Madison, was one of the mob who assaulted and forced in the jail door. The pistol discharged by Joseph Smith wounded him in the arm, near the shoulder, and it continued to rot without healing until it was taken off, and even then it would not heal. He went to a physician, a Mrs. Lawn, who was a botanic doctor, and she told him that his arm would never heal, and that he would die with it. He asked the old gentleman what he thought of Joseph Smith being a Prophet? He replied that he did not know. Well, said Townsend, I know he was a Prophet of God! And, oh, that I had staid at home and minded my own business, and then I would not have lost my life and been tormented with a guilty conscience, and with this foul wound, which none can heal! He died two or three months afterwards, having literally rotted alive!