During the Black Hawk War, on November 26, 1865, Ute Chief Tamaritz's band of around twelve warriors raided the thinly populated settlement of Circleville, killing four citizens. Believing that Paiutes had aligned with the Utes, regional militia officers decided to question all straggling Indians in the vicinity. After a skirmish between two local Paiutes and militia men near Fort Sanford, and after settlers received word that two Paiutes had shot a member of the Utah Militia, the area's military commander advised Circleville and Panguitch residents to disarm the Paiutes encamped near those settlements. Circleville residents then decided to persuade the local band of Paiutes to come into town to hear a letter read by the local bishop. The men who complied were disarmed and placed under guard, while the women and children were held in a cellar. What followed is unclear, but one recorded account says that two young Paiute men attempted an escape amid gunfire, one successfully, and that it was then decided to put all the captives to death. The settlers buried the victims in a mass grave. Several young Paiute children, thought too young to bear witness, were spared and adopted by local families. Soon after the incident, Circleville was abandoned, and in 1874 it was resettled by another group of settlers.