In Perilous Paths, author George G. McClellan seamlessly combines history, biography, and story as he narrates the early history of our country's movement from the east to the west through the eyes of Robert McClellan as he experiences successes and failures along the way. This story focuses on one small but important piece of the history after the Revolutionary War. It tells of real, rugged men like McClellan-a son of Ulster Scots immigrants born near Mercersburg, Pennsylvania, in 1770-who performed tasks in harsh conditions that would be considered dangerous, even foolhardy, today. Perilous Paths follows the footsteps made by McClellan from his youthful days as an army packer to his exploits as an Indian scout, army ranger, and spy. It details how he fought alongside Lewis and Clark, gained an education in reading and arithmetic for the army quartermaster corps, and then moved west to Missouri and succumbed to the lure of the unknown, entering Indian country where he trapped furs and traded with the Indians of what would eventually become the American Midwest. Marking the trials, tribulations and hardships, this history highlights McClellan's independence of character, the hardships he faced, and his desperate survival against unknown odds with a rugged determination to succeed.

Perilous Paths

The Story of Robert McClellan: Indian Fighter, Soldier, Trapper, Explorer, and Member of the John J. Astor Fur CompanyBy George G. McClellan

iUniverse, Inc.

Copyright © 2012 George G. McClellan
All right reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-4759-2531-9

Contents

Dedication...........................................vForeword.............................................xiPreface..............................................xiiiAcknowledgments......................................xvIntroduction.........................................xviiThe Ohio Indian War Period...........................1The Trapping Period..................................19The Northwest Exploration Period.....................27Other Characters.....................................67About the Author.....................................79

Chapter One

The Ohio Indian War Period

Fort Pitt (Pittsburgh), Pennsylvania, positioned at the confluence of the Allegheny and Monongahela rivers, which join to form the Ohio River, was the primary center of activity for trekking west over the Alleghenies into Ohio Territory. It was also the source of iron ore and salt, commodities much in demand along the expanding American frontier. Pack trains were loaded in Mercersburg for the westward trek, and to many young men of that period, packing provided the excitement and adventure they sought in order to escape the drudgery and boredom of dirt farming. The dangers they faced only added to the thrill. It was akin to running off to join the circus or the navy.

William and Robert were both drawn by the same youthful passion for adventure, and during the Revolutionary War they were hired on as packers for the army. They continued in this profession after the war, but by 1790 Robert had enlisted in the army, a new profession he found much to his liking. He was first posted at Fort Gower on the Ohio River, a few miles above Hockhocking. His commanding general was Josiah Harmar. McClellan, with the Indian skills he had developed during early childhood, was quickly recruited as a ranger to scout and spy.

First Assignment: A Gathering of Indians

His first assignment was to gather information on the local Indians—the Wyandots, Delawares, and Shawnees—after it was learned that they were gathering in large numbers, supported by the British, in the nearby Hockhocking Valley. McClellan and a fellow named White conducted the reconnaissance as ordered. Both men, using all their woodsmen skills, made their way unobserved to a high promontory point called Mt. Pleasant, which overlooked the valley where the Indians were gathering.

Their rations included jerked venison, cornbread, and a canteen of water for each man. As their water ran low, McClellan and White took turns refilling their canteens at a spring (Cold Spring) near the river. This continued over the next few days until White, on his run, encountered two Indian squaws who had just gotten water themselves. On seeing him, they let out a whoop, and White quickly rushed forward, grabbed both women by their throats, dragged them down to the river, and proceeded to drown them. The youngest one, however, spoke some words of English, and White let her up while he finished drowning the other one. It turned out she was a white captive—had been for ten years—and was the only survivor of her family. White pushed the drowned squaw into the river for the current to take and made it back up to the point with the captive girl.

Detected, Evasion, and Escape

In the meantime, McClellan, without knowing the cause, noted that the Indians were in a serious way with search parties moving out in their direction. Now White came up with the girl, and the reason became clear. An Indian search party apparently spotted their lookout post and approached, moving stealthily from tree to tree without knowing how many whites they might encounter. McClellan and White told the girl to go on down and rejoin the Indians, but she refused and said she would rather die than go back.

McClellan and White, being skilled in Indian fighting techniques, quickly selected a fairly good defensive position where they could observe the Indians without detection and where they could easily defend themselves. To attack their position openly, the Indians had to cross a rocky bald, in the open, in single file. McClellan and White managed to shoot several who attempted the crossing before the rest drew back to reconsider their assault.

A large rock, which overlooked and commanded McClellan and White's position, quickly became the Indians' objective, as it might allow them an opportunity for a flanking attack. It was a hazardous position but the only one they apparently had. Indeed, one managed to ascend the rock and was prepared to spring down upon McClellan, who took quick aim and dropped the hammer only to see the flint crushed by the impact with no spark to ignite the powder. McClellan calmly attached a new flint but not before the Indian made his move. He jumped down but missed and plunged down the cliff. This enraged the other Indians, who pushed and shoved to get across the rocky opening to the cost of many. Another Indian made it to the flanking position and was shot dead but not by McClellan or White. They then noticed that the freed girl was missing and assumed she had lost her nerve and slipped away. A bit later, they saw her emerge from a place of concealment with a still-smoking musket in her hand. Her Indian skills had allowed her to slip forward during the fighting and grab a musket from one of the dead Indians. She had indeed shot the Indian on the rock and told her rescuers that he was the very one who, ten years earlier, had killed her mother and sister and had taken her and her brother prisoner.

Darkness fell while the Indians were planning a new strategy, and the girl, who knew every inch of the ground, volunteered to get them through the Indian pickets. Their path to safety lay right through the Indian camp. It took several hours of stealthily creeping through brush and waiting for the Indian pickets to move on. Finally, they got past and came near the village. Since they were dressed as Indians and the girl spoke the language, they decided the safest way out was straight through the village. Three days later, they all made it back to their base.

With General "Mad" Anthony Wayne

In 1791, McClellan traveled downriver to Fort Washington, near the village of Cincinnati, and in the spring of 1792 he and his older brother William moved on to Hamilton, Ohio; William remained there for the rest of his life, first as an army packer for General Wayne and then as a tavern keeper, a county sheriff, and a farmer. Robert's extraordinary physical ability and successful record as a frontier spy won him an appointment as a ranger in Captain James Flynn's scouts in the army of General "Mad" Anthony Wayne from September 21 to December 31, 1793.

McClellan's next enlistment was from July 1 to December 6, 1794. He again worked as a spy under a fellow named Wells. Wells had been a prisoner of the Indians from boyhood and was well acquainted with the Ohio Territory as well as the several Indian dialects spoken there. In earlier British-sponsored campaigns against the Americans, Wells had fought with the Indians but was now the chief of spies for General Wayne.

Besides Wells and McClellan, the spy division consisted of Henry Miller, who had also been an Indian captive; two other experienced woodsmen, Hickman and Thrope; and an ex-British sailor named William May, who had been captured by the Indians but was rescued by a renegade named Simon Girty before he could be killed. Archival records of the Canadian government show that the Indians and the British were most anxious to get their hands on both Wells and May. McClellan was not named because he had never been a captive of the Indians. Girty, on the other hand, was a Pennsylvania loyalist who had been captured by the Seneca's as a boy and fought for the British as a member of the 150 man British ranger force called Butler's Rangers.

Another character in this story, an unreliable British Indian agent named Colonel Alexander McKee, seems to have been sort of a double agent because he and Girty spread rumors that Wayne's troops paid forty dollars for Indian scalps and a dollar-a-day salary. McKee said that General Wayne had offered an outstanding reward of one thousand dollars for the scalp of Simon Girty. This may or may not have had an element of truth to it because General Wayne, in fact, wanted live Indians so they could be interrogated. That was his style.

McClellan was second in command to Wells and followed General Wayne's instructions on obtaining live Indians for intelligence purposes. History calls General Wayne Mad because of his brutal tactics but, in fact, he delighted in the shock of battle as a winning tactic. He was anything but mad and he was successful because he prepared well with good intelligence and good planning.

Wells's and his crew had the pick of the army's best horses. In June of 1794, the general sent Wells, with a three-man party dressed as Indians, out to capture an Indian or two and bring them in for interrogation. What follows was another of those remarkable events that single one individual out from all the others and firmly establishes a reputation.

The scouts headed north into Ohio Territory without finding any Indians to capture until they crossed the St. Mary's and Auglaize rivers. Here they detected smoke and cautiously approached on foot and soon saw three Indians around a fire roasting venison. They moved cautiously to the cover of a fallen tree, which lay between them and their quarry, a distance of about seventy-five yards. It was decided that Miller and Wells would each shoot one Indian. Because of McClellan's agility and fleetness of foot, he would chase down the remaining Indian and take him captive. They figured that when the first two savages were dropped, the third, who was too far from his musket to get to it in time to defend himself, would dash off. And that is exactly what happened.

The instant the muskets cracked, McClellan was over the tree and on the run while brandishing his tomahawk. As expected, the surviving Indian took off like a shot toward the river and, in desperation, leaped off a twenty-foot embankment into the river landing feet first, imbedded up to his waist in mud, quickly followed by McClellan. The two mired combatants faced each other unable to move from the waist down. The Indian drew his knife, but McClellan with his tomahawk, quickly knocked the knife away which rendered the mired Indian helpless. The two waited, eyeing one another warily, until Wells and Miller could extract them.

After they were pulled out of the river's muck and cleaned up, they discovered the surviving Indian was actually a white man. He remained hostile so they bound him on his horse and headed back to the fort. Ranger Miller had an inkling that he recognized the white savage as his brother Christopher who had remained with the Indians when Miller escaped some years earlier. In an attempt to elicit a possible identification from the uncooperative white Indian, Miller called him by the Indian name he was known by when they both were captives. The startled captive asked Miller how he came to know that name, and the truth came out. It was a strange turn of fate that of the three Indians jerking venison over a fire, two were killed and the one who was saved was a brother of one of the army rangers. Henry and Christopher were reunited again.

Christopher Miller was placed in custody, and during this time Wells and Miller met with him daily while trying to convince him to rejoin his white race again. After a lot of urging, Christopher agreed. He was released, equipped with the best horse Wayne had to offer, and became one of the most efficient and capable scouts in Wayne's army. He remained a loyal American.

In early July of that year, 1794, six of Wayne's scouts, including McClellan, penetrated the Auglaize country again and chanced upon a lone Indian who bravely defended himself by firing his musket at them before dashing off into the woods. When overtaken by McClellan, the Indian struck a blow with his empty weapon, but McClellan parried it and managed to overpower him. The captive turned out to be a Potawatomi chief. Not much more has been said about this fellow, but since General Wayne was attempting to gather intelligence on British/Indian cooperation in the Ohio Territory, he would certainly fill the need.

The Battle of Fallen Timbers

The days between August 8 and 14 were spent erecting Fort Defiance at the confluence of Auglaize and Maumee rivers. Colonel McKee, the British Indian agent mentioned earlier, surfaces again. The captured Potawatomi chief, when asked, "Where are the Indians?" answered, "At Colonel McKee's!" When asked, "Where are the British?" he answered "In a fort one mile below Colonel McKee's." The rangers verified the information and estimated around fifteen hundred Indians were there, plus about seventy-five British militiamen, all well supplied with British arms, ammunition, and provisions. It was here on August 20, 1794, that the British and Indians elected to await General Wayne's force amid the natural defensive position of tornado-felled trees.

History records that this battle would be called the "last battle for American independence." On August 18, 1794, General Wayne reached a point on the Maumee River called Roche de Boeuf and ordered Wells, McClellan, Mays, one Mahaffy, and another man to capture an Indian for interrogation. In their usual Indian attire, they boldly entered the Indian village and spoke to some villagers who believed them to be warriors who had come to participate in the upcoming fight. Passing through, they met a lone Indian and his wife whom they easily took prisoners.

Taking a circuitous route back to Fort Defiance with their prisoners, they came upon another Indian camp which they went around to avoid detection. About a mile or so away, however, they decided that they should go back and each man should kill an Indian. So they bound and gagged their prisoners hand and foot and headed back to the Indian camp. Riding boldly in, they inquired about Wayne, asked the Indians about their view of the coming fight, and otherwise established friendly communications. However, not all of the natives were fooled. Someone on the fringes of the group, in a dialect that only Wells heard and understood, doubted the fake Indians' authenticity. Upon realizing they were exposed, Wells gave a prearranged signal and each man spurred his horse, clinging low to its neck, and fired a shot at the startled Indians.

This was certainly a foolhardy if not a murderous adventure, and they paid dearly for it. McClellan took a musket ball under his shoulder blade, that exited out the top of his shoulder; Wells got hit in the arm and lost his weapon. May, the former Indian captive and sailor, was recaptured when his horse lost its footing. His fate was sealed. He was taken to the British fort, tied to a tree, and used for target practice. The four surviving rangers barely managed to return to Fort Defiance, which caused them all to miss the coming great Battle of Fallen Timbers.

Wayne won the battle and then advanced on the Miami Indian village located where the St. Mary's and St. Joseph rivers converge. While Wayne was busy erecting a defensive position called Fort Wayne, now Fort Wayne, Indiana, Indians in small groups were causing trouble at Fort Defiance. They had killed several men near the fort in random, unorganized attacks. The wounded McClellan and the other rangers who had been left there to recover did their part in the active defense of the fort. After six weeks, they had recovered sufficiently to move to the newly erected Fort Wayne. This was a hazardous trip and required great skill and courage as hostile Indians swarmed the area while looking for whites to kill. They finally arrived safely on September 26, 1794. The fight with the British and their eastern Indian allies was at an end, and more Americans started moving into the now safer Ohio Territory.

New Horizons

But McClellan's story doesn't end there. His services with General Wayne complete, he looked around for more adventure. Before leaving, however, he revealed two more feats of his agility. On a parade field at Fort Greene Ville, Ohio, as a demonstration McClellan made a running jump over an army wagon that measured eight feet from the ground to the top of the bows. On another occasion, in Lexington, Kentucky, while walking down a street with James Huston, a man from Mercersburg, Pennsylvania, McClellan leaped over a team of oxen that had cut off their path. The ox team driver was astonished.

Other events were occurring during the Indian wars. Robert's brother William continued packing for General Wayne, and then he returned home for a bride: Miss Mary Sterret. He returned with her to Fort Hamilton, where he ran a tavern as previously stated. Robert lived with the new couple for a few years, hunting and exploring, and then in 1799 the wanderlust hit him again. He headed downriver to the Mississippi.

In the summer of 1799, after arriving in New Orleans, McClellan fell to yellow fever. By August 8, he had sufficiently recovered to embark on a ship for Baltimore, arriving in that eastern port city on October 12. He intended going on to Philadelphia to meet General Wilkinson, who would certify him to claim his pension for wounds he had received during the Wayne campaign, but Wilkinson had gone to New York. McClellan followed, and after chasing him down and obtaining the necessary certifications he returned to Philadelphia. There he presented the documents to the secretary of war, who, in turn, required McClellan to undergo an examination by the government surgeon, a Dr. Shippen.

(Continues...)

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