Hart of the Rebellion

 The role of women in the American Revolution is understated and underappreciated. Patriot women were there  - whether it was to provide moral and physical support, maintain the family farm or business, spying, or actual fighting. They wove desperately needed clothing for the half-naked American soldiers. They provided foodstuffs to starving columns that passed through towns and farms. And during an eight-year struggle, patriotic mothers sent many a young man or boy to the ranks. In addition to yearning and fighting for liberty, every American soldier yearned to return to their home, family, and wife. One could say these women were the heart of the rebellion.

The distaff side was critical to the war effort.

Ann Hart is one such woman. Born Ann Morgan in 1735,  the exact date is unknown. Nor is the exact location, although it is believed somewhere in Pennsylvania or North Carolina. Names were tricky back then, and the use of diminutives was widespread. Ann Hart was no exception, sporting the handle "Nancy," a common nickname for Ann at the time. According to accounts by contemporaries, Nancy was an imposing figure over six feet tall, well limbed, and red-headed. She was known for her fearlessness; the local Cherokees even called her Wahatche (war woman). 

The Cherokee called her War Woman

By the run-up to the War for Independence, Ann Morgan had married Benjamin Hart, and the couple settled along the Broad River in Wilkes County, Georgia, where land was fertile, cheap, and available. The year was 1771. Ann was relatively old when they married – thirty-six. Despite that, she gave birth to two daughters and six sons.

The cabin on the Broad River

Nancy, the frontierswoman, could not read or write. Yet she was intelligent, resourceful, and had all the "learnin'" a frontier woman needed. She was skilled with herbs, and she could hunt and dress any game. Nancy was a crack shot with a rifle or musket despite being cross-eyed. No easy feat.

Nancy was a resourceful backcountry woman

As rumor and legend will bump up against known facts, I should say Nancy is said to be a relative of famed explorer Daniel Boone. And she was a cousin to Daniel Morgan, famed leader of the corps of Virginia and Pennsylvania riflemen and victor of the Battle of the Cowpens (1781).

Colonel Dan Morgan

After they moved to Georgia, Benjamin joined a Georgian militia regiment. Nancy would also become a staunch patriot and wage her own war against Georgia Loyalists.

Benjamin joined the Georgia militia

Nancy was feisty and quick-tempered, according to accounts. And she ran the Hart household with an iron will and an iron fist. So, when Benjamin Hart went off to follow drum, Nancy was the perfect woman to "hold the fort." Ironically, the drum soon would follow her. 

The British retook the breakaway colony of Georgia in 1779 as the launching pad of their "Southern Strategy." British occupation did not always mean British control, especially in the northeast backcountry of Georgia, where locals had been squaring off with the Cherokee for years. The American struggle for independence was also a civil war, and unlike the 18th-century wars in Europe, civilians played a role throughout.

Battle of Kettle Creek by Jeff Trexler

According to reports from both first and second sources, Nancy was variously a spy against the British forces in the area, a sniper of the same (she was reputed to be a crack shot), and an occasional combatant. Because of her size, it would have been easy for Nancy to dress in men's clothing and slip into British camps, as is alleged. Pretending to be crazy, she would observe activities and listen to conversations before slipping away and reporting back to local patriot militia leaders. 

Spying on British

Also reputed to be a sniper, she may have taken long-distance shots at Loyalist and British patrols, couriers, and convoys trying to cross the Broad River. The war in the south had turned vicious, and sniping and ambush so frowned on in 18th-century warfare became common in the Carolinas and Georgia.

Lady sniper

The British and their supporters must have suspected the strange woman because they took pains to keep their eyes on her activities, often coming by the farm to get food or check up on things. In one incident,  Nancy was making soap in their cabin when one of her daughters discovered a Loyalist spying on them through a crack in the wall. When she told Nancy, the fiery redhead threw a ladle of the boiling lye through the gap, burning his eyes. As he howled in pain, the angry farm woman raced out, overpowered him, and tied him up. She eventually turned him over to the local patriot militia.

An account has Nancy carrying grain to the local mill when a gang of cowboys (Loyalist raiders) pulled her from the saddle and tossed her to the earth. As they made off with her horse, Nancy dusted off the dirt and carried her heavy grain bag to the mill on foot. 

Cowboys terrorized patriot homesteads

Some accounts put our southern hellfire at the 1779 Battle of Kettle Creek, but that is pure speculation. But the most famous of her exploits seems right on target. A half-dozen Loyalist militiamen showed up at her farm, stopping for food while pursuing a rebel. They insisted Nancy prepare a turkey. Since they were armed and ready to mete out punishment on a patriot wife, she had no choice but to submit to their demand. 

But the Loyalists made one big mistake. They neatly stacked their muskets near the door when they entered the cabin to sit at the dinner table. Nancy went to work with the table set and the food going down in mouthfuls. She slipped some of the muskets through a hole in the cabin wall. Nancy kept the food and drink coming, and once the men were sufficiently lubricated, she seized one of the muskets she left in the cabin and leveled the barrel on her visitors.

Turning muskets on the Loyalists

Glaring at them with a Brown Bess at full cock, she ordered them not to move. Refusing to be taken by a woman (and under the influence), one Loyalist made a move on her. That's all it took. Nancy squeezed the trigger, and the hammer slammed into the pan, striking the powder and sending a plug of lead into his chest. Another Loyalist lunged at her, but Nancy had grabbed another musket and blasted him. She had little trouble convincing the remainder to sit quietly at the table until help arrived. When her neighbors and husband appeared, they decided to shoot the prisoners. But Nancy refused. Instead, she demanded they be hung from a nearby tree.

Nancy demanded the Loyalists be hanged

This tale was corroborated in the early 19th century when the remains of a half dozen men were dug up at the farm – four with broken necks.

Like so many Americans, the post-war period was one of transition and movement. In the late 1790s, Nancy and her husband moved the family to Brunswick, Georgia. When Benjamin died there in 1800, Nancy decided to return to her former home on the Broad River. Unfortunately, their cabin had been washed away by a flood. 

With the farmhouse gone, she moved in with one of her sons, John Hart, and his family along the Oconee River in Clarke County near Athens, Georgia. In 1803, Nancy moved with John and his family to Henderson County, Kentucky, to live near relatives. The fighting lady spent the remainder of her life in Henderson. When she died in 1830 at 93, they buried Nancy in the family plot.

Nancy's gravestone

Our "Hart of the South" was commemorated by the state she fought so hard to help liberate. A Georgia highway, city, lake, and county are named after her. And the Daughters of the American Revolution recognized this fighting lady by erecting a replica of her cabin on the Broad River using some of the original stones.

Nancy Hart Monument, Hart Co., GA

The Fighting Fraser

This is the third installment profiling one of the characters in book four of the Yankee Doodle Spies series, The North Spy. due for release next year. As my last profile was a Scotsman who fought for America, it was only fitting that I follow with a Scotsman who fought for England. Not just any Scotsman, but a son of the famed Fraser clan of Highland warriors. 

Proud Lineage

Simon Fraser was born into a proud Scots highland lineage at Balnain, Scotland on 26 May 1729. His family and clan were warriors of the first order and as such, many went down at the fateful Battle of Culloden in 1745. Those who did not fall saw their lands and patrimony stripped and were driven into exile.

Culloden smashed the Clans - but not the Highland spirit

Dutch Service

The Scots, like their cousins across the Irish Sea, tend to fight for the English when not actually fighting against them. This the young Fraser did, but beginning with a stint in one of the Scots Brigades in the hire of the Netherlands - the 4th Brigade to be precise. In the waning years of the War of Austrian Succession young Simon fought at the 1747 siege of Bergen-op-Zoom. The attacking French swarmed over the defense works and streamed into the town where savage fighting took place. In the attack and counterattack, Fraser was wounded. 

Seige of Bergen-Op-Zoom

Royal American

With the end of the war, the Dutch Brigade was reduced to one battalion and Fraser had to seek his laurels elsewhere. The outbreak of the Seven Years war provided a golden opportunity for an eager and now blooded young highlander. In 1756, Fraser joined the British Army’s  62nd Royal American Regiment of Foot. Renumbered as the 60th the following year, it later gained fame as The King’s Royal Rifle Corps.

Back to the Clan

Fraser did not remain with the 60th very long. In January 1757, he took a commission in a newly formed regiment of highlanders, the 63rd Highlander Regiment of Foot. The regiment was commanded by Simon’s cousin, Lord Lovat, also named Simon Fraser. The unit was called Fraser’s Regiment and its ranks were flush with Frasers. This was the likely draw to the unit – fighting with and for kin.

Fighting French & Indians

Fraser sailed to America to fight the French, serving at the siege of Louisbourg, the taking of which gave Britain control of the mouth of the Saint Lawrence River. He served under British General James Wolfe during the 1759 attack on Quebec, the decisive battle of the war in America. The 78th climbed the Heights of Abraham with Wolfe and Lieutenant Fraser was wounded in the hard-fought action while Wolfe was mortally wounded in his great victory. 

Scaling the Heights of Abraham

Fraser’s time with the 60th and his service in America with the 78th  opened his eyes to the different style of fighting in a woodland wilderness – the need for disciplined troops who could fight outside of massed formations and rely on the terrain and marksmanship to bring down an enemy as the Indian allies of the French could. Following Quebec, Fraser’s unit had garrison duty in the city and spent some time in New York. But the French and Indian part of the war was just about over.

Fraser's Highlanders mingle with Iroquois Braves

Seven Year Itch

By 1760 Fraser was back in Europe – the seven years of the Seven Years War was not up.  This involved another transfer – this time to the 24th Regiment of Foot, which was sent to Germany to serve in Lord Granby’s Corps. In two years, the 24th  fought in over a half-dozen sieges and pitched battles against the French. He was cited for heroism at the battle of Wezen in November 1761. Fraser led a hand-picked company of fifty men in an attack that drove off some 400 French troops.  He was promoted to major during this time. He also learned a lesson in what hand-picked and specially trained men could do against greater odds.

British infantry in the Seven Years War

Post-Treaty of Paris

After the Treaty of Paris was signed in 1763, Fraser continued with the army –  serving in Germany, Ireland, and Gibraltar. From 1763 to 1769, Simon Fraser and the 24th were stationed at Gibraltar. He performed quite well and was appointed Lieutenant Colonel of the 24th in 1768. Fraser put the regiment through specialized training, making it one of the first British regiments to specialize in light infantry tactics.

Gibraltar

It was also on Gibraltar that he met Margarita Hendrika Beck Grant, widow of Major Alexander Grant, a fellow Scot. After a period of exchanging letters, they were married. Shortly thereafter, they moved to Ireland when the 24th was transferred there. The couple had no children.

Brigadier General Simon Fraser

War Clouds in America

Fraser had watched the North American colonies move into rebellion and war. The rebels drove a British Army from Boston in 1775 and invaded Canada.  More troops were needed to put down the rebellion. More importantly, Britain needed experienced officers. So it was as commander of a brigade of five battalions Fraser sailed from Ireland and returned to North America in April 1776. He was sent to provide support to the beleaguered Governor-General Guy Carleton who was besieged in Quebec by the American rebels. Carleton had held off the invading army against all odds during a brutal winter campaign. Fraser’s arrival enabled him to go on the offensive.

Governor-General Guy Carleton

In the Vanguard

Fraser wasted no time – he smashed American General William Thompson’s division at Trois Rivieres in June. Named brevet Brigadier General by Carleton, Fraser took command of the Advance Guard of the British counteroffensive into New York’s Champlain Valley. Although Carleton’s campaign proved successful, the stubborn American defense, led by Brigadier General Benedict Arnold took him off his timetable by fighting him at Valcour Island. The battle was won but winter was coming.

Valcour Island

An Unsavory Pause

Rather than risk the final plunge to Albany with winter approaching, Carleton withdrew to the northern extreme of Lake Champlain, planning to strike out again the following year. Fraser, like many other officers, was not happy with the cautious approach but things would have to wait for a new season – and a new commander. Fraser used the winter quarters to train his troops in light infantry tactics and prepare them for operations in the rough American wilderness.

The upper end of Lake Champlain

New Boss, New Plan

In the spring of 1777, Major General John Burgoyne returned from London with 8,000 British and German reinforcements and a new plan for invasion. The plan called for three separate thrusts from the west, north, and south to converge on Albany. And the plan called for Burgoyne, not Carleton to lead the main thrust from Canada.

General John Burgoyne

Advance Guard Again

Brigadier General Fraser was put in command of Burgoyne’s advance guard, some 1,200 troops now trained as light infantry. The army launched itself from the mouth of the Richelieu River into Lake Champlain in an armada of Bateaux and canoes. Moving quickly, Fraser’s forces screened the advance on the impregnable Fort Ticonderoga and seized it in a coup de main as the American defenders retreated in the dark of night. Fraser himself led the troops and hoisted up a British flag.

Ticonderoga

A Hot Pursuit

Fraser then launched his advance guard in hot pursuit as the Americans chose to retreat through the dense forests to the south and east rather than take the waterways that led south. The British vanguard stayed on their trail and finally pinned down the American rear guard under Colonel  Seth Warner, also an experienced woodland fighter, near Hubbardton. In a back and forth slog the larger American force actually began to have the better of him, but a column of Germans under General von Riedesel helped turn the battle.

The American militia acquitted itself well against

 the professionals at Hubbardton

Supply Chain Blues

The rest of Burgoyne’s army was now moving south again with Fraser’s brigade at the lead. Albany would fall with just a final drive. But Burgoyne now faced a supply chain problem as he was far removed from his base and shortages began to crop up. In addition, Fraser’s scouts (including some Canadians and Iroquois) were reporting on a large concentration of Americans just north of Albany under the command of a former British officer, General Horatio Gates.

Horatio Gates

Burgoyne began to lose his nerve. The other two thrusts had failed and he was on his own. Rather than risk an all-out attack, he launched a reconnaissance in force with Fraser’s commanding the right-wing – through heavily wooded and rugged terrain. 

Freeman's Farm

Clash of Titans

There, Fraser’s elite force ran head-on against their American counterpart, the corps of Virginia and Pennsylvania riflemen under Colonel Daniel Morgan. Morgan’s riflemen sported long rifles with grooved barrels enabling accurate fire well over one hundred yards. Fraser's brigade included the tip marksmen in the British Army. The lead flew as the best of both armies peppered each other and finally, Morgan’s force was driven back, leaving an opportunity to exploit the situation and fight their way around the American flank.

Dan Morgan

 A Pause and a Probe

But Burgoyne did not approve and instead withdrew his army back to its camp to figure out the supply situation. That situation only deteriorated and with autumn getting longer in the tooth, Burgoyne was forced into a desperate situation. This time, it was a probing attack. The idea was to feel out the enemy and exploit any weaknesses. He launched his probe on 7 October in what would become the Battle of Bemis Heights.

Bemis Heights

Frenzied Fighting

Fraser was once again in the thick of things with his brigade. But the Americans did not seem to bend and in fact, began to launch savage counterattacks all along the front, led by General Benedict Arnold. British forces stood and then withdrew under the pressure of American volleys and bayonet charges. Fraser time and again rallied units and formed the line. Mounted, despite the sheets of lead humming everywhere, he waved his saber. 

Fraser struck on the third shot

In the Crosshairs

From somewhere far off, an American rifleman cocked his hammer and gazed down the long barrel of his rifle, leveling it on a red-coated figure on a horse. Legend has it the sniper was Private Tim Murphy who allegedly said, “That is a gallant officer, but he must die.”  He squeezed the trigger, the hammer cracked down, ignited the firing pan, and launched a ball that just missed Fraser. A second shot struck his saddle but Fraser ignored the fire. Ignoring pleas from his aides, he continued until a third shot struck home with a ball into his belly – a mortal wound.

American Riflemen moving into firing positions

A Blow to an Army

The fall of Fraser sent a wave of shock through the whole British Army – especially Burgoyne, who soon ordered his battered forces back to their encampment to the north near a place called Saratoga.

Baroness Fredericka von Riedesel

Desperate hands wrangled the dying general to the rear where he was nursed by the wife of von Riedesel, Baroness Fredericka, who had accompanied her husband on the wilderness campaign.

Fraser mourned on the battlefield

The brave highlander died the following day and was buried at the Great Redoubt in a somber ceremony held under the guns and muskets of the encircling rebel army. A stray round from the American artillery nearly disrupted the event. On learning of it, Horatio Gates ordered a gun salute instead. Burgoyne would soon surrender his army, ending the campaign and helping push the indecisive King of France into the arms of the Americans.

The fighting Scot's exact resting place at the Great Redoubt is unknown

Death's Legacy

Fraser’s life of action and service ended in a way any warrior would have chosen. But Britain lost more than a warrior. It lost one of its best generals and one who thoroughly understood the type of fighting, and the type of fighting man, it would take to win the war. Had he not fallen on that October day, he might have emerged as the leader who could have subdued the colonies for the Crown that subdued his own highland clans. Yet, ironically, the gallant Scot who fought for England, Holland, and German Allies never fought for Scotland - and is most remembered in America.

Frustrated Founder

Many leaders in the Continental Army had experience in the British Army and some of them proved quite controversial. Foremost of these was Charles Lee (General Washington’s 2nd in command who allowed himself to be captured by the British and was relieved at the Battle of Monmouth. (see blog post A General Disaster). Another was General Horatio Gates, who was victorious at Saratoga but went down in ignominy at the Battle of Camden. And our profiles of Richard Montgomery (see blog post, First to Fall) and Hugh Mercer (see blog post, Surgeon General from Scotland) demonstrate these men had no lack of courage under fire – giving the last full measure. 

General Charles Lee - one of many former

 British officers to serve in the Continental Army

But this edition highlights a man whose legacy of service to his new nation is complex and, in some ways, tragic. Arthur St. Clair was a man of intelligence and industry whose uneven military talents cloak a career of dedication, patriotism, and no small amount of frustration.

From Medicine to Military

Born in Truro, Scotland in 1736 to a family of some means, St. Clair attended the University of Edinburgh where he studied medicine. In 1757, St. Clair changed his career path by purchasing a commission as ensign in the 60th Foot (Royal American Regiment) and came to America in 1757 to fight in the French and Indian War.

Private - 60th Regiment of Foot

French and Indian War

Ensign St. Clair served under famed General Jeffrey Amherst where he helped in the capture of the massive French fortress at Louisburg in July 1758. The following spring, he was promoted to lieutenant and served under General James Wolfe at Quebec and the fighting on the Plains of Abraham, the decisive battle of the war. Lieutenant St. Clair was mentioned in the dispatches for his heroism there when he seized the regimental colors from a fallen soldier and carried them to victory. No piker in the courage department.

Fall of Louisburg

Husband, Settler & Public Servant

His regiment was later stationed in Boston, where Cupid’s arrow struck deeply. Our lovesick war hero married Phoebe Bayard (of the prominent Bowdoin family) in May 1760. Now ensconced in marriage into a prominent clan, the life of a British officer held less promise. So he resigned his commission in 1762 and moved to Pennsylvania to make his fortune as a surveyor. Two years later he settled permanently in Ligonier Valley in the colony’s western frontier, where land was cheap and easy to acquire. He eventually became the largest landholder and one of the most prominent men in the western part of the colony. 

18th Century Pennsylvania

As was typical of prominent men of the time, he began to amass quite a resume of public service to include: surveyor of the district of Cumberland, justice of the court of quarter sessions and of common pleas, member of the proprietary council, recorder, clerk of the orphans’ court, and chief clerk of the courts of Bedford County, which then included the later-day counties of Fayette, Westmoreland, Washington, Greene and parts of Beaver, Allegheny, Indiana, and Armstrong counties. For quite a while, he was the law in a land that was essentially the wild west, overrun with hunters, Indian traders, backcountry settlers, transients, and unsavory characters of all types. He was particularly noteworthy for his fair dealings with the local Indians.

Political Winds

St. Clair was caught up in the territorial disputes between Pennsylvania and Virginia, which claimed a large piece of the western regions of the colony. When Virginian John Connolly seized the area near today’s Pittsburg for Virginia and tried to subvert Pennsylvania’s settlers, St. Clair had him arrested. Virginia’s governor had Pennsylvanians arrested and complained to Governor Penn about St. Clair. The governor backed his magistrate but the border dispute between the two colonies/states was not settled until Congress intervened years later.

Militia Leader

As with so many prominent colonial leaders, Arthur St. Clair took a key role in the local militia. In January 1776, he was commissioned a colonel of a regiment, which he raised during the winter and force-marched north to join the invasion of Canada arriving in Quebec on 11 April. But the campaign was already lost with the defeat and death of Montgomery storming Quebec and the American defeat at Chambly. All he could do was help General John Sullivan’s retreat.

The campaign in Canada was lost by the time

St. Clair arrived at Quebec

Cool Under Pressure

But his knowledge of the area from the last war, and his military experience helped save a large portion of the routed army. St. Clair himself was injured and barely made it back after being cut off by advancing British forces.

Major General Arthur St. Clair

 He was recognized for his service and talents by a promotion to Brigadier General in August and was ordered to join General George Washington’s army in New Jersey where he took command of a couple of New Jersey militia regiments. The campaign also turned into a rout and Washington’s forces melted away as they retreated from Brunswick to make a narrow escape across the Delaware River.

Trusted Counsel

St. Clair went to work recruiting men for the beleaguered Continental Army and was rewarded with a brigade command, which he led ably at the key American victories at Trenton, Assenpink Creek, and Princeton in the whirlwind counterstrike of December 1776 – January 1777. Some accounts report that St. Clair conceived the brilliant night move from the Assenpink to cut off the British and threaten Princeton. Most of the other commanders recommended a retreat. But Washington took St. Clair’s advice, which led to the victory over the British at Princeton and possibly saved the rebellion from collapse. This explains Washington’s support of St. Clair during later times of controversy.

Assenpink Creek

Return to the North

By the spring of 1777, things were heating up once more in the great north. A major army under General John Burgoyne (see blog post, Gentleman Johnny) was marshaling north of Lake Champlain. Continental Congress President John Hancock ordered the newly minted Major General Arthur St, Clair to take command of the strategically placed but undermanned fortress – Fort Ticonderoga. But when St. Clair arrived in early June he found a fort in crisis. Stradling the southern bank of Lake Champlain, the fort was the first objective in a British invasion aimed at taking Albany and dividing the colonies. All had high hopes the fort would be the breakwater to stymie Burgoyne’s red wave. 

General John Burgoyne

Fort of Futility

But as the Americans should have learned from the debacle at Fort Washington the previous year, a powerful fort that is undermanned is a liability, not an asset. And Ticonderoga was undermanned with men who were ill-fed and ill-equipped. Powder and provisions of all kinds were lacking. Scarcely 2,500 men in a fort requiring 10,000 for a proper garrison. Burgoyne had over 8,000 British and German troops and plenty of artillery and supplies.

Fort Ticonderoga

Outflanked and Outgunned

The British soon descended on the area and quickly took control of Mount Defiance, where they hauled up a battery that commanded Ticonderoga. Plunging fire would soon shatter the defenses and blast the defenders with impunity. At a council of war, St. Clair decided to evacuate the post and save the army for another day. A wise but controversial decision.

British guns on Mount Defiance would dominate the area

around Ticonderoga

Flight by Night

The night withdrawal in the face of an overwhelming enemy was a huge risk. St. Clair pulled it off, but not without a major snafu when French-born  General Fermoy’s unexplained fire at his quarters alerted the British. With redcoats and Germans hot on their heels, the beleaguered Americans fled through the woods; a water route was eschewed except for the wounded.  St. Clair hoped not only to save his army but to lure the British away from their axis of advance, delay their advance, and stretch their supply lines. 

Retreat, Divide and Conquer?

He split his forces and the rear guard delayed the British pursuers, who were after them like hounds on a rabbit. St. Clair hoped to divide the British and siphon them into the deep northern woods rather than sail effortlessly down Lake George. They were barely ahead of the enemy. General Simon Fraser’s advance guard – the elite of the British army, collided with some of St. Clair’s forces at Hubbardton. It was a hard-won victory for Fraser. Another British force – Germans actually – went down to defeat when they tried to alleviate a worsening supply situation by taking livestock at Bennington in today's Vermont.

Hubbardton - a defeat, but also a diversion

Ignominy

Regardless of the wisdom of St. Clair’s successful retrograde: he diverted and slowed the British,
divided their army, extended their supply lines, and kept a valuable field force from marching into captivity, St. Clair was decried from all quarters, but most especially by those who wanted General Horatio Gates to replace Washington as commander in chief. Although the precious 2,500 men he saved provided the core of the forces that General Horatio Gates had on hand to defeat the British as Saratoga, St. Clair was relieved of all command. 

General Horatio Gates

Yet General Washington continued to support him and recalled him to the main army, where he stayed at the commander in chief’s side and served as an aide at the Battle of Brandywine in September 1777. At St. Clair's request, a court-martial was held in 1778. St. Clair was acquitted, “with the highest honor, of the charges against him.”  But any hope of battlefield command was over.

Selfless Service 

He continued serving, however, and was at Washington’s side when General Cornwallis’s army grounded muskets at Yorktown in October 1781. The war in the south was still a thing, and St. Clair was given the mission of marching a column of troops into the Carolinas to reinforce General Nathanael Greene, who was trying to mop up British garrisons from Ninety-Six to Charleston and Savannah. St. Clair's  Pennsylvania street cred came in handy when a serious mutiny took place among the Pennsylvania Line regiments in 1783. St. Clair was called upon to appeal to his fellow Pennsylvanians, and he helped to calm the mutineers who gave up on plans for an armed march on Congress.

Yorktown surrender

Post War Politics

St. Clair returned to Pennsylvania and began a career of distinguished political service to the new nation. He joined the Pennsylvania Council of Censors in 1783.  Later, St. Clair was elected a delegate to the Confederation Congress. During his term of office from November 1785 through November 1787, he helped instantiate the new national government. It was a time of firsts and a time of troubles. In February 1787 the members met and elected St. Clair President of the Confederation Congress (essentially leader of the national the Federal level). A lot crossed his plate during his one-year term.

Confederaton Congress

 Shays's Rebellion broke out in 1787 over tax disputes. Disgruntled farmers, mostly war veterans marched against their state government. Despite the disruptions caused by the political crisis over Shays's rebellion, Congress managed to pass a seminal piece of legislation during his presidency – the Northwest Ordinance. This would set the template for western expansion and governance and admission of new lands into the United States. And most importantly during St. Clair's presidency, the Philadelphia Convention was drafting a new United States Constitution, which would abolish the old Confederation Congress for a more powerful federal system made up of three branches.

Shays's Rebellion

Frontier Governor

With the formation of the new Northwest Territory, congress named Arthur St. Clair the first governor. The Northwest Territory comprised what is now Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, and parts of Wisconsin and Minnesota. Making his seat of government the settlement he named “Cincinnati,” he set to work. His achievements were noteworthy in helping settle and tame the land, as well as preparing it for eventual integration into the United States. As a former magistrate, he gave the territory its first body of laws, called Maxwell’s Code. He invested funds, often personal, in helping clear land for settlement. 

Northwest Indian War

St. Clair’s western accomplishments were not without controversy.  He began the construction of forts to protect the settlers and fend off the tribes. He negotiated the treaty of Fort Harmar – pushing the Indians from their tribal land. Rather than settling the Indian claims, the treaty provoked them into outright conflict. 

Fort Harmar

The tribes took up the tomahawk and went on the warpath - sending panic among the western settlers. Chief Little Turtle and Shawnee Chief Blue Jacket led the coalition aided by former British Loyalists Alexander McKee and Simon Girty. The tribes defeated a 1,500-strong militia force under General Josiah Harmar in October 1790.

Chief Blue Jacket

The following spring, St, Clair was promoted to major general of the army of the United States and led the response himself. Once more in uniform, he took to the field in October 1791 at the head of two Regular Army regiments and militia – a column of 1,400 men who marched deep into the Ohio wilderness to the headwaters of the Wabash River. Meanwhile, thousands of Miami, Delaware, and Shawnee braves were gathered in the dense forests just waiting for a chance to wreak havoc on the hated enemy. 

 St. Clair was appointed major general a second time

Massacre

The trap was sprung on 4 November – the warriors unleashing terrific sheets of lead into the Americans, who fell in scores. Down to last than half his force, St. Clair led a desperate bayonet attack to hold off the warriors who were closing in for the final kill. He managed to extricate the survivors but at the cost of over 600 killed and 300 wounded. The Battle of the Wabash stands as the greatest disaster in what would become a long series of conflicts between the oncoming Americans and the Indian tribes.

St Clair's defeat at the Wabash

More Ignominy

St. Clair was severely condemned by all, including his long-time ally, President Washington who launched an investigation into the causes of the disaster – the first investigation of the executive branch under the new United States Constitution. The inquiry exonerated St. Clair of wrongdoing but he was forced to resign from the army. 

President Washington launched an inquiry

Politics & Policy

St. Clair was able to stay on as governor of the Ohio Territory – a tribute to a mix of politics (he was a staunch Federalist in a Democratic-Republican west) and his acknowledged administrative capacity. The republic had devolved into rabid partisan politics and the frontier was not excluded. St. Clair wanted to carve two Federalist-leaning states out of the Ohio Territory. He hoped that would bolster Federalist power in Congress. To that end he made vast personal investments in the region but the always cash-strapped federal government failed to reimburse him.

Northwest Territory - St. Clair's Legacy

The Democratic-Republicans in Ohio opposed him and accused him of partisanship, duplicity, and arrogance. He did not help his case – pushing back on direction from the new capital in Washington and its now Democratic-Republican administration. An 1802 statement eschewing Congress’s control over the territory led to President Thomas Jefferson removing St. Clair from the office he held for well over a decade. 

President Thomas Jefferson removed St. Clair

Home to Ligonier

Losing his western investments and bereft of funds, St. Clair retired to western Pennsylvania. He and his wife lived with their daughter, Louisa St. Clair Robb, and her family in a cabin situated between Ligonier and Greensburg. Arthur St. Clair died in poverty in Greensburg, Pennsylvania, on 31 August 1818. He was 81. His wife Phoebe died shortly after and is buried beside him under a Masonic monument in St. Clair Park in downtown Greensburg. 

St. Clair's final home 

Frustrated Founder

Despite being frustrated by two controversial military defeats, St. Clair was a good officer, a capable general, and most importantly, an adept military thinker. Why else would Washington keep him at his side after Fort Ticonderoga? He was a very good administrator and his efforts helped not just win a nation but build one both at the seat of government and its wild -frontier. This makes the little-known medical student from  Scotland among our nation's founders in every sense of the word. 

St. Clair's Grave