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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
