Fort Clark in Peoria-- Part 2

In October 1812, Ninian Edwards, Illinois Territory governor, launched a three-pronged attack on Indian villages at Peoria Lake (where Peoria is now located and a wide place in the Illinois River).  He believed the villages harbored warriors who had attacked American settlements.  Edwards led a horse-mounted force and destroyed Black  Partidge's village on the east side of the lake.

On November 5, 1812,  Captain Thomas Craig arrived by  boat at Peoria.  Unknown to Craig, William Clark, Superintendent of Indian Affairs (yes, that William Clark as in Lewis & Clark Expedition) and Ninian Edwards had retained the services of Thomas Forsyth to monitor Indian movements at Peoria Lake.  

Despite Forsyth's protest that the community was not involved, Craig arrested a few dozen of the village's inhabitants, burned part f the community, and transported those he detained downriver to Alton.

To assert American authority over the Peoria Lake area, in 1813, a force of about 1,400 men under  the command of Brigadier General  Benjamin Howard returned to The area to erect Fort Clark.  In addition they destroyed  what remained of Gomo's and Black Partridge's  abandoned villages.  William Garner Sr. was a member of this force.

In retaliation, Indians under Black Partridge attacked Fort Clark, but were repulsed and later signed a treaty of peace.

--Brock-Perry

National Society United States Daughters 1812

From previous post.

Founded in 1892 and headquartered in Washington, D.C. the National Society United States Daughters of 1812 is a nonprofit, nonpolitical, women's service organization for descendants of patriots who aided the American cause during the War of 1812.

Membership is available to women who are age 18 or older and who can offer satisfactory proof that they are lineal descendants of any ancestor who, during the period 1784-1815 inclusive, rendered  civil, military or naval service to our country, rendered material aide to the U.S. Army or Navy, or who participated in the Lewis and Clark Expedition.

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There are currently four active chapters of the organization in Arkansas.

Baseline-Meridian (Little Rock) Organized 1995

Simon Bradford (Pine Bluff) Organized 1911

Thomas H. Flippin  (Bella Vista) Organized 2014

President George Washington (Texarkana)   Organized 2015

--Brock-Perry

The Journal of Patrick Gass of Lewis & Clark Expedition-- Part 3

AUGUST 25, 1804

"Two of our men  last night caught nine catfish, that would together weigh three hundred pounds. ...Captain Lewis and Captain Clarke went to see a hill on the north side of the river where the natives will not or pretend that they will not venture to go, and say that a small people live there, whom they are afraid of. ... Captains Lewis and Clarke did not return  this evening.

AUGUST 26, 1804

About 10 o'clock Captain Lewis and Captain Clarke with the party accompanying them came to camp;  but had not been able to discover any of those small people.  The hill is in a handsome prairie; and the party saw a great many buffaloe near it."

--Brock-Perry

The Journal of Patrick Glass-- Part 2: Death of Floyd and Plenty of Food

AUGUST 20, 1804

Continuing with the death of Sergeant Floyd, the only man to die during the entire Lewis & Clark Expedition.  The service and burial of Sgt. Floyd.

"We went on about a mile to high prairie hills on the north side of the river, and there interred his remains in the most decent manner our circumstances would admit; we then proceeded  a mile further to a small river on the same side and encamped.

"Our commanding officer have it the name  of Floyd's river; to perpetuate the memory of the first man who had fallen in this important expedition."

Of course, this is when Patrick Gass became the next sergeant of the expedition.

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AUGUST 23, 1804

"Captain Clarke and one of the men killed a deer and a buffaloe, and some of the men were sent to dress and bring the buffaloe to the boat.  We stopped at a prairie on the north side, the largest and handsomest, which I have seen.  Captain Clarke called it Buffaloe prairie.  ...we salted two barrels of buffaloe meat."

--Brock-Perry

In Case You're Wondering About Patrick Gass' Journal-- Part 1

From Manuellisaparty.com.

Here are some excerpts from the journal of Patrick Gass.

AUGUST 15, 1804

Captain Lewis went with a party of twelve men to fish and took 709 fish, 167 of them large pike.  The fish here are generally pike, cat,  sun perch and other common fish.  What we caught were taken with trails or brush nets.

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AUGUST 19, 1804

This day sergeant (Charles) Floyd became very sick and remained so all night.  He was seized with a complaint somewhat like a violent cholick.

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AUGUST 20, 1804.

Sergeant Floyd continued very ill.  We embarked early and proceeded,  having a fair wind and fine weather, till 2 o'clock, when we landed for dinner.  here sergeant Floyd died, notwithstanding every possible effort was made by the commanding officers and other persons, to save his life.

To Be Continued Next Post.  --Brock-Perry

Some More on Patrick Gass-- Part 8: Retirement and Marriage

With the end of the War of 1812, Patrick Gass' military career also came to an end.

He retired essentially to obscurity after leading such as exciting life.  He was past forty and lived quite the remarkable life.  he had nothing to show for the past and his book on the Lewis & Clark Expedition had been a financial failure.

So, he settled down and lived as best he could, swapping soldier's stories.  he gave way to drinking and for forty years was a sad drunkard.  The marvel is that he lived so long with such habits, and that, too,  after he had endured hardship enough to undermine the constitution of most men.  He seemed to be made of steel that would neither break or bend.  (These are his biographer's words.)

What romance entered his life as a young soldier we can only infer from his character and habits.  But love conquered the old soldier at age 58, and he was married  in 1831 to Miss Maria Hamilton, 41 years younger than he was.  In fifteen years before her death in 1846, they had seven children.

--Brock-Perry

Some More on Patrick Gass-- Part 5: High Tributes to Gass' Work With the Expedition

Then, it was out to the Pacific Ocean and back for Patrick Gass and the Lewis and Clark Expedition.  Here is what Captain Lewis wrote about Gass, dated St. Louis,  October 10, 1806, attesting to his high character and good conduct:

"As a tribute justly due  to the merits of said Patrick Gass, I with cheerfulness declare, that with ample support, which he gave me, under  every difficulty; the manly firmness, which he evinced  on every  necessary occasion; and the fortitude with which he  bore the fatigues and  painful sufferings incident to that long voyage, entitles  him to my highest confidence and sincere thanks, while it eminently recommends him to the  consideration and respect  of his fellow citizens."

Remaining but a short time in St. Louis,  Gass then went to Vincennes, Indiana,  and later to Louisville, Kentucky, where, with a couple of his comrades, rejoined Lewis and Clark.    They had with them a delegation of Indians, headed by Chief Big White, whom the were taking to Washington.  

They paid their respected to President Jefferson, made their report to the proper officials, delivered their specimens and curiosities, and were discharged.

--Brock-Perry

Some More About Patrick Gass-- Part 4: To Kasakaskia and Joining Lewis & Clark

At this point, Patrick Gass had decided to make the Army his career.  His intelligence and other merits caused his promotion ton non-commissioned officer.  His duties were to recruit new soldiers and arrest deserters.

In 1801, Gass went with a company commanded by  Captain Bissell up the Tennessee River and in the Autumn of 1802, Captain Bissel's company, with a battery of  artillery, were sent to Kaskaskia, Illinois,  They were there in the autumn of 1803 when a call was made for recruits  to accompany the expedition of Lewis and Clark.

Captain Lewis himself came to  Kaskaskia in search of  suitable members of his group.  Here, he met one Patrick Gass, and the rest, as they say, was history.

To one of Gass'  adventurous and hardy nature, this was a golden opportunity. He instantly volunteered.  However, Captain Bissell objected and tried to keep Gass.  But the resolute Patrick tracked Lewis down and told him he wanted to go.  Over Bissell's objection, Lewis got Gass.

--Brock-Perry

Some More About Patrick Gass, Famous Irish Sergeant

From West Virginia Genealogy Trails  "Patrick M. Gass: Journal Writer of the Lewis & Clark Expedition" by Dr. Coues.

Gass was born June 12, 1771, at Falling Springs, Cumberland County, near what was afterwards Chambersburg, Franklin County, Pennsylvania.  When Mr. Jacob wrote about him in 1858, he was a hale and hearty old man, and already long lone survivor of the Lewis & Clark's Expedition.  His vigor and vitality were astonishing; the more so, considering the hardships he had long endured, and his many years of the besetting sin of an old soldier.

In stature he was low, having in his most erect manhood never exceeded five feet seven; he was compactly built, broad-chested and strong-limbed, lean and wiry; only very late in life was he bowed and crippled with rheumatism.

When nearly 99 years old he retained his mental faculties, and had a good, sound memory for the events of nearly a century.

He died April 3d 1870. 

Quite a Life.  --Brock-Perry

Wellsburg Has Another Patrick Gass Marker

This is located along the Ohio River in downtown Wellsburg, West Virginia.

And, I had never heard of this person before.

Inscription:

"Sergeant on the Lewis & Clark Expedition, he published the first  account of the exploration in 1807.

Veteran of the War of 1812, he fought at the battle of Lundy's Lane and at Fort Erie.

Citizen of Wellsburg  for more than a half century, he married and raised a family  on Grog Run and Pierce's Run.  He is now buried in  Brooke County Cemetery.

The bust of Patrick Gass as a young man on the Lewis & Clark Expedition was sculpted by Agnes Vincen Talbot of Boise, Idaho and presented to the people of Wellsburg by members of the Lewis & Clark Trail heritage Foundation, assisted by the National Park Service Challenge Cost Share Program .

August 2, 2002."

--Brock-Perry

Wellsburg, WV, Has Another Lewis & Clark Connection-- Part 2: Patrick Gass

Also on the same sign is this about Patrick Gass:

Text and photo of Patrick Gas

Patrick Gass (1771-1870) Meriwether Lewis considered Gass a man of "capacity, diligence and integrity."  Gass, a good soldier and a first rate carpenter, volunteered for the expedition, over the  objections of his superiors, while stationed at Fort Kaskaskia in Illinois.

When Sgt. Floyd (the expedition's only casualty) died on 20 August 1804, Gass was elected by the party to replace him as "Sergeant  in the corps of volunteers for North Western  Discovery."

Gass returned to Wellsburg after the expedition - he was the last  living member   of the Corps of Discovery at his death in 1870.

--Brock-Perry

 

Wellsburg, WV, Has Another Lewis & Clark Expedition Connection-- Part 1

Not only is there a historical marker in Wellsburg, West Virginia for Patrick Gass, who lived there after the War of 1812, but there is another one about a Lewis & Clark connection for the town.

From the Historical Marker Project.

THE LEWIS & CLARK CONNECTION

The Corps of Discovery, under the command of Meriwether Lewis and William Clark, was the first official expedition through the interior of the continent sponsored by the United States.

Captain Meriwether Lewis passed Charles Town in Virginia (later renamed Welsburg) on September  7, 1803.  Lewis  brought the expedition's keelboat down the Ohio River to rendezvous with  William Clark near  Louisville, Kentucky.

He wrote in his journal:

"...passed  Charles town on the E. shore above the mouth of the Buffaloe over which there is a hansome wooden  bridge, this has the appearance of a handsome little village, containing about  forty houses...."

Meriwether Lewis,  September 7, 1803.

The expedition spent the winter of 1803-1804 at a camp located by  what is today Wood River, Illinois, preparing for their  arduous  journey to the Pacific and back.

--Brock-Perry

Patrick Gass-- Part 5: After the War of 1812

After his honorable discharge from the U.S. Army, Patrick Gass worked at many jobs, first in Ohio and then in what is now West Virginia.

Still a bachelor at age 60, he accepted a construction job from a man named Hamilton, at Wellsburg,  and soon eloped with the man's 20-year-old daughter Maria.  The couple settled in a rented cabin and Gass began farming.

They had seven children, six of whom survived into adulthood.  When their last child was a baby, Maria died during a measles epidemic at age  thirty-six.

Patrick was then seventy-five, but raised the children alone.  Until nearly the end of his life, he walked four miles  into Wellsburg to pick up his mail.  He died  at age ninety-nine, the last member of the expedition to die.

--Brock-Perry

Patrick Gass & Corps of Discovery-- Part 3: Building Camp Wood, Fort Mandan and Fort Clapsop

There is no doubt that Patrick Gass was carpenter-in-charge for building Camp Wood, Fort Mandan and Fort Clapsop.  Only in his journal is found the dimensions and layout of Fort Mandan.  

At the Great Falls of the Missouri, Lewis assigned Gass  and blacksmith Shields to craft and  fit the interior braces of the iron boat, once they located suitable lumber.  In October  1805, on the Clearwater River in Idaho, Gass and three others repaired a canoe that had split open and doused the stock of trade goods.  While the "merchandize"  dried out on the 10th, they went to work and "at 1 oClock She was finished Stronger than ever" according to Clark.

When faced with the decision at the mouth of the Marias River, about which fork was the true Missouri, the captains first sent Gass and two men up the Missouri while Ordway and two others went up the Marias.  Gass marched only 6.5 miles, Ordway 10, and neither found the large expected waterfall.  Those two forays changed bo one's minds and the captains made their own separate and lengthier treks.

--Brock-Perry

Patrick Gass & the Corps of Discovery-- Part 2: About Gass's Journal That Angered Lewis

He did not learn to read or write until he was a grown man, but he did keep an expedition journal -- as was required of all sergeants.  Unless he later reconstructed  the portion predating his becoming sergeant on August 4, 1804, he must have started it even earlier when the expedition set out on May 14.

In 1807, his journal was the first to be printed.  However, it was  rewritten into formal prose.  Gass' published journal maddened Meriwether Lewis, who had not yet  had his account published.  The captain raised a public fuss with exchange of angry letters between Lewis and the book's publisher, David McKeehan of Pittsburgh.  Lewis argued that Gass' journal was unauthorized.

Six other publishers soon picked up Gass's book.  As usual for the time, the publishers, rather than the author, were the ones who made the profit.

Gass's journal, for all its shortcomings was the only authentic account of the expedition  in print until Nicholas Biddle's paraphrase of the captains' journals came out in 1814.

--Brock-Perry

Patrick Gass and the Corps of Discovery-- Part 1: Elected to Expedition Sergeant

From the Discovering Lewis & Clark site.

Along with this in formation on Patrick Gass, they have a day-by-day chronology on the Expedition, often written in William Clark's interesting spelling.

It says Gass was the Expedition's carpenter and the last surviving member.

He also became the sergeant of it by election.  A nominating  vote for replacement of Sergeant Charles Floyd was held at present-day Elk Point, South Dakota and nineteen of the group's 25 enlisted men voted for Gass as the replacement.  He must have been held in high esteem.

Pennsylvania-born Irishman Patrick Gasswas a career soldier signing up in 1799 at age 28 and wanted to join the Expedition when they arrived at his post at Fort Kaskaskia in Illinois, but his commander, Captain Russell Bissell wanted to keep him for his services as a carpenter, so Gass went to Meriwether Lewis who persuaded Bissell to let him join.

Gass had previously served in the Army Rangers and now was the expedition's third oldest member after John Shields (b. 1769) and Captain Clark (b. 1770)

--Brock-Perry

Patrick Gass-- Part 3: His Journal and Later Life

In addition to Lewis & Clark, he kept a journal of the groups adventures in the new country and 1807, his was the first to be published.  He named it "Corps of Discovery."  The book was first printed and distributed in Pittsburgh at $1.00 a copy.  It was later reprinted in England and translated into French and German.

A reprint is presently being sold by the University of Nebraska Press.  The University of Nebraska at  Lincoln  online version of the Lewis & Clark journals gives 220 entries to the Gass journal.

At the age of 60,  he married Maria  Hamilton, aged 20.  She bore him seven children (six of whom survived into adulthood over the remaining 15 years of her life.  They settled in Wellsburg, West Virginia, where he died at 99 years of age, the oldest surviving member of the expedition.

--Brock-Perry

Patrick Gass, Lewis & Clark and War of 1812-- Part 2: Carpenter in Expedition and Tried to Enlist in Civil War

This is when Patrick Gass joined the Lewis & Clark Expedition to explore and map the new Louisiana Purchase territory.

His skill as a carpenter was very important to the undertaking. He led the construction of the Corps' three winter  quarters, hewed dugout canoes and built wagons to portage the canoes 18 miles around the Falls  of the Missouri.

On the return trip, Gass was given  command of the majority of the party for a short period while Clark and Lewis led smaller detachments on  separate expeditions.

After the expedition returned, he remained in the Army and served during the War of 1812 where he lost an eye at the Battle of Lundy's Lane.

With the coming of the Civil War in 1861, Gass had to be physically removed from a recruiting station at age 91 when he wanted to sign up to fight the rebels.

Quite the Man, But That's Not All.  --Brock-Perry

Patrick Gass, Member Lewis & Clark Expedition and War of 1812 Veteran-- Part 1

I'd never heard of him before.  Looks like another trip to good ol' Wikipedia.

PATRCK GASS

(June 12, 1771 to April 2, 1870)

Served as a sergeant in the Lewis & Clark Expedition (1804-1806).  He was important to the expedition because  of his service as a carpenter and he published the first  journal of the expedition in 1807, seven years before the first publication based on Lewis and Clark's journals.

He was born in Pennsylvania and began his military career in  1792 in a Virginia militia or ranger company stationed in Wheeling (now West Virginia) fighting Indians.  In 1794, he helped build the house of James Buchanan, Sr., near Mercersburg, Pennsylvania, and became acquainted with  the young future president of the United States, James Buchanan.

He joined the U.S. Army  in 1803 and served in Kaskaskia, Illinois, near St. Louis.

And, then he entered the history books.

--Brock-Perry

Patrick Gass, Member of Lewis & Clark Expedition and War of 1812 Veteran

From the May 27, 2021, Weirton (West Virginia)  Daily Times  "Ohio Valley preserving  its history."

The Brooke County, West Virginia, commissioners  have announced that a military marker  will recognize a soldier who served in the early part of the 19th century.

Patrick Gass was a member of the Lewis & Clark Expedition and fought in the War of 1812 before settling in Wellsburg.  Gass, who lost an eye in the war; his wife, Maria, whom he married when he was sixty; and their family made their home in the Pierce Run area.  They are buried in  Brooke Cemetery.

His adventures and service  will be recognized at noon on June 12 when a marker  near the gazebo overlooking the Wellsburg Wharf is dedicated.  It will be a special day , featuring war re-enactors and descendants of Gass.  And, it will fall on the 250th anniversary of his birth.

There have been a few detours along the way to this latest recognition of Gass, whose bust and another marker are already located near the gazebo.  The latest  marker, which had been slated  to have been placed at his grave, had been damaged during shipping, but officials at the U.S.  Department of Veteran Affairs were able to provide a replica, which has been installed at the gazebo.

--Brock-Perry