Some More on Patrick Gass-- Part 7: Service in the War of 1812

With Jackson's Army, Patrick Gass had the option of enlistment in the U.S. Army for five years, which he took.  Of course, he also got a bounty of $100 for doing so. and then marched north under the command of General Edmund P. Gaines.

Gass was at Fort Massac in Illinois in 1813; and the 1st of July 1814 found him at Pittsburgh, in a battalion under the command of Colonel Nichols, with the Northern Army, which was under the command of General Jacob Brown.

He took part in the assault on Fort Erie, and was conspicuous for his bravery in the Battle of Lundy's Lane, where he was attached to the  21st regiment under the command of the gallant Colonel James Miller.  Gass is said to have distinctly remembered hearing Miller's memorable  answer, when ordered by General Ripley to capture the British battery:  "I will try, sir."

Gass shows up gallantly  in a sortie made August 17 when he was entrusted with the duty of spiking the enemy's guns.  His selection for such duty, requiring cool  courage, was a high compliment to the sergeant and shows the estimation  in which he was held.

He was discharged  at Sackets Harbor in June 1815, and once again returned to Wellsburg.

His military career was now over.

--Brock-Perry

Some More on Patrick Gass-- Part 6: The Journal and Back to Soldiering and the War of 1812

Patrick Gass received his pay for the Lewis & Clark Expedition in gold, with the promise of future consideration, and went home to his friends in Wellsburg.

Here, he arranged with  the Irish schoolmaster, David M'Keehan, for the publication of his journal of the expedition, which appeared early in 1807, thus seven years before that of Lewis and Clark's own narrative was published.

Gass never exchanged the pen, though, for his sword.  In the spring of 1807, he was a soldier again.  He served for the next four years at the then frontier post of Kaskaskia, Illinois.

Then came the Second War of Independence, the War of 1812.  Formal declaration of war was made June 18, 1812,  under the administration of James Madison.  Shortly before this happened, Gass was at Nashville, Tennessee, where he was drafted into the regiment raised by Andrew Jackson  to fight the Creek Indians.  Some disturbances had broken out along the frontier.

--Brock-Perry

Some More About Patrick Gass-- Part 2

In 1775,  Gass' father moved over  South Mountain into Maryland.  From 1777 to 1780 the boy lived with his grandfather, and was supposed to go to school; but he says himself that he never learned  to read, write, or cipher till he had come of age.

His next recorded move was in 1780 memorable  for the severity of its winter and the deplorable state of the American  army.  In 1782 the family "went west" -- that is, across the Alleghenies.

In 1784 and the next year, they continued their movement westward, eventually reaching Catfish Camp, named after an Indian chief about half way between the Monongahela and Ohio rivers.  Here Patrick seems to have developed  some of his qualities, for he used to explore the vicinity, and has left his impressions  of the site, as it was in 1790, of what is now Wellsburg, W. Va.

By 1792, having attained his majority, he was stationed as a soldier under Captain Caton at Yellow Creek, guarding the frontier against Indians.  These had long been troublesome, and were just then elated at having defeated General Arthur St. Clair's army in November, 1791.  General Anthony Wayne was sent against them, and the militia all along the frontier was drafted into service.

Patrick had been serving in his father's place and was soon pressed into military service himself and stationed at Bennett's fort, on Wheeling Creek, near Wheeling; but he seems not to have had any  actual engagement.  Indian hostilities were soon put down entirely and forever in the region by the defeat of the Redskins on the Miami by General Wayne in August 1792.

--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

Big 250th Birthday Bash for Patrick Gass in Wellsburg, WV

From the  June 12, 2021, WTRF "Wellsburg throws 250th birthday for historical figure Patrick Gass" by Aliah Keller.

It was the 250th birthday of Patrick Gass as well as the dedication of his military stone.

Gass, who once lived in Wellsburg, West Virginia, for over fifty years,  was a sergeant in the Lewis & Clark Expedition and published the first account of it in the early 1800s.  He is also a veteran of the War of 1812 and fought at the Battle of Lundy's Lane and Fort Erie.

The celebration on Saturday started off with a march and then a musket salute by the Tri-State Marine Corps.  re-enactors were there as were Gass' great-great grandchildren and their children.

--Brock-Gass