Arthur St. Clair ( August 31, 1818) was an American soldier and politician. Born in Scotland, he served in the
British Army during the
French and Indian War before settling in
Pennsylvania, where he held local office. During the
American Revolutionary War, he rose to the rank of major general in the
Continental Army, but lost his command after a controversial retreat.
After the war, he was elected to the
Confederation Congress, where he served a term as
president and was appointed governor of the
Northwest Territory. Disputes with Native Americans over land treaties resulted in the
Northwest Indian War. In 1791, General St. Clair led an expedition against the natives that resulted in the
worst defeat the United States Army would ever suffer at the hands of Native Americans. Although an investigation exonerated him, St. Clair resigned his army commission. He continued to serve as territorial governor until 1802, when he retired to Pennsylvania. Although once very wealthy, he died in poverty.
Early life and career
St. Clair was born in
Thurso,
Caithness,
Scotland. Little is known of his early life. Early biographers estimated his year of birth as 1734, but subsequent historians uncovered a birth date of March 23, 1736, which in the
modern calendar system means that he was born in 1737. His parents, unknown to early biographers, were probably William Sinclair, a merchant, and Elizabeth Balfour.
[Gregory Evans Dowd. "St. Clair, Arthur", American National Biography Online, February 2000.] He reportedly attended the
University of Edinburgh before being apprenticed to the renowned physician
William Hunter.
In 1757, St. Clair purchased a commission in the
British Army,
Royal American Regiment, and came to America with Admiral
Edward Boscawen's fleet for the
French and Indian War. He served under General
Jeffrey Amherst at the capture of
Louisburg, Nova Scotia on July 26 1758. On April 17, 1759, he received a lieutenant's commission and was assigned to the command of General
James Wolfe, under whom he served at the
Battle of the Plains of Abraham. St. Clair met young lady Phoebe Bayard, a member of one of the most prominent families in Boston and they married in 1760. Miss Bayard's mother's maiden name was Bowdoin and sister to James Bowdoin, colonial governor of Massachusetts. On April 16, 1762, he resigned his commission, and, in 1764, he settled in
Ligonier Valley, Pennsylvania, where he purchased land and erected mills. He was the largest landowner in
Western Pennsylvania.
In 1770, St. Clair became a justice of the court, of quarter sessions and of common pleas, a member of the proprietary council, a justice, recorder, and clerk of the orphans' court, and
prothonotary of
Bedford and
Westmoreland counties.
In 1774, the
colony of Virginia took claim of the area around
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and some residents of Western Pennsylvania took up arms to eject them. St. Clair issued an order for the arrest of the officer leading the Virginia troops.
Lord Dunmore's War eventually settled the boundary dispute.
Revolutionary War
By the mid-1770s, St. Clair considered himself more of an American than a British subject. In January 1776, he accepted a commission in the
Continental Army as a
colonel of the
3rd Pennsylvania Regiment. He first saw service in the later days of the
Quebec invasion, where he saw action in the
Battle of Trois-Rivières. He was appointed a
brigadier general in August 1776, and was sent by Gen.
George Washington to help organize the
New Jersey militia. He took part in
Washington's crossing of the Delaware River on Christmas night 1776, before the
Battle of Trenton. Many biographers credit St. Clair with the strategy which led to Washington's capture of
Princeton, New Jersey in the following days. It was shortly after this that St. Clair was promoted to Major General.
In April 1777, St. Clair was sent to defend
Fort Ticonderoga. His small garrison could not resist British Gen.
John Burgoyne's larger force in the
Saratoga Campaign. St. Clair was forced to retreat at the
Battle of Ticonderoga on July 5 1777. He withdrew his forces and played no further part in the campaign. In 1778 he was
court-martialed for the loss of Ticonderoga. The court exonerated him and he returned to duty, although he was no longer given any battlefield commands. He still saw action, however, as an
aide-de-camp to General Washington, who retained a high opinion of him. St. Clair was at
Yorktown when
Lord Cornwallis surrendered his army.
President of Congress
St. Clair was a member of the Pennsylvania Council of Censors in 1783, and was elected a delegate to the
Confederation Congress, serving from November 2, 1785, until November 28, 1787. Chaos ruled the day in early 1787 with
Shays' Rebellion in full force and the states refusing to settle land disputes or contribute to the now six year-old federal government. On February 2, 1787, the delegates finally gathered into a quorum and elected St. Clair as 9th President of the United States in Congress Assembled. St. Clair's tenure as President (February 2, 1787 October 29, 1787) was during an effective period, as Congress enacted both the
Northwest Ordinance and the current
United States Constitution.
Northwest Territory
Under the
Northwest Ordinance of 1787, which created the
Northwest Territory, General St. Clair was appointed governor of what is now
Ohio,
Indiana,
Illinois,
Michigan, along with parts of
Wisconsin and
Minnesota. He named
Cincinnati, Ohio, after the
Society of the Cincinnati, and it was there that he established his home. When the territory was divided in 1800, he served as governor of the
Ohio Territory.
As Governor, he formulated
Maxwell's Code (named after its printer,
William Maxwell), the first written laws of the territory. He also sought to end Native American claims to Ohio land and clear the way for white settlement. In 1789, he succeeded in getting certain Indians to sign the
Treaty of Fort Harmar, but many native leaders had not been invited to participate in the negotiations, or had refused to do so. Rather than settling the Indian's claims, the treaty provoked them to further resistance in what is sometimes known as the "
Northwest Indian War" (or "Little Turtle's War"). Mutual hostilities led to a campaign by General
Josiah Harmar, whose 1,500 militiamen were defeated by the Indians in October 1790.
In 1791, St. Clair succeeded Harmar as the senior general of the
United States Army. He personally led a
punitive expedition comprising of two Regular Army regiments and some militia. This force advanced to the location of Indian settlements on the
Wabash River, but on
November 4 they were routed in battle by a tribal confederation led by
Miami Chief
Little Turtle and Shawnee chief
Blue Jacket. More than 600 soldiers and scores of women and children were killed in the battle, called St. Clair's Defeat, the "Columbia Massacre," or the "
Battle of the Wabash." It was the greatest defeat of the American army by Native Americans in history with some 623 American soldiers killed in action as opposed to about 50 enemy dead. After this debacle, he resigned from the army at the request of
President Washington, but continued to serve as Governor of the Northwest Territory.
A
Federalist, St. Clair hoped to see two states made of the Ohio Territory in order to increase Federalist power in
Congress. However, he was resented by Ohio Democratic-Republicans for what were perceived as his partisanship, high-handededness and arrogance in office. In 1802, his opposition to plans for Ohio statehood led President
Thomas Jefferson to remove him from office as territorial governor. He thus played no part in the organizing of the state of
Ohio in 1803. The first
Ohio Constitution provided for a weak governor and a strong
legislature, in part due to a reaction to St. Clair's method of governance.
Death and legacy
Arthur St. Clair, Patriot and a Founder of the United States of America, died in
Greensburg, Pennsylvania on August 31 1818 in his eighties and in poverty; his vast wealth dissipated by generous gifts and loans, and by business reverses, but, mainly by the refusal of Congress to reimburse him for monies that he had loaned during the Revolution and while governor of the Northwest Territory. He lived with his daughter Louisa St. Clair Robb and her family on the ridge between Ligonier and Greensburg. St. Clair's remains are buried under a Masonic monument in St. Clair Park in downtown
Greensburg. His wife Phoebe died shortly after and is buried beside him.
A portion of The Hermitage, St. Clair's home in
Youngstown, Pennsylvania was later moved to
Ligonier, Pennsylvania, where it is now preserved, along with St. Clair artifacts and memorabilia at the Fort Ligonier Museum.
Places named in honor of Arthur St. Clair include:
In
Pennsylvania:
In
Ohio:
Other States:
