Camp Waupaca Stories -Hugh Glass

Hugh Glass was as tough a “Mountain Man” that ever lived. When he explored, trapped, hunted, and lived in the West a weak man did not live long. Men had to live by their strength, wits, and knowledge. Indians were hunting and killing Mountain Men. Weather could kill a man as sure as an arrow. A broken bone or illness without aid or medicine could take a man's life as surely as a bullet. Then there were the wild beasts called Grizzle Bears that with a quick swipe of a paw tear a man apart. The West that Hugh Glass knew was full of danger. For even the most experienced mountain man he never knew if he would see the sunset as he started his day.

A small group of mountain men who were part of a military campaign to find an overland route to the Rocky Mountains. The Arikara Tribe had made travel on the Missouri River extremely dangerous. The fur traders and army had lost so many men to Indian attacks that another route was needed to keep the trade in valuable beaver skins. Two groups set out to scout for a safe passage to the western trading forts. There were seventeen men who started out under Andrew Henry. Hugh Glass was one of them.

The men walked and lead pack animals with their supplies. By early June two of their number had been killed by Mandans who were supposed to be friendly. Five were suffering from wounds including Hugh Glass who had a bullet wound in a leg. The pack animals had either all been killed or taken by Indians.

Hugh Glass was the groups hired hunter. While out getting meat for the group he had a sudden encounter with a sow grizzle bear and two cubs. Not knowing the bear was there, Glass has gotten between her and the cubs. The sow stood up and charged. Glass fired his rifle and a bullet stunned the bear for a moment. Then the bear with more fury reached Glass and began to mall him. His screams brought several men for the group charging to his aid.

The men finished off the bear with a head shot and then killed the cubs who were coming to her aid. They dragged the carcass off Glass and saw he was severally wounded. He was unconscious his back, arms, and head ripped by the bear's claws. They carried him back to their temporary camp and bound up his wounds as best they could. They made a litter to carry him on, they would have to leave in the morning. Most agreed that their time would be better spent digging a grave for Hugh.

With the Arikara on the warpath it was even dangerous to stay there the night. The shots and screams had echoed through the valley where they were. Sheerly an Arikara scout had heard the noise and would be guiding warriors to them. They would have to move quickly to save their scalps.

The next morning Glass could move his eyes and the fingers on one hand with blood leaking from his mouth. He was as good as dead, but as long as he breathed they had an obligation to keep him with them. So they dragged the man on a litter for two days. It slowed the group down when haste was their chance of survival. The only thing that seemed to keep him alive was the small amount of water they could dribble into his mouth. There was no doubt that Hugh Glass would breathe his last in no longer than a day.

Andrew Henry decided that dragging Glass was too dangerous for the lives of his men. First he asked that two men volunteer to stay with him and catch up after Glass was buried. No hands were raised as they all knew their only chance was to move fast. Henry picked up some sticks and cut them to the same size except for two. Two were shorter. The men who drew the short sticks were John Fitzgerald and James Bridger. The rest of the group picked up their possessions and left.

The ones that were left behind were camped in a thicket near a stream. The first day they spent digging a grave with Hugh's tomahawk and a small portable shovel. Hugh groaned every once and a while and his breathing was labored at times. They gave him water from the stream and listened for any noise that might mean Arikara were closing in.

Day 2 they finished the grave, fished in the stream and gathered berries. Still about all that Hugh Glass did was breath. Day 3 and Day4 were spent much the same way except the grave was waiting for a body. Day 5, Fitzgerald was restless. They had spent more time with the “dead” Hugh Glass than anyone expected of them. Each day they spent it became more likely that the Indians would find and kill them. He persuaded Bridger that they had done all they could and it was time to leave Hugh Glass.

As they picked up to go they took Hugh's gun, knife, tomahawk, shot, powder, and fire making kit. “Can't let the Indians get this stuff and a dead man don't need them,” Fitzgerald said. “Besides I always liked his gun.” Bridger thought he heard a groan form Glass as they walked away. Whatever, neither man looked back.

Sometime after they left Hugh Glass came to and struggled to sit up. It was like getting hit by the paw of the grizzle bear. He was hurt. He was alone. He did not have the tools he needed to survive. He had been in tough spots before and he made up his mind that he would live to get revenge on the unfaith comrades that left him. He especially wanted to get revenge on the one that had his prize gun.

With all his strength he crawled to the stream and drank some water. As he looked up he saw a large water snake sunning itself. With a rock from the stream, he bashed it in the head. This was his first meal since the attack and he ate it raw. Everything that he was to eat as he made his way to help was eaten raw. Berries and plants were not bad, but grasshoppers and other bugs would gag him. Still, it was food and it kept him alive.

Still on his knees, he found a stick of wood strong enough to hold his weight. With this he pulled himself up and began a walk to safety and supplies. He set his way by the sun and the stars to go to Fort Kiowa on the Missouri River. It would take three months to get there.

About when his diet was no longer sustaining his strength, he watched a pack of wolfs kill and eat on a buffalo calf. At night he snuck out of hiding and using a sharp stone he had found cut off as much meat as he could.

His walk was 250 miles long. The ground he had to travel was rough wilderness. He arrived clothes in rags and caked with mud and dirt. To the men that were there that had left him as dead, he appeared as an evil spirit. Cleaned up he did not look much better as the scares on his head and arms were deep and angry red. As soon as he could he replaced his gun, knife and other supplies.

Andrew Henry was there at the fort and told Hugh why he was left and who was left with him. Thinking how sweet revenge would be he found James Bridger at the fort and cornered him. James was unarmed and in a corner. Hugh pulled out his new knife and threatened James with it. Somehow James persuaded Hugh that it was John Fitzgerald who betrayed him. “He's got you gun, knife and stuff at Fort Atkinson,” stammered James Bridger.

There was a boat that was going upstream to Fort Atkinson called a Mackinaw that would be much easier and faster than walking. Hugh Glass talked his way on as a passenger. He rode the boat as far as a place in the river called the oxbow a long “U” shaped bend. As going up stream on that part of the Missouri River was very slow going, Hugh opted to go ashore and walk the rest of the way. Somewhere on the bend the Arikara had set up an ambush. No one on the boat was ever seen again.

When Hugh got to Fort Atkinson, he learned that Fitzgerald had joined the Army and was stationed at Fort Henry. By now it was winter so Hugh stayed where he was until spring doing odd jobs to pay for his keep. Early spring he took off on foot for Fort Henry.

Fitzgerald was there now a private in the army and property of the USA. Before Hugh Glass could stick his knife into Fitzgerald the Capitan of the Fort Henry stopped him. Hugh Glass did speak to Fitzgerald and got his gun back. The talk convinced Hugh Glass that he would not have survived he would not have been driven to get revenge. They were never friends but all was forgiven.

Note:

As I put this story on paper I could see Chuck Cooper in his buckskin suit with a tomahawk and knife on his belt telling Hugh Glass to spell bound campers. The light of the camp fire flickers as he describes all the action in the style of the old fashion story tellers.