Arthur St Clair
BIRTH
Jan 23, 1737
Caithness, Scotland
DEATH
August 31, 1818
Greensburg, Pennsylvania
President of the Continental Congress
Feb 2, 1787 - Nov 4, 1787
Delegate to the Continental Congress (PA)
FAMILY
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St Clair, Arthur
(1737-1818)
Major General Arthur St. Clair was a Scottish-American soldier and politician. Born in Thurso, 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 from Fort Ticonderoga.
GRAVE:
MARKER
Arthur St. Clair grave, St. Clair Park
Saint Clair Park, Greensburg, PA, United States
1
Places | Image | Address | GPS | Site |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Fort Ticonderoga | 102 Fort Ti Rd, Ticonderoga, NY 12883 | MUSEUM |
DIED:
Greensburg, Pennsylvania
Aug 31, 1818
St. Clair was born in Thurso, Caithness, Scotland. 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 Jeffery 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 under the command of General James Wolfe, under whom he served at the Battle of the Plains of Abrahamwhich resulted in the capture of Quebec City.
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 Jerseymilitia. He took part in George Washington's crossing of the Delaware River on the night of December 25–26, 1776, before the Battle of Trenton on the morning of December 26. Many biographers credit St. Clair with the strategy that led to Washington's capture of Princeton, New Jersey, on January 3, 1777. St. Clair was promoted to major general in February 1777.
After the war, he served as President of the Continental Congress, which during his term passed the Northwest Ordinance. He was then made governor of the Northwest Territory in 1788, and then the portion that would become Ohio in 1800. In 1791, St. Clair commanded the American forces in what was the United States' worst-ever defeat by the Native Americans, which became known as St. Clair's defeat. Politically out-of-step with the Jefferson administration, he was replaced as governor in 1802.