Heart of Glass: Part 2

At the end of last week’s post, I warned my readers that I was about to share something that would be hard to believe.

You’ve been warned – it’s all true.

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Last week, I left you dangling.

My son, J.B. had earlier reminded me that I had not written about the adventures of Hugh Glass, which prompted me to do something that I had been planning since before I even started my blog.

I ended last week by telling you how mountain man Hugh Glass went out hunting for food to supply Major Andrew Henry’s brigade as they traveled through the wilderness, and how he accidentally walked up on a mother grizzly bear and her two yearling cubs.  I explained the extent of Hugh’s horrible wounds and ended by telling how John Fitzgerald and Jim Bridger had been left by their commander to stay with Glass until he died, then bury him.

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How the situation played out was not quite as cold-blooded as some accounts claim.  Hugh was around 40-years-old…as old as some of the other men’s fathers.  He was a loner but had gained respect among the men, including Fitzgerald and Bridger.

They waited for him to die, not because they were eager for his death, but because they had to face reality.  They were in hostile territory.  The Ree had already killed 17 members of their brigade, and there was the distinct possibility that the Indians had heard the shots fired at the momma grizzly and were seeking were even then seeking them out.  There wasn’t much two men could do to fend them off.

Despite the extreme danger, the two waited with Glass because of their respect for him.

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The next morning there were still faint signs of life in the old man.  As the day wore on, Fitzgerald started talking about catching up to Major Henry’s brigade, but Bridger was reticent.  He just didn’t feel good about abandoning their friend while there were still signs of life.

After all, where there’s life, there’s hope.

The following morning Glass seemed even closer to death.  As signs of life faded, and signs of decaying flesh and death grew, the stress of staying in a dangerous situation was palpable.  After not two but five days, young Bridger gave in to Fitzgerald’s argument.  They must leave, but neither could bury the man while he was still showing signs of life.  After all, there was still the remotest possibility that Hugh Glass could recover…but only the remotest.

They considered leaving Hugh’s rifle and other gear just in case, but that would be like handing them to the hostile Native Americans to be used against the whites.  Fitzgerald and Bridger moved Glass’s pallet near a flowing stream so he would have access to drinking water if he, by the grace of God, woke up.  They then gathered up everything else and started toward the rest of their group.

What they didn’t take, couldn’t take, into account, was Hugh Glass’s grit and determination to live.

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When Glass’s mind began to stir back to life, he fought for consciousness.  As his thinking slowly cleared a bit, he realized that, as badly as the grizzly had torn him apart, he was still alive. 

He became conscious that his friends had abandoned him.  His fellows, the men he had worked and fought alongside, had left him to die.  He had been aware enough a few times that he had heard the familiar voices and recognized young Bridger and Fitzgerald.  Not only had they abandoned him but they had taken his rifle and his possibles.  They hadn’t left him with food or a way to procure it, or even means to make shelter or start a fire.

What he was oblivious of was how long they had waited alongside him and how torturous was the decision-making process that led to the ultimate decision to leave him to his fate.

No, all he knew was that they had abandoned him.  That was low.  It was unforgiveable.  Mountain men didn’t do that to their brethren.  Anger sparked deep in Hugh’s heart and burst into flame.  He would show those unfaithful brutes.  He would survive this, find them, and kill them.  He would show them how real mountain men did things.

The desire for revenge gave Hugh Glass a powerful reason to fight for survival.  He managed to roll over only to find that he couldn’t stand.  He fought the pain as he dragged himself to the stream for life-giving water, then to a nearby bush for berries.  After resting a bit, he began to crawl.

From the position of the sun, Glass calculated which way he needed to go to find the nearest help.  Brazeau’s Trading Post, commonly known as Fort Kiowa, was located on the Missouri River, above the mouth of the White River.

Glass started to crawl.  Yes, crawl.  Inch after inch, mile after mile, he crawled toward help…toward life.

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When he needed water, he’d crawl to a stream.  He didn’t wait until he was hungry to seek food.  If he happened upon fruit or berries, he ate his fill.  If he found bugs crawling on the ground ahead of him, he caught and ate them.  Frogs, lizards, and snakes were sources of energy for the injured man.

Although Hugh tried to protect his wounds from infection, there was only so much he could do.  At one point he felt something wriggling on his back and found that maggots were eating the decaying flesh there.   He found a way to scrape them off, but they had already done him a service by eating the rotten flesh and preventing it from festering and pushing the suffering man toward death and away from life.

Eventually Glass found himself able to stand and walk for short distances before dropping back to his knees and continuing at a crawl.  About a week into his trek, he happened upon a pack of wolves killing a buffalo calf.  After the wolves had eaten their fill and gone off to nap, Glass managed to steal some scraps of flesh from the unfortunate calf.  He took it away and camped for a few days, sneaking back to snatch more of the young buffalo, then making his way back to his camp to eat and rest.

The scraps from the calf helped his recuperation gain speed and he gradually found himself able to walk more and more, eventually making his way to the Missouri River, where he happened upon a band of friendly Lakota Indians.  They supplied him with a hide boat which he used to float downriver to Fort Kiowa. 

He had crawled, walked, and floated 250 miles in roughly two months since his nearly fatal grizzly attack.

Yes, 250 miles.

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Because of his association with General Ashley, Hugh was able to re-outfit himself on credit.  He had heard that the two men he intended to kill were back at Henry’s fort near the mouth of the Yellowstone so, when he heard that a small party was forming to head that way, he signed on.  Six weeks later he asked to be put ashore at an oxbow in the river, figuring a direct route would enable him to confront his quarry sooner and keep other members of the party from warning Fitzgerald and Bridger. 

It was a lucky decision, as the rest of the party was attacked and killed by hostile Ree’s.  Hugh had dodged certain death again.

Glass’s luck saved him yet again when he was sighted by some Arikara women who sounded the alarm.  As Ree men set out to kill Hugh, two Mandan tribesmen (enemies of the Arikara) saw what was happening and thought it would be great fun to deprive their enemies of their prey.  They rode to him ahead of the Rees and got him on the ponies with them, then carried him to safety.  They then took him to a Columbia Fur Company trading post (Tilton’s Post) and safety.

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Hugh Glass continued pursuing Fitzgerald and Bridger, following stories of their whereabouts, sometimes missing them by mere days, until he arrived at Fort Henry, on the Bighorn River, where he encountered Jim Bridger.  It is not clear how their meeting went, or what they said, although I’m pretty sure the grizzly attack and Glass’s subsequent abandonment by Fitzgerald and Bridger was a major topic of conversation.  Somehow, during the talk, Glass realized how young Bridger was and saw how genuinely contrite the young man was for his part in the despicable act. 

Glass chose to forgive the young man.

He once again left in pursuit of Fitzgerald.  He joined a party of four men carrying a message for General Ashley.  The group spent the winter of 1824 with Crow Indians on the Wind River, before departing in the spring.  They made their way along the Platte River, where they encountered a band of Arikara led by Elk Tongue.

Yes, the natives attacked.  Two of Glass’s party were killed and three, including Glass himself, escaped.  In the getaway, the three were split up and Hugh was once again alone.

Glass made the trip cross-country alone and on foot and eventually made it to Fort Kiowa.  It took him roughly two months.

Yup, two months more alone and fighting for survival while he snuck through the forest.

Two weeks after he left Fort Kiowa, Glass got to Fort Atkinson and found John Fitzgerald.  Glass would have his revenge at last. 

Or would he?

Hugh found that Fitzgerald had joined the army. 

The army takes the killing of its enlisted men seriously.  Glass told the officer on duty his story and the captain ordered the return of his rifle and ordered him paid $300 for his trouble…but refused to let him kill his former friend.  After all the effort Glass had put into finding Fitzgerald that would have to do.

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Hugh Glass continued trapping and adventuring for years to come, surviving multiple battles with Native Americans, but being injured several times, including another notable one during a skirmish with the Shoshone in 1825 or 26.

He was leading a trapping party into the southern Colorado territory.  They encountered a woman along the river and approached her.  She let out a startled scream, alerting braves resting nearby. 

The Indian men fired arrows at the trappers, killing one and wounding Hugh in the back.  An arrow lodged in Hugh’s back and the shaft broke off, leaving the arrowhead imbedded in his back. 

The mountain men fled back to Taos (now in New Mexico).  Glass endured the pain of the embedded arrowhead the entire 700 mile trip.  At Taos, with no doctor available, a fellow trapper volunteered to remove the arrowhead from Glass’s enflamed wound, and used a straight razor to cut it out.

Ouch.

Glass spent several months in Taos recovering from the wound and the “surgery” to remove it, then joined another group of trappers heading for Yellowstone River country to trap beaver.

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Considering all the battles with Native Americans Glass had survived and despite his many injuries, one could understand if he began to think he was invincible.

He wasn’t.

In the winter of 1833, on a trip along the Yellowstone River with two other trappers, the group was attacked by the Arikara and Hugh Glass’s luck finally ran out.

All three men were killed and scalped.

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The story of Hugh Glass’s survival after being torn to pieces by the grizzly, and his subsequent two-month trek to safety soon became a big part of mountain man mythology.  The tales have been passed down, rewritten, and embellished in the two centuries since, even made into at least two major motion pictures.  I hope you can now see how much more there was to the saga of Hugh Glass than just his miraculous survival after a grizzly bear attack.

As his mountain man friends said, “He was one tough old coon.” 

I would agree.

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