The Frontiersman who came back from the dead for Revenge

the frontiersman who came back from the dead for revenge [Music] the year was 1822 but in the missouri republican newspaper was an ad requiring 100 enterprising young men to trap beaver along the missouri river for a period of up to three years it was a new company who would soon be known as the Rocky Mountain Fur Company one of the men to apply was Hugh glass a 40 year old frontiersman from Pennsylvania his later newspaper accounts are to be believed he had already led a colorful life having been a pirate as well as having lived for a number of years with the pony Indian tribe glasses career got off to an eventual start with the Rocky Mountain Fur Company soon after he joined them on his first trip his route was attacked by the semi-nomadic era carrot tribe the attack killed ten trappers and injured 14 others glass was one of the wounded having been shot in the leg this event was of more significance than was first realized as it resulted in the very first Indian War west of the Missouri glass was not badly wounded and after a brief recuperation at Fort Kiowa which is located in what is now South Dakota he set out in early September 1823 on a trapping expedition to the Yellowstone River the terrain in the area was rugged consisting of rolling hills Plains ravines and large patches of grassland the following account of what happened next is drawn from newspaper reports as glass never formally recorded what actually happened to him on this ill-fated expedition and though there was no doubt that there was some embellishment to the story it's mostly known to be true on the way to the Yellowstone River area while hunting for food near the Grand River glass disturbed a female grizzly bear and her two cubs the bear savagely attacked glass probably out of a protective maternal instinct glass and the other man managed to kill the bear but glass was left badly mauled with a broken leg and cuts that were so deep they exposed his ribs almost tore off his scalp and ripped the flesh on his back the other members of the expedition were convinced that glass would not live for long despite this the group dragged glass along on a litter for two days but then the group came to the conclusion that glass was not going to make it they decided to leave glass behind and the leader of the expedition asked for volunteers to stay behind with glass in order to give him a decent Christian burial to fellow trappers John s Fitzgerald and a man identified as bridges volunteered to stay behind probably enticed by the eighty dollar bonus the company offered them for doing so as the others left the two horridly started to dig glasses grave knowing they were deep inside hostile Native American territory a short time later glass and the two men were attacked by an arrow current raiding party in the ensuing skirmish Fitzgerald and bridges grabbed all the equipment and took flight in the confusion the air acara ignored glass and chased after the other two none of them would return for him another version of the story was that after five days of waiting for glass to die the two men lost patience and just gather up all the equipment and left either way glass found himself alone in the South Dakota wilderness with no supplies or weapons all he had were the clothes he was wearing and a bearskin hide glass quickly realized his only chance of survival was to get to the nearest settlement but that was Fort Kiowa which was over 200 miles away glass bound his broken leg the best he could and started to stumble and crawl south using a local predominant landmark called Thunder Butte which was a 2700 foot high steep sided Hill as a navigation aid meanwhile Fitzgerald and bridges had caught up with the main trapping party and reported that glass was now dead having passed away due to his wounds in the first week glass did everything he could do to survive eating berries insects and snakes along the way his progress was slow and it looked like he would never make it to the fort alive but then by luck he came upon a pack of wolves devouring a buffalo calf they had just killed glass waited patiently in hiding until the Wolves had had their fill and moved on glass managed to then scavenge a sizable amount of buffalo meat this allowed him to set up camp and spend a few days resting and recuperating it is said in order to prevent gangrene in his wounds glass allowed maggots to eat the dead infected flesh with rest and food glass recovered sufficiently enough to continue his journey south at a much faster rate than before on reaching the Missouri River there are two main differing versions of what happened next he either managed to get a simple hide boat off some friendly Lakota or he himself managed to build a crude raft alone either way he then floated downstream reaching Fort Kiowa by mid-october six weeks after first setting off glass was lucky he was traveling when he did as the temperatures were still quite mild another month would see the onset of winter and his chances of surviving such a journey in these conditions would have been minimal once he recovered glass went to the local trading post and as a member of the Rocky Mountain Fur Company he could get credit there there he purchased a rifle shot powder and set out to find the two men who he had felt betrayed him he eventually found bridges at a camp at the mouth of the Bighorn River but glass seeing how repentant a 19 year old was forgave him concluding that Fitzgerald was the real villain glass had found out that Fitzgerald had joined the army he attract all the way to Fort Atkinson and what is now Nebraska where Fitzgerald was stationed once there he confronted him but was forced to spare his life as an army captain intervened telling glass that killing a United States soldier was a capital offense and he would be hunted down and hanged if he did the captain arranged for glasses rifle to be returned to him which Fitzgerald still had and he was to be given $300 compensation for the hardships he had suffered glass left the fort and for the next decade worked in the region as both a trapper and a hunter in 1833 he is thought to have died and after that date he was never seen or heard from again and thus was the beginning of the legend that was Hugh glass subscribe for more history and don't forget to click the bell button to get a notification of when there is a new episode you

Channel: Simple History

Views: 3,118,270

Keywords: simple history, animated history, educational, education, Frontiersman, hugh glass, Missouri Republican newspaper, frontiersman, Pennsylvania, Rocky Mountain Fur Company, Arikara, the revenant, trapper, Missouri, Fort Kiowa, South Dakota, Yellowstone River, explorer, mountainman, grizzly bear, John S.Fitzgerald, Bridges, wilderness, survival, Thunder Butte, wolves, bear

Id: zBcSRPAIKmY

Length: 6min 49sec (409 seconds)

Published: Tue Dec 18 2018