Among the first outdoorsmen recruited for the Lewis & Clark epic expedition were recalled with a historic marker recently placed in a small ceremony near their birthplace along the banks of the Rappahannock in Culpeper County.
The Field Brothers, Joseph and Reubin, were two of the “Nine young men from Kentucky” who accompanied Meriwether Lewis and William Clark on their epic journey from The Falls of the Ohio to the shores of the “Western Ocean” and back, according to research compiled through the Museum of Culpeper History Historical Markers Committee.
Members of the public, The Museum of Culpeper History and the Brandy Station Foundation attended a sign unveiling ceremony last Saturday designating the brothers’ beginnings and eventual adventure, titled, “Field Brothers: Lewis and Clar Expedition.”
The Virginia Lewis and Clark Legacy Trail Inc. funded the marker placed on land owned by Brandy Station Foundation with text written by the Museum Historical Markers Committee and the marker produced by the Virginia Department of Histor Resources.
“As you can see there were many partnerships in getting this important historical marker in place in Culpeper County,” said Jim Bish, museum board member.
The brothers were born by 1782 on Field family lands near the marker at the intersection of Kelly’s Ford Road and Edwards Shop Road, a few miles north of Richardsville, the same birthplace of their father, Abraham. He served and suffered a serious gunshot wound to the shoulder during a precursor to the American Revolutio -Lord Dunmore’s War against the Shawnee in 1774.
In the fall of 1784, Abraham (1744-1822) and wife Elizabeth relocated their young family to Jefferson County, Kentucky, recently settled by William Clark’s brother George Rogers Clark. In 1803, Joseph and Reubin were selected, along with seven other young men from the Louisville area, to join the Corps of Discovery. Along with Charles Floyd, the men born in Culpeper were the first three men recruited for the expedition.
“These two rather obscure brothers are mentioned time and time again in the journal of Lewis and Clark describing their contributions to the success of the expedition. Joseph and Reubin were skilled woodsmen and hunters. They were both given the rank of private in the Army, serving until 1806.
During the winter on the Oregon coast, Joseph worked as a salt maker, he made the Lewis and Clark Expedition’s first bison kill and was one of the expedition’s top hunters.
“Capt. Lewis recalled the expedition’s sole violent encounter with Native Americans, when the Field brothers functioned smoothly as a team. On the morning of 27 July 1806, Joseph unwittingly opened the door for attack by the eight young Blackfeet men who had camped with Lewis, Drouillard, and the Fields’ on Two Medicine River in Montana.
“When they had met the previous day, Lewis tried to explain his presence and mission through Drouillard’s Plains Sign Language. A meal and the evening went peaceably, but Lewis ordered his men to take turns at guard overnight. At daybreak, Joseph was on post when the Blackfeet awoke and ‘crouded around the fire’ while Reubin, Drouillard, and Lewis still slept. Joe put his rifle down behind him and near Reubin.
“Just then four of the Blackfeet simultaneously grabbed each of the whites’ rifles. Joseph yelled to Reubin, who was instantly awake, and the two sprinted for 50 to 60 paces after the natives who were clutching their guns. While wresting his rifle from its thief, Reubin stabbed the man in the heart. Drouillard and Lewis managed to get their own guns. Meanwhile, Lewis and his men caught four of the Indians’ best horses and made a run for the Missouri River.”
At the end of the expedition, Capt. Lewis had the following to say about Joseph and Reubin: “Two of the most active and enterprising young men who accompanied us. It was their peculiar fate to have been engaged in all the most dangerous and difficult scenes of the voyage, in which they uniformly acquitted themselves with much honor.”
Joseph and Reubin returned to Kentucky in 1806. Reubin married Mary Myrtle in 1808 and they became farmers in Louisville, with no children. Reubin died in 1822 in Jefferson County and his exact burial location is unknown, but may be in an unmarked grave in the Bethany Memorial Cemetery.
Joseph died in 1807, but the exact date, circumstances and location are unrecorded. There is no record of his burial. The fact of his death is noted on the cover of William Clark’s Journal. Clark believed Joseph had been killed.
