Hugh Glass, Whose Comrades Abandoned Him After He Got Mauled By A Bear
Wikimedia CommonsThe revenge story of Hugh Glass was immortalized in a real-life statue that still stands today.
If you’ve seen Leonardo DiCaprio’s performance in The Revenant, then you already know the incredible story of Hugh Glass, who survived in the wilderness after his mangled body was abandoned in the wilderness by his comrades.
Before he was left for dead, Hugh Glass was already a repeat survivor of unfortunate circumstances. After he was captured by pirates and served under their chief for two years, he managed to escape to the shores of Galveston, Texas. He was captured again by the Pawnee tribe, with whom he lived for several years and later married a Pawnee woman.
In 1822, Glass joined a rag-tag group of 100 men hired to deal in fur-trading with local Native American tribes. Known as “Ashley’s Hundred,” named so for their commander, General William Henry Ashley, the men trekked up the Missouri River and later toward the west for trading.
After the group arrived at Fort Kiowa in South Dakota, the men split up with Glass’ group heading westward toward the Yellowstone River. There he encountered a giant grizzly bear with her two cubs. The bear charged before Glass could react and mauled his arms and chest within seconds.
Somehow Glass managed to kill the bear but he was left in terrible shape; nobody in his party expected him to survive his gnarly wounds. Yet, they strapped him to a makeshift gurney and hauled him back to camp.
It didn’t take long for the men to realize Hugh Glass had become a burden to their safety. They were approaching Arikara Indian territory, a group of Native Americans hostile to American fur traders, and they needed to get out of there quickly.
A man named Fitzgerald and another young boy were tasked to remain with Glass until he died and bury the body so that the natives wouldn’t get it. Fearing for their own lives, Fitzgerald and the boy decided to leave Glass’ beat-up body. They took all his equipment with them, leaving only a bearskin hide to cover his soon-to-be-dead corpse.
When Glass regained consciousness, he discovered festering wounds all over his body, a broken leg, and his ribs were thrashed so severely that his bones were exposed.
He made out his whereabouts about 200 miles from Fort Kiowa, where the men were stationed. It seemed an impossible feat to get back on his own in his condition, but Glass persevered.
He set his broken leg and wrapped himself tight in the bear hide and began making his way back to camp, driven by his need for revenge against Fitzgerald, who had left him to die. He sustained himself on foraged berries, roots, and insects, and occasionally helped himself to buffalo carcasses that had been ravaged by wolves. After a while, he gained enough strength to walk instead of crawl.
Glass encountered the friendly Lakota tribe and bargained his way onto their skin boat, which he rode down the river for six weeks. When he arrived at Fort Atkinson — where the Ashley party had moved — he re-enlisted and later landed in the same post where his old frenemy, Fitzgerald, was stationed in Nebraska.
According to eye-witness accounts of their reunion, Hugh Glass had stopped himself from killing Fitzgerald out of fear he would be punished for killing another soldier. Instead, Glass gave Fitzgerald a promise: if the man ever left the army, Glass would kill him. Suffice to say, Fitzgerald served for as long as he could.
