Le Clerc Milfort

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General Jean-Antoine Le Clerc, Milfort, also sometimes listed as Milford. (February 2, 1752^[1] - 1817) He was an explorer and intelligent Frenchman. Although he was generally known by the name of Le Clerc, his real name seems to have been Milfort.

1 Early life
2 Among the Creeks
3 Murder Creek
4 Marriage and issue
5 Return to France
6 His memoirs
7 References and links

[edit] Early life

Little is known about his early life except that he was born in Tirles Moutiers, near Mézières, France and he died in Mezieres. According to Le Clerc in his own story, after having killed a servant of the king's household in a duel, he took refuge in the United States, and went to the country of the Creek Indians, whose friendship he gained by adopting their customs[[1]].

[edit] Among the Creeks

Milfort lived with the Creek Indians from 1776 until 1799. During the Revolutionary war, General Alexander McGillivray; led, several expeditions with Colonel Tait, but his chief reliance was upon Le Clerc Milfort, a man at once bold, daring, enthusiastic, possessed of an iron constitution, and every way qualified to lead Indians into battle. Milfort fought at the head of these warriors in the many wars against the frontier settlements, and was named by them Tastanegy, or Great Warrior. He often did so, while Gen. McGillivray remained at home, controlling the arbitrary Chiefs, and compelling them to raise warriors for his King.

Milfort states that the "Old Chiefs" of the Nation revealed to him the history of the tribe [which was kept on several strands of pearls, each pearl representing one story; The Chiefs told him that the Alabamas (Creeks) wandered from the northern part of Mexico, and settled upon the Yazoo, and afterwards removed to the river which bears their name.

[edit] Murder Creek

Excerpt from Albert James' History of Alabama, and Incidentally of Georgia and Mississippi, from the Earliest Period (1851)

1788: About this time, a bloody transaction occurred in the territory of the present county of Conecuh. During the revolutionary war, Colonel McGillivray formed an acquaintance with many conspicuous royalists, and, among others, with Colonel Joseph Kirkland^[2], of South Carolina. That person was at McGillivray's house, upon the Coosa, in 1788, with his son, his nephew, and several other gentlemen. They were on their way to Pensacola, where they intended to procure passports, and settle in the Spanish province of Louisiana. When they determined to leave his hospitable abode, McGillivray sent his servant to guide them to Pensacola. The presence of this servant would assure the Indians that they were friends, for it was dangerous to travel without the Chieftain’s protection. Colonel Kirkland and his party had much silver in their saddle-bags. Arriving within a mile of a large creek, which flows into the Conecuh, they met a pack-horse party, about sunset, going up to the nation. They had been to Pensacola, on a trading expedition. This party consisted of a Hillabee Indian, who had murdered so many men, that he was called Istillicha, the Man-slayer--a desperate white man, who had fled from the States for the crime of murder, and whom, on account of his activity and ferocity, the Indians called the Cat--and a blood-thirsty negro, named Bob, the property of Sullivan, a Creek trader of the Hillabees. As soon as Colonel Kirkland and his party were out of sight, these scoundrels formed an encampment. The former went on, crossed the creek, and encamped a short distance from the ford, by the side of the trading path. Placing their saddle bags under their heads, and reclining their guns against a tree, Kirkland and his party fell asleep. At midnight, the bloody wretches from the other side, cautiously came over, and, seizing the guns of Kirkland and his men, killed every one of them, except three Negroes, one of whom was the servant of the great Chieftain, as before stated. Dividing the booty, the murderers proceeded to the Creek nation, and, when the horrid affair became known, Colonel McGillivray sent persons in pursuit of them. Cat was arrested; but the others escaped. Milfort was directed to convey the scoundrel to the spot where he had shed the blood of these men, and there to hang him, until he was dead. Upon the journey to that point, Milfort kept him well pinioned, and, every night, secured his legs in temporary stocks, made by cutting notches in pine logs, and clamping them together. Reaching the creek where poor Kirkland and his men were murdered, Cat was suspended to the limb of a tree, the roots of which were still stained with the blood of the unfortunate colonel and his companions. While he was dangling in the air, and kicking in the last agonies, the Frenchman stopped his motions with a pistol ball. Such is the origin of the name "Murder Creek."

[edit] Marriage and issue

He married Jeannet McGillivray, a sister of General Alexander McGillivray, of the Creek Indian Nation. She was the Aunt of the famous William Weatherford "Red Eagle". It does not appear that he left among the Creek Indians any descendants.

[edit] Return to France

Hearing of the changes that the revolution had wrought in France, he returned to Paris and offered his services and those of his adopted tribe in strengthening the French possessions in North America. He was well received by the Directory, but the sale of Louisiana (Louisiana Purchase) to the United States in 1803 rendered his mission useless.

It was feared that he might make a bad use of his influence among the Indians if he returned to the Creek Nation, and he was therefore ordered to remain in France. Napoleon Bonaparte made him a General of Brigade [[2]]. He lived quietly in France performing various exploits until the invasion in 1814, when he was attacked in his house by a party of Russians, and rescued by some grenadiers. Shortly afterwards he died.

[edit] His memoirs

He published "Memoires, ou coup d'oeil rapide sur rues voyages en Louisiane, et mon sejour dans la nation Creeke" (Paris, 1802). These memoirs are interesting; but some believe they could not have been written by Le Clerc, who (some report) was quite illiterate, and had almost forgotten his native language in the course of his travels among the Creek Indians.

"Memoire ou coup d'oeil rapide sur mes differens voyages et mon sejour dans la Nation Creek, par Le Clerc Milfort".