Hugh McNeal
Private Hugh McNeal served in the Corps of Discovery and is remembered for several notable moments during the expedition. He accompanied Meriwether Lewis's advance party to Lemhi Pass in August 1805, where Lewis wrote that McNeal "stood with a foot on each side of this little rivulet and thanked his god that he had lived to bestride the mighty & heretofore deemed endless Missouri." He also had a dangerous encounter with a grizzly bear and narrowly escaped a potentially deadly situation in a Chinook village through the intervention of a friendly Native woman.
Biography
Hugh McNeal was a private in the Corps of Discovery remembered for two notable episodes. At Lemhi Pass on August 12, 1805, when Lewis reached the headwaters of the Missouri, McNeal “exultingly stood with a foot on each side of this rivulet and thanked his god that he had lived to bestride the mighty & heretofore deemed endless Missouri.”
McNeal also had a harrowing encounter with a grizzly bear. While traveling alone, he came upon a bear at close range. His horse threw him, and the bear approached. McNeal struck the bear on the head with his rifle, breaking the stock, then scrambled up a tree where he remained until the bear left after dark.
These vivid incidents make McNeal one of the more memorable minor characters in the expedition journals, despite his otherwise modest role.
