John Potts
Private John Potts was a German-born soldier from Pennsylvania who served in the Corps of Discovery. A capable and reliable member of the expedition, he was frequently assigned to hunting and scouting parties. Potts became a fur trapper after the expedition, partnering with fellow Corps veteran John Colter in the upper Missouri country. In 1808, while trapping on the Jefferson River near Three Forks, Potts and Colter were ambushed by Blackfeet warriors. Potts was killed in the confrontation, while Colter was stripped naked and forced to run for his life in the famous "Colter's Run."
Biography
John Potts (1776-c. 1808) was a German immigrant who served as a private in the Corps of Discovery. A skilled miller by trade, Potts was a steady, reliable member of the expedition.
Potts is best known for his tragic death after the expedition. In 1808, while trapping with John Colter on the Jefferson River near Three Forks, Montana, they were ambushed by a party of Blackfeet. Potts, wounded by arrows, shot and killed one warrior before being killed himself — his body was dragged ashore and “hacked to pieces,” according to Colter, who narrowly escaped with his life in his famous naked run.
Potts’s death underscored the dangerous legacy of the Lewis and Clark Expedition for the Blackfeet, who remained hostile to American trappers for decades after Lewis’s violent encounter with their people in July 1806.
Cross-Narrator Analyses
Analyses that cite or discuss John Potts — showing 7 of the most recent matches.
A Conic Mound of Stones: Four Voices on the Bitterroot Summit
The journals of June 27, 1806 offer an unusually clean specimen of how the Lewis and Clark expedition's four active diarists handled…
Court-Martial at St. Charles: Discipline on the Eve of Departure
The entries for 17 May 1804 from St. Charles, Missouri, illustrate a pattern in the expedition's documentary record: the radical disparity between…
Parting at Travelers’ Rest: Four Voices on a Pivotal Division
July 3, 1806 marked a tactical decision: the deliberate division of the Corps into two parties at Travelers' Rest, with Captain Lewis…
Smoke in the Valley: Three Witnesses to a Single Day’s Signal
The journals of 20 July 1805 capture the Corps of Discovery emerging from the rocky defile above the Great Falls into broader…
John Colter: The Hunter Who Walked Away From Home
Enlistment and First Mess AssignmentJohn Colter first appears in the official record on May 26, 1804, when Meriwether Lewis issued detachment orders…
Silas Goodrich: The Expedition’s Fisherman
Enlistment and Mess AssignmentSilas Goodrich first appears in the expedition record on May 26, 1804, when Captain Meriwether Lewis issued his Detachment…
William Bratton: Hunter, Saltmaker, and Patient of the Corps of Discovery
Enlistment and Place in the CorpsWilliam Bratton enters the expedition record on May 26, 1804, when Meriwether Lewis issued his Detachment Orders…
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