Reubin Field
Reubin Field, along with his brother Joseph, was among the first volunteers recruited for the Corps of Discovery. The Field brothers were skilled hunters and woodsmen from Kentucky who proved indispensable throughout the journey. Reubin was present at the violent encounter with Blackfeet warriors on July 27, 1806, during Lewis's exploration of the Marias River, where he killed one warrior in what was the expedition's only lethal confrontation with Native Americans. Lewis praised both brothers as "two of the most active and enterprising young men who accompanied us."
Biography
Reubin Field (c. 1781-c. 1822) and his brother Joseph were among the first men recruited for the expedition. Both were skilled Kentucky woodsmen and hunters whom Clark had known since childhood.
The Field brothers served as scouts, hunters, and advance reconnaissance throughout the journey. Reubin Field was involved in one of the expedition’s most dramatic events — the violent encounter with Blackfeet warriors on the Two Medicine River on July 27, 1806. During the fight, Reubin stabbed a Blackfeet warrior who was trying to steal the party’s rifles, killing him — one of only two violent deaths caused by the expedition.
Lewis consistently praised the Field brothers as “two of the most active and enterprising young men who accompanied us.” They served on many of the most dangerous advance parties and reconnaissance missions.
After the expedition, Reubin settled in Kentucky and lived a quiet frontier life. He died around 1822.
Related Locations
Note: the longest gap between tagged appearances is about 17 months (Aug 17, 1804 → Dec 28, 1805). Reubin Field may have been present in the corps during that span but is not named in the journals.
Journal Entries (23)
Cross-Narrator Analyses
Analyses that cite or discuss Reubin Field — showing 24 of the most recent matches.
A Day of Waiting at Weippe: Four Pens on Hunger, Fish, and Lost Horses
Stalled at Weippe Prairie waiting for Nez Perce guides who could lead them across the Bitterroots, the Corps of Discovery spent June…
A Lost Canoe Recovered and a Sitka Spruce Described
February 5th, 1806 at Fort Clatsop produced one of the winter's clearest demonstrations of how the expedition's narrators divided the labor of…
At the Mouth of the White River: Four Voices, One Reconnaissance
The expedition's progress on September 15, 1804, centered on a single decision: to detach two men up the White River while the…
Captain Lewis Arrives at St. Charles in the Rain
The journals of May 19, 1804, capture a single afternoon at St. Charles from four vantage points. The expedition is poised to…
Dog Meat, Whale Blubber, and a Captain’s Honest Disagreement
The journal entries for January 3, 1806 offer a rare and revealing instance in which Lewis and Clark, who routinely shared field…
Drying Elk and Describing a Quail: Four Pens at the Cascades
April 7, 1806 finds the Corps of Discovery encamped above the Cascades of the Columbia, drying the flesh of five elk Shannon…
Eight Deer, One Trade, and a Census of Nations
This analysis was generated with AI assistance and reviewed by a human editor.Stalled at the foot of the Bitterroots after their failed…
Empty Stores and the Mystery of the Sewelel
A Garrison on Short RationsThe entries from Fort Clatsop on this Wednesday converge on a single anxiety: food. Clark and Lewis open…
Four Pens at the Cascades: A Quail, an Elk Camp, and the Measure of a River
The expedition's ascent of the Columbia on April 6, 1806 produced four overlapping accounts of a single day: a 9 A.M. departure,…
Four Pens at the Wah-how-pum Village: A Lost Horse and a Circle Dance
The journals of April 23, 1806 offer an unusually rich opportunity for cross-narrator comparison. Lewis, Clark, Ordway, and Gass each describe the…
Four Pens, One Bear: Diverging Registers at the Weippe Camp
Stalled at the Weippe Prairie camp while waiting for Nez Perce guides willing to lead them across the still-snowbound Bitterroots, the four…
Hunters in the Rain, Botanists by the Fire: Four Voices at Fort Clatsop
The journals of February 11, 1806 offer a striking case study in how four men sharing the same fort, the same weather,…
One Bear, Many Colors: Naturalist Inquiry and Camp Life at the Long Camp
The entries of May 15, 1806, from Camp Chopunnish on the Kooskooskee (Clearwater) River offer an unusually clear demonstration of how the…
One Elk, Two Loons, and a Bandage of Flannel: Divergent Registers at Fort Clatsop
The journal entries for March 7, 1806, offer a useful demonstration of how narrator hierarchy and personal interest shaped the documentary record…
Sixty-Six Horses and a Slippery Road: Departing the Quamash Flats
The morning of June 15, 1806 found the Corps of Discovery gathering scattered horses under a hard rain at the quamash fields,…
Storm, Stolen Gig, and a Reconnaissance: Three Voices from a Disagreeable Camp
The expedition spent November 14, 1805 pinned against the north shore of the Columbia estuary, unable to advance because of high swells…
Ten Elk on a Mountainside, and a Mercury Cure at Fort Clatsop
The journal entries for January 27, 1806, offer an unusually clear window into how information traveled through the chain of command at…
The Badger, the Rat, and the Brevity of Sergeants
The journal entries for February 27, 1806 at Fort Clatsop offer a textbook example of the expedition's stratified record-keeping. Three men sat…
Two Rivers, Two Captains: Divided Command on the Plains
By mid-July 1806 the Corps of Discovery had fractured into separate detachments, and the journals of July 17 capture four men writing…
Wind-Bound on the Missouri: Four Voices on a Day of Forced Rest
This analysis was generated with AI assistance and reviewed by a human editor.June 11, 1804 was a day of involuntary stillness for…
George Shannon: The Youngest Soldier of the Corps of Discovery
IntroductionGeorge Shannon was, at roughly eighteen years of age, the youngest enlisted member of the permanent party of the Corps of Discovery.…
Hugh McNeal: A Private’s Long March
Enlistment and Mess AssignmentHugh McNeal first appears in the expedition record on May 26, 1804, when Captain Lewis issued detachment orders organizing…
The Blackfeet: Adversaries on the Marias
A Nation Glimpsed at the Edge of the PlainsOf all the Native nations encountered by the Corps of Discovery, the Blackfeet —…
The Captain’s Eye: Meriwether Lewis as Naturalist, Quartermaster, and Reluctant Diarist
VoiceMeriwether Lewis writes in a register that is at once military, scientific, and quietly literary. Where William Clark tends toward terse navigational…
From the Heacock Memorial Archive
3 lewis-clark.org articles that mention Reubin Field, preserved here for Robert Heacock’s photography. The articles were written by that site’s contributing authors.
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