John B. McClelland

[7][8] He was the father of John McClelland (1766-1849), who helped illustrate the unfair nature of the taxes imposed during the Whiskey Insurrection,[9] and who became an officer during the War of 1812.

A committee of prominent citizens met at Carpenter's Hall, Philadelphia, on June 15, 1776, in order to make arrangements for a convention anticipating the separation of the colonies from Great Britain.

Attendants were asked by the committee "to choose such persons only to act for them in the ensuing convention as are distinguished for wisdom, integrity, and a firm attachment to the liberties of this province."

[13] At the outset of the Revolutionary War, McClelland was appointed to a citizen's committee to procure arms and ammunition for the defense of the struggling new nation.

[17][18] The Westmoreland militia served primarily on the Western Pennsylvania frontier, except for early in 1777, when the First Battalion was deployed to New Jersey for two months under General Washington.

[19] Officers of the Westmoreland Militia met on June 18, 1781, at the home of Captain John McClelland, on Big Sewickley Creek, and by a majority, voted to give aid to General George Rogers Clark.

McClelland was commissioned a Major,[21] and made third in command of an expedition, led by Colonel William Crawford, intended to put an end to Indian attacks on American settlers in that region.

[23] By that time, McClelland was certainly no novice in military affairs, having been a Lieutenant-Colonel of the Fourth Battalion of Militia of Westmoreland County, to which he was elected on January 3, 1778.

[26] Orr afterward related that he heard several of the men who were in the conflict say that the horsemen on the retreat rode over McClelland; and it was the general belief that he was killed where he fell.