John McClelland (1766–1849)

Who was John McClelland (1766–1849)?

John McClelland (1766–1849) was an officer in the War of 1812. He was the son of American Revolutionary War officer Lieutenant-Colonel John B. McClelland, a casualty of Colonel Crawford's ill-fated Sandusky Expedition.

McClelland was born in September 1766 in Cumberland County, Pennsylvania to Lt. Colonel John B. McClelland and Martha Dale, near the Brown Settlement at Redstone Creek, which was referred to as Union Township at the time. He married Rachel Orr in 1787.

Like his father and his older brothers Hugh and Alexander, John actively participated in the American Revolutionary War. In 1781, at the age of fifteen, McClelland enlisted at Guilford Township in the Eighth Company of the First Battalion of Cumberland County Militia, commanded by Colonel James Johnston; 6th Class, reporting to Captain James Young.

During the early 1790s, John McClelland took part in the Whiskey Rebellion, as a member of the "Whiskey Boys", a group of citizens who were infuriated that Congress had imposed a biased tax on whiskey, intended to pay back government bond holders.