Book excerpt: In Perilous Paths, author George G. McClellan seamlessly combines history, biography, and story as he narrates the early history of our countrys movement from the east to the west through the eyes of Robert McClellan as he experiences successes and failures along the way. This story focuses on one small but important piece of the history after the Revolutionary War. It tells of real, rugged men like McClellana son of Ulster Scots immigrants born near Mercersburg, Pennsylvania, in 1770who performed tasks in harsh conditions that would be considered dangerous, even foolhardy, today. Perilous Paths follows the footsteps made by McClellan from his youthful days as an army packer to his exploits as an Indian scout, army ranger, and spy. It details how he fought alongside Lewis and Clark, gained an education in reading and arithmetic for the army quartermaster corps, and then moved west to Missouri and succumbed to the lure of the unknown, entering Indian country where he trapped furs and traded with the Indians of what would eventually become the American Midwest. Marking the trials, tribulations and hardships, this history highlights McClellans independence of character, the hardships he faced, and his desperate survival against unknown odds with a rugged determination to succeed.