I bet it is ok, I cut mine off at the ground once and it was late but fine. I don't have any picture of babies, I found that only my virgin's bower made babies but my Sweet Autumn that I bought at the garden center didn't do that. I found that it was a Japanese creation while that other a wild native. The Japanese one had smoother leaves the other had more lobes in the leaves. Both are pretty tough to kill!
roseberri

I think it went into winter a little on the dry side. The bed is sheltered by the deck above and I don't mulch it because the chickens will spread the mulch everywhere along the walkway when they find it.

I'm pretty sure it's dead. My clematis on the other side of the house are green all the way to the top of the service pole (well, the Bill MacKenzie goes to the top), and the Jackmanii is almost done blooming. Last year, it had live vines ten feet up the trellis in the spring. When I cut off the knuckle, I sheared it level with the ground, watered well several times since, and I haven't noticed any new growth in close to two months.

I assume I just look for the smooth oval leaves on a small "weed"?

Will I have volunteer seedlings the following spring or summer after seed matures, or do they germinate in the same season? I saw a few posts about people finding volunteer seedlings in August...

I already have a few in my cart on ebay :/ I guess I'll take a look tonight and see if I can find any in the weedy areas I didn't get to last weekend.

They do look viney and have small leaves similar to the parent, usually when I find them they are about 12 to 15 inches long or longer . when I cut mine to the ground I thought I had killed it but it came back in mid to late July(from spring pruning)and went on to bloom that fall. But as you say, dryness may have wounded it on top of the pruning. How old was it? Remember that Clematis are much tougher than they look especially this kind, and what matters most is what shape the root was in.
best of luck,
roseberri