Departing St. Louis on May 14, 1804, the Corps of Discovery began its journey in earnest. That spring day marked the culmination of years of hope, desire, and planning that had both inspired and tormented Thomas Jefferson. The innate curiosity that drove Jefferson’s interest in a many subjects – among them agriculture, archaeology, horticulture, languages, law, mathematics, music, natural history, and philosophy – also fueled his curiosity about the West. For more than twenty years before the Corps of Discovery, Jefferson had been trying to mount an exploration of the West. Although the Corps of Discovery fulfilled Jefferson’s dream of western exploration, theirs was Jefferson’s fourth attempt. In 1783, while still a member of Congress, Jefferson asked General George Rogers Clark to lead an exploration of the lands west of the Mississippi River. General Clark’s business affairs prevented his accepting the offer and the plan went no further. Only a few years later, however, Jefferson persuaded John Ledyard to attempt a trek from Moscow, across the Bering Strait, and, continuing east, across the North American continent. Ledyard’s arrest while still in Russia quickly ended this endeavor. During Jefferson’s term as Secretary of State he won support of the American Philosophical Society to fund an expedition “to find the shortest & most convenient route of communication between the U.S. & the Pacific ocean, within the temperate latitudes.” In 1793, Jefferson selected French botantist André Michaux to lead this expedition. After the revelation that Michaux was a secret agent of the French Republic, this project also came to an sudden end. That spring morning in 1804 marked the beginning...
Diplomat, explorer, scientist, governor, soldier, Virginia gentleman, student, secretary to the president: during his 36 years, Meriwether Lewis bore each of these titles. Born into a prominent Virginia family, Lewis faced the world with opportunity and advantage. By the time of his death in late 1809, he struggled with “melancholy,” financial troubles and alcohol. Complex and often contradictory, the incarnations of Meriwether Lewis provide insight into the man behind the titles. Virginia gentleman: Born in 1774, in Albemarle County, Virginia, Meriwether Lewis was the first child of Lucy Meriwether and William Lewis. After William’s death in 1781, Lucy remarried and moved the family to Georgia. As a young teenager, Lewis returned by himself to Virginia to manage his family’s estate. Upon the death of his stepfather, Lewis, not yet out of his teens, became the head of a household that included his mother and four siblings. Soldier: Enlisting in 1794, Meriwether Lewis served in Kentucky, Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Ohio. During this time, he met and befriended one of his commanding officers, William Clark. Army life suited Lewis and by 1800 he had been promoted to captain. Secretary to the President: Shortly after his election, President Jefferson invited Lewis to serve as his personal secretary. Explaining the selection, Jefferson wrote that a “personal acquaintance with [Lewis], owing to his being of my neighborhood, has induced me to select him…” Lewis served as secretary for less than two years before being reassigned. Jefferson had selected Lewis to be the “intelligent officer… fit for the enterprise and willing to …explore… to the Western Ocean.” Student: In 1803, preparing for his journey...
One hundred sixty three years after his death, William Clark received a promotion. In 2001, President Clinton promoted Clark from Lieutenant to Captain. Although Clark’s captaincy was late in coming, to have called the famous journey of 1803 to 1806 simply the Lewis Expedition would have been inaccurate in spirit, if not in fact. Meriwether Lewis and William Clark shared equally in the tasks and responsibilities of their cross-continental journey. Twenty years before the Lewis and Clark Expedition, Thomas Jefferson asked William Clark’s older brother and Revolutionary War hero, George Rogers Clark, to head an overland expedition to the Pacific. General Clark declined the offer. When Meriwether Lewis accepted command for the 1803 Expedition, however, it wasn’t the eldest Clark brother he sought as co-commander, but a younger member of the Clark clan, William. Anticipating the rigors of a journey to the Pacific Ocean, Lewis informed Clark that “…under those circumstances in this enterprise, …it’s fatigues, it’s dangers and it’s honors, believe me there is no man on earth with whom I should feel equal pleasure in sharing them as with yourself.” Lewis’s regard for Clark grew out of shared service. Only a few years earlier, when both men had served in the U.S. Army in Ohio, Clark had been Lewis’s commanding officer. Although the two men believed they would share the captaincy of the Expedition, word that Clark would remain a lieutenant arrived shortly before they departed St. Louis. The men of the Expedition, having spent a winter addressing “Captain Clark” were not told of the difference between their two leaders. William Clark’s contributions to...
Because he spent most of his life as an enslaved man, York was never permitted to tell his own story. Taken together, however, the Expedition journals, William Clark’s letters, and other accounts provide a sketch of the man and his importance to the Corps. As the property of William Clark, the choice of joining the Corps was not York’s to make. His feelings about leaving his wife behind to begin a journey across a continent were never recorded. His contributions, however, were considerable. During the 28-month journey, York served the expedition in many ways. Like most members of the Corps, he hunted for game. Although an ordinary and necessary task, York’s hunting is noteworthy because, at the time, slaves were not generally permitted to carry firearms. He also served as a scout, joining Clark and others to reconnoiter the trail. York assisted in cooking, carrying supplies during portages, and constructing Forts Mandan and Clatsop. All the while he served the needs of his master, William Clark. Several of the tribes the Expedition met had never seen a black man. On occasion, Lewis and Clark used this to their advantage. When Lewis hoped to barter for some much needed horses, he stalled the departure of a band of Shoshone with descriptions of “a man with us who was black and had short curling hair.” Their curiosity peaked, the Shoshoni stayed. York may also have been the first African-American man to vote in the United States. Did any member of the Corps consider the significance of York’s participation in the vote to determine where the Corps would spend the...
Imagine yourself a teenager – just 16 or 17 years old. Could you lead visitors through your old neighborhood, a place you had last seen as a child of 11 or 12? Could you also care for your spouse and newborn baby? Sacagawea, the only woman to travel with the Corps of Discovery, did this and more. In 1804, Sacagawea was living among the Mandan and Hidatsa, near present day Bismarck, North Dakota. Approximately four years earlier, a Hidatsa raiding party had taken Sacagawea from her home in Idaho and from her people, the Lemhi Shoshone. Living among the Mandan and Hidatsa, Sacagawea married French trader Toussaint Charbonneau. In February of 1805, she gave birth to a baby boy, her first child. Captain Lewis recorded the event in his journal: “about five o’clock this evening one of the wives of Charbono was delivered of a fine boy.” Two months after the birth of her son, Sacagawea left the Mandan and Hidatsa villages to journey west with the Corps of Discovery. While Sacagawea is often remembered as the guide who led the Corps across the plains, Expedition journals offer little evidence of this. Historians generally believe that Sacagawea joined the Expedition because her husband had been hired as a translator. Still, Sacagawea contributed significantly to the success of the journey. Simply because she was a woman, Sacagawea helped the Corps. Among the tribes the explorers met, her presence dispelled the notion that the group was a war party. William Clark explained that “the Wife of Shabono [Charbonneau]…reconciles all the Indians, as to our friendly intentions. A woman...
Of Irish ancestry, Sergeant Patrick Gass was born in Pennsylvania, June 12, 1771. He joined the army in 1789, and by 1803 was serving under Captain Russell Bissell’s command at Kaskaskia, Illinois Territory. The Secretary of War instructed Captain Bissell to furnish Lewis and Clark “with one Sergeant & Eight good men.” Gass was determined to join the exploring mission, but Bissell denied his transfer, wishing to retain Gass for his craftsmanship skills. Lewis interceded, and enlisted Gass on January 3, 1804, after Gass had made a personal appeal to him. Gass was not among the original three sergeants appointed at Camp Dubois. He was elected to fill the rank of sergeant by the vote of the men upon the death of Sergeant Charles Floyd on August 20, 1804. Gass provides in his December 24 and 25, 1804, journal entries, a poignant reflection of the spirit of the holiday season at Fort Mandan, on the remote frontier of the northern plains. On Christmas Eve, Gass described the holiday observance: “This evening we finished our fortification. Flour, dried apples, pepper and other articles were distributed in the different messes to enable them to celebrate Christmas in a proper and social manner.” On Christmas Day, he wrote: “Captain Clark then presented to each man a glass of brandy, and we hoisted the American flag in the garrison, and its first waving in fort Mandan was celebrated with another glass. The men cleared out one of the rooms and commenced dancing, which was continued in a jovial manner till 8 at night.” Gass’s 1807 journal is a paraphrase version...
Sergeant Charles Floyd was born in Kentucky, and was among the first to volunteer for service in the Corps, joining on August l, 1803. Among those included as one of the “Nine young men from Kentucky,” Floyd was a cousin of the expedition’s Sergeant Nathaniel Pryor. Considered a “man of much merit” by Captain Clark, he kept an uninterrupted daily record from May 14, 1804, until August 18, two days prior to his untimely death on August 20. Floyd’s death was the only fatality among expedition members during the two years, four months and nine days of their transcontinental odyssey. Floyd’s published journal reproduces verbatim his inspired spelling and fractured grammar, characteristics found also in the journals of the two captains and the four enlisted men who kept journals. Floyd’s journal has been published jointly with that of Corps member, Sergeant John Ordway, as Volume 9, The Journals of the Lewis & Clark Expedition, Gary E. Moulton, Editor, 11 volumes to date (University of Nebraska Press, Lincoln, 1995). Floyd’s entries are laconic but factual. In the spirit of President Jefferson’s instructions and perhaps drawing from an agrarian background, Floyd judged land quality, including soil conditions, enroute up the Missouri. Contributing his personal assessments of what he observed, Floyd, on May 25, 1804, wrote, “[T]he land is Good & handsom the Soil Rich;” June 4, “[A] Butifull a peas of Land as ever I saw.” On June 7, he recorded his own interpretations of Indian pictographs as “pictures of the Devil and other things.” Floyd’s August 7 entry is the only detailed description of Private Moses Reed’s “Desarte...
