Lewis and Clark Expedition
The Lewis and Clark expedition (1804-1806) was the first American overland expedition to the Pacific coast and back. The Louisiana Purchase in 1803 sparked the interest of United States in expansion to the west coast. A few weeks after the purchase, United States President Thomas Jefferson, an advocate of western expansion, had Congress appropriate $2500, "to send intelligent officers with ten or twelve men, to explore even to the western ocean." They were to study the Indian tribes, botany, geology, and wildlife in the region, as well as evaluate the potential interference of British and French-Canadian hunters and trappers who were already well established in the area.
Jefferson selected Captain Meriwether Lewis to lead the expedition, afterwards known as the Corps of Discovery; Lewis selected William Clark as his partner. Due to bureaucratic delays in the US Army, Clark officially only held the rank of Second Lieutenant at the time, but Lewis concealed this from the men and shared the leadership of the expedition, always referring to Clark as "Captain".
The group, consisting of 33 members including Clark's black slave York, departed from Camp Dubois and began their historic journey on May 14, 1804. They soon met-up with Lewis in Saint Charles, Missouri and the approximately forty men followed the Missouri River westward. On August 20, 1804 The Corps of Discovery suffered its first and only death when Sergeant Charles Floyd died, apparently from acute appendicitis. In the winter of 1804-1805 they wintered at Fort Mandan. The Shoshone/Hidatsa native woman Sacagawea joined the group from there and guided them westward.
The expedition followed the Missouri through what is now Kansas City, Missouri and Omaha, Nebraska, crossed the Rocky Mountains and descended by the Clearwater River, the Snake River, and the Columbia River through what is now Portland, Oregon until they reached the Pacific Ocean in the December of 1805. Lewis had written in his journal, "Ocean in view. Oh! The Joy". By that time the expedition faced its second bitter winter during the trip, so the group decided to vote on whether to camp on the north or south side of the Columia River. That was a "Real American Moment", for York, who was a slave, and Sacagawea, who was an Indian and a woman, voted along with the rest of the men of the party. The party agreed to camp on the south side of the river, building Fort Clatsop as their winter quarters. While wintering at the fort, the men prepared for the trip home by boiling salt from the ocean, hunting elk and other wildlife. Mostly they just endured the persistent rain.
The explorers started their journey home on March 23, 1806 and arrived on September 23.
Achievements
- The U.S. gained an extensive knowledge of the geography of the West in the form of maps of major rivers and mountain ranges
- Naming of several hundred unknown species of animals and plants; plant samples were brought back to the States for analysis by top scientists
- Opened American fur trade in the West
- Paved the way for peaceful relations with the Indians
- Established a precedent for Army exploration of the West
- Strengthened the U.S. claim to Oregon Territory
- Focused U.S. and media attention on the West
- Produced the first literature about the West (the Lewis and Clark diaries)
Expedition members
- Captain Meriwether Lewis (1774 – 1809)
- Second Lieutenant William Clark (1770 – 1838
- York (ca. 1770 – ?) Clark's manservant
- Sergeant Charles Floyd (1782 – 1804)
- Sergeant Patrick Gass (1771 – 1870) promoted after Floyd's death
- Sergeant John Ordway (ca. 1775 – ca. 1817)
- Sergeant Nathaniel Hale Pryor (1772 – 1831).
- Corporal Richard Warfington (1777 – ?)
- Private John Boley (dates unknown)
- Private William E. Bratton (1778 – 1841)
- Private John Collins (? – 1823).
- Private John Colter (ca. 1775 – 1813)
- Private Pierre Cruzatte (dates unknown)
- Private John Dame (1784 – ?)
- Private Joseph Field (ca. 1772 – 1807)
- Private Reubin Field (ca. 1771 – 1823?) brothers of Joseph
- Private Robert Frazer (? – 1837)
- Private George Gibson (? – 1809)
- Private Silas Goodrich (dates unknown)
- Private Hugh Hall (ca. 1772 – ?)
- Private Thomas Proctor Howard (1779 – ?)
- Private François Labiche (dates unknown)
- Private Hugh McNeal (dates unknown)
- Private John Newman (ca. 1785 – 1838)
- Private John Potts (1776 – 1808?)
- Private Moses B. Reed (dates unknown)
- Private John Robertson (ca. 1780 – ?)
- Private George Shannon (1785 – 1836)
- Private John Shields (1769 – 1809)
- Private John B. Thompson (dates unknown)
- Private Ebenezer Tuttle (1773 – ?)
- Private Peter M. Weiser (1781 – ?)
- Private William Werner (dates unknown)
- Private Isaac White (ca. 1774 – ?)
- Private Joseph Whitehouse (ca. 1775 – ?)
- Private Alexander Hamilton Willard (1778 – 1865)
- Private Richard Windsor (dates unknown)
- Interpreter Toussaint Charbonneau
- Interpreter George Drouillard (? – 1810), civilian
- Interpreter Jean Baptiste Lepage
Popular histories and documentaries
In the 1997 Ken Burns documentary Lewis & Clark: The Journey of the Corps of Discovery, historian Stephen E. Ambrose, author of the book Undaunted Courage about the expedition, compared the significance and impact of the Lewis and Clark Expedition to Americans of that era with the American landing on the moon for subsequent generations. The expedition not only answered questions about vast uncharted areas of North America (everything between the Missouri River in North Dakota to Mount Hood in western Oregon) but also gave Americans an electrifying sense of the vastness of their new country after the Louisiana Purchase and America's almost limitless natural resources and potential as an emergent nation. He also views the expedition as a quintessential America saga, with a cast of characters that included a French Canadian trapper, President Thomas Jefferson, the heroic personalities and camaraderie of both Captain Lewis and Captain Clark, a platoon of American soldiers reminiscent of Roger's Rangers, the muscular Black American servant of Clark named York, colorful Indian tribes (Sioux, Mandans, Nez Perce, Blackfeet), Captain Lewis' shaggy dog named Seaman, numerous close shaves with death for everyone on the expedition, quick "think-on-your-feet" diplomatic innovation to defuse hostility and enlist the support of exotic tribes, scientific observation of awe-inspiring naturalistic phenomenon, a case of close combat with Indians, encounters with grizzly bears, harrowing navigation of wild rivers amidst magnificent scenery, and a difficult passage through the snow clad Bitterroot Mountains of Western Montana and Idaho. Despite all the trials, tribulations, and close calls, the expedition did not lose a person between North Dakota and Oregon and lost no one on the return trip. Undaunted Courage reads like real life imitating Hollywood, which makes it all the more surprising that Hollywood has never made a feature motion picture about the epic journey.
Further reading
History
- Lewis and Clark Among the Indians, Stephen Ambrose, 1997 - ISBN 0684826976
- National Geographic Guide to the Lewis & Clark Trail, Gary E. Moulton, 2003 - ISBN 080322950X
- The Journals of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, 13-Volume Set, edited by Eva Emery Dye, 1902 - out of print
- Sacajawea, Grace Hebard, 1933 - out of print
- Sacajawea, Anna Lee Waldo, 1984 - ISBN 0380842939
- I Should Be Extremely Happy in Your Company, Timeline of the Lewis and Clark Expedition
- History of United States
- USS Lewis and Clark
- A contemporary explorer was Zebulon Pike (as in Pikes Peak) who in 1805-1807 traveled from the upper Mississippi River down to the Spanish territories near the Rocky Mountains.
