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 trapppers 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 bureacratic 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". [1]

The route of the Lewis and Clark expedition

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 summer 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 which coastal Indian tribe to stay with. 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 explorers started their journey home on March 23, 1806 and arrived on September 23.

Members of the expedition

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 Sacagawea, Charbonneau's wife
- Jean Baptiste Charbonneau, Charbonneau's son
Interpreter George Drouillard (? – 1810), civilian
Interpreter Jean Baptiste Lepage

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Lewis and Clark Expedition

Members of the expedition

Further reading

History

Notable fiction

See also