Leavenworth Expedition

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LEAVENWORTH EXPEDITION

LEAVENWORTH EXPEDITION. On 2 June 1823 a party led by General William Henry Ashley, sponsored by the Rocky Mountain Fur Company, was attacked at the Arikara villages on the upper Missouri. Thirteen men were killed. Colonel Henry Leavenworth promptly started up the Missouri from Fort Atkinson, at Council Bluffs, Nebraska, with six companies of the Sixth Infantry and some artillery. Joined on the way by Joshua Pilcher's party of the Missouri Fur Company, by Ashley's survivors, and by 750 Sioux, Leavenworth reached Grand River on 9 August. The next day, he attacked the Arikara villages, forcing their submission.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Clokey, Richard M. William H. Ashley: Enterprise and Politics in the Trans-Mississippi West. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1980.

Dale, Harrison Clifford. Explorations of William H. Ashley and Jedediah Smith, 1822–1829. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1991.

Krause, Richard. The Leavenworth Site: Archaeology of an Historic Arikara Community. Lawrence: University of Kansas, 1972.

Joseph MillsHanson/t. d.

See alsoFur Trade and Trapping ; Indian Trade and Traders ; Missouri River Fur Trade .