Lewis, Meriwether and William Clark
Lewis, Meriwether and Clark, William
Born August 18, 1774
Albemarle County, Virginia
Died October 11, 1809
Tennessee
Born August 1, 1770
Caroline County, Virginia
Died September 1, 1838
St. Louis, Missouri
Explorers
Lewis and Clark's discoveries whet the nation's appetite for information about the West.
Between 1804 and 1806, Meriwether Lewis and William Clark led the most famous expedition in American history. They were the first Americans to record the riches of the continent's interior. Publication of the expedition's discoveries provided vital information to those who followed in their footsteps, and it stirred the imaginations of people living in the East. Lewis and Clark's discoveries whet the nation's appetite for information about the West.
Friends on the frontier
Meriwether Lewis was born in Albemarle County, Virginia, on August 18, 1774. Lewis's father was killed in the Revolutionary War (1776–83), when Lewis was five years old. Lewis finished his formal schooling at the age of eighteen and became a Virginia gentleman farmer. In 1794 he joined militia volunteers to help put down the Whiskey Rebellion in Pennsylvania. Farmers there turned their grain into distilled spirits, such as whiskey, which was easier to transport to markets in the East than the grain itself was. The Pennsylvania farmers led the rebellion to oppose a tax on whiskey that they felt was unfair. Lewis answered President George Washington's call for militia volunteers to help end the rebellion. Lewis found that he quite enjoyed a soldier's life and joined the U.S. Army.
While on frontier duty, Lewis became acquainted with William Clark, who was commanding a special company of sharpshooters to which Lewis was transferred. Clark was born on August 1, 1770, in Caroline County, Virginia, but he had developed a keen sense of the western frontier at an early age. At age fourteen, he had moved with his family to Kentucky where they were among the earliest settlers. Clark and Lewis quickly became friends.
Aiding a president
After service on the Mississippi River, Lewis was asked by Thomas Jefferson—an old friend of Lewis's family and then president of the United States—to become Jefferson's White House secretary (this position is comparable to the White House chief of staff today). Lewis held the position from 1801 to 1803. As secretary, Lewis learned of Jefferson's dream of sending an expedition to find a waterway connecting the Atlantic Ocean and the Pacific Ocean. A route had already been established from the Atlantic Ocean west to St. Louis in present-day Missouri. Jefferson hoped for a route that would allow ships to continue west from St. Louis, across the continent to the Pacific Ocean. When Jefferson offered Lewis leadership of the expedition, Lewis accepted, choosing thirty-two-year-old Clark as his coleader. Although the War Department commissioned Clark as a second lieutenant of artillery, Lewis designated Clark's rank as captain. The complementary skills of the two men allowed them to share the leadership of the voyage well.
Jefferson's instructions for the expedition were to find "the most direct and practicable water communication across the continent for the purposes of commerce." A waterway to the Pacific was only part of Jefferson's interest in the expedition. He also wanted to know everything about the land and people that made up the western portion of the continent. To prepare for the desired scientific investigations, Lewis went to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, for several weeks to study botany and astronomy. Clark prepared for the trip by recruiting and training men in military drills and building boats. In 1803, Lewis spent the winter with Clark near St. Louis in present-day Missouri, where he gathered information from fur traders who were familiar with the upper reaches of the Missouri River.
Setting out for the unknown
The expedition set out on May 14, 1804. A total of forty-five men traveled in three boats. Of these, twenty-nine men were to travel all the way to the Pacific, while the others were to turn back at approximately the halfway point. The first part of the journey up the Missouri River was through well-traveled country. In late July, a little beyond the mouth of the Platte River, the expedition met members of the Oto and Missouri tribes and informed them that their territory had been taken over by the United States. The party was threatened only once on its way west—on September 25 near present-day Pierre, South Dakota, by a group of Teton Sioux. The expedition countered with a show of force and then spoke to the Native Americans in a friendly manner, and a confrontation was avoided. In October the expedition stopped near present-day Bismarck, North Dakota, to spend the winter with the Mandan Indians. The territory of the Mandans was the farthest point about which the Americans had any definite knowledge. The Americans built a small fort near the Mandan village and spent five months there, sixteen hundred miles from St. Louis.
In the spring of 1805, thirteen men from the expedition headed back to St. Louis. The rest of the men set out on April 7, 1805, this time into unknown country. Clark wrote in his journal: "I could not but esteem this moment of my departure as among the most happy of my life." They reached the junction of the Missouri and the Yellowstone Rivers (in what is now Montana) on April 25.
Along this stretch of the trip, Clark usually took charge of managing the canoes, while Lewis, accompanied by his big Newfoundland dog, Seaman, kept to the shore, exploring, hunting, and gathering specimens. On June 3, 1805, they reached a place where "the river split in two." Lewis followed the northern fork for a while, which he decided was not the main course. He named it the Marias River, in honor of his cousin, Maria Wood. He then turned around and caught up with Clark.
By August the party was still in present-day Montana on the eastern side of the Rocky Mountains. The Missouri River had dwindled to a series of shallow tributaries, which Lewis's canoes could not negotiate. Luckily, Lewis had hired Toussaint Charbonneau as an interpreter-guide. Though Charbonneau was nearly worthless, his wife, Sacajawea, was the sister of the chief of the Shoshone Indians that lived in this area, and she helped the expedition obtain the horses it needed to cross the Rocky Mountains. Once across, the explorers drifted in new canoes down the Clearwater and Snake Rivers and continued down the Columbia River toward the Pacific Ocean. Along the way they bartered for food with the Native Americans, but by that time they had very little left to trade, so they often offered entertainment in exchange for food. One of the men played his violin while a servant named York danced, and Lewis showed off his watch, telescope, and compass. After carrying their boats and equipment overland around Cascade Falls on November 2, they found that the river was subject to tidal flows and knew that they must be close to the Pacific. They got their first view of the ocean on November 7, 1805. Winter quarters were built south of the mouth of the Columbia, not far from present-day Astoria, Oregon; they named Fort Clatsop in honor of a nearby Clatsop tribe. It was a difficult winter, as it rained nearly every day and food was rather scarce. The group was anxious to begin the trip home.
Homeward bound
On March 23, 1806, they began the homeward trek. Rowing upstream on the Columbia, they had difficulty getting food. When they reached the Clearwater River they recovered horses they had left behind. When the group reached Travelers' Rest Creek, near present-day Lolo, Montana, Lewis and Clark split their party in two so they could explore even more of the West on their way home. Lewis's party of nine planned to explore the Marias River. Clark divided his group of twenty-two, sending one group down the Missouri River and the other, including himself, overland to the Yellowstone River, where they would then paddle downriver and back to the Missouri.
Lewis's party had a skirmish with some Blackfeet Indians, who did not respond well to the Americans. The Blackfeet were not interested in ruining their business connections with the Canadians to trade with the Americans. Lewis's acknowledgment of his friendship with the Nez Percé and Shoshone tribes, which were enemies of the Blackfeet, only added to their problems. At night, Blackfeet warriors attacked the explorers, and in the struggle the Lewis party killed two Blackfeet. This was the only time members of the expedition killed Native Americans. Lewis and his party quickly made their way out of Blackfoot territory and back toward the Missouri River, where they met up again with Clark's party.
The party reached the Mandan villages on August 14, 1806, and persuaded Chief Big White to come with them back to Washington, D.C. They returned to St. Louis on September 23, 1806. "We were met by all the village," wrote Clark, "and received a hearty welcome from its inhabitants." From St. Louis, Lewis and Clark traveled on to Washington to report personally to the president.
Life after the expedition
The expedition had been a great success. Both Lewis and Clark were awarded large land grants in the West. In 1806, Lewis was appointed governor of the Louisiana Territory. He resigned his army commission, but before going to St. Louis to take office, he tried to finish editing his journals of the exploration for publication. Even though he delayed his trip for almost one year, Lewis was unable to complete the journals. On a trip to Washington, D.C., in 1809 to carry out some official business, Lewis stopped in an isolated cabin in
Sacajawea's Son
Sacajawea was the teenage wife of one of Lewis and Clark's interpreters, Toussaint Charbonneau. She proved more valuable as an interpreter and guide than her husband did. On February 11, 1805, while traveling with the expedition, Sacajawea gave birth to a son, who was named Jean Baptiste but affectionately called "Pomp." The baby boy traveled with the expedition, and William Clark grew fond of the boy. As the expedition was returning home, Clark saw an unusual rock formation along the Yellowstone River. On July 25, 1806, Clark climbed it and named it "Pompy's Tower." The rock is now called Pompeys Pillar.
When the expedition returned to the Mandan villages, Clark offered to take the little boy east and raise him. But Pomp was not yet weaned. Later Clark wrote the following letter to Charbonneau, reiterating his desire to raise Charbonneau's son:
As to your little Son (my boy Pomp) you well know my fondness for him and my anxiety to take and raise him as my own child. I once more tell you if you will bring your son Baptiest [sic] to me I will educate him and treat him as my own child—I do not forget the promis [sic] which I made to you and Shall now repeet [sic] them that you may be certain—Charbono, if you wish to live with the white people, and will come to me, I will give you a piece of land and furnish you with horses, cows, & hogs...Wishing you and your family great suckcess [sic] & with anxious expectations of seeing my little dancing boy Baptiest I shall remain your friend.
In 1809, Charbonneau and Sacajawea visited St. Louis with Jean Baptiste. Charbonneau attempted to work 320 acres he was granted for service on the expedition, but soon found himself ill suited for the job. On March 26, 1811, he transferred his land title to Clark for one hundred dollars and prepared to return home. In April, he and Sacajawea left their son in Clark's charge.
Clark adopted the boy and educated him at the best schools on the East Coast. When he was eighteen, Pomp met a German prince who was traveling in the United States, went back to Europe with him, and spent six years touring the continent. He returned to the United States and became an important fur dealer and guide. He moved to California (which was at the time still Mexican territory) and became the alcalde (judge) of San Luis Rey in 1847. While trying to strike it rich mining for gold, he died in 1866 of pneumonia.
Tennessee to spend the night. The next day he was found dead with a gunshot wound in his head. It was never clear what happened, but there is evidence that Lewis, who was subject to depressive moods, shot himself. When Jefferson heard of Lewis's death, he accepted the theory of suicide that was suggested by those who found his body. But a strong minority, then and later, felt that Lewis had been murdered, for murders were common on this particular trail at the time.
After the expedition, Clark entered the fur-trading business and became a partner in William Henry Ashley's Missouri Fur Company. On March 12, 1807, Jefferson appointed him brigadier general of militia and Indian agent for Upper Louisiana Territory. In 1813 he was appointed governor of Missouri Territory and continued in the position until Missouri earned statehood in 1821. Having a longtime interest in Indian culture, he accepted a position as superintendent of Indian Affairs in 1822 and served in this capacity for the remainder of his life. He died of natural causes in St. Louis, September 1, 1838.
For More Information
Ambrose, Stephen E. Undaunted Courage: Meriwether Lewis, Thomas Jefferson, and the Opening of the American West. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1996.
Blumberg, Rhoda. The Incredible Journey of Lewis and Clark. New York: Lothrop, Lee & Shepard Books, 1987.
Brown, Marion Marsh. Sacajawea: Indian Interpreter to Lewis and Clark. Chicago: Childrens Press, 1988.
Cavan, Seamus. Lewis and Clark and the Route to the Pacific. New York: Chelsea House, 1991.
De Voto, Bernard, ed. The Journals of Lewis and Clark. Houghton Mifflin, Boston: 1953.
Edward, Judith. Lewis and Clark's Journey of Discovery in American History. Springfield, NJ: Enslow, 1999.
Fitz-Gerald, Christine Maloney. Meriwether Lewis and William Clark. Chicago: Childrens Press, 1991.
Hall, Eleanor J. The Lewis and Clark Expedition. San Diego, CA: Lucent Books, 1996.
Jackson, Donald, ed. Letters of the Lewis and Clark Expedition with Related Documents. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1962.
Kozar, Richard. Lewis and Clark. Philadelphia: Chelsea House, 1999.
Lewis, Meriwether, and William Clark. History of the Expedition Under the Command of Captains Lewis and Clark. 3 vols. Edited by Elliott Coues. New York: Allerton Book Co., 1922.
Peters, Arthur King. Seven Trails West. New York: Abbeville Press, 1996.
Petersen, David, and Mark Coburn. Meriwether Lewis and William Clark: Soldiers, Explorers, and Partners in History. Chicago: Childrens Press, 1988.
Raphael, Elaine, and Don Bolognese. Sacagawea: The Journey West. New York: Scholastic, 1994.
St. George, Judith. Sacagawea. New York: Putnam, 1997.