Captains of the Expedition

Thomas Jefferson knew Meriwether Lewis from Virginia. Lewis’s family had lived close to Monticello, and Meriwether may have known Jefferson long before he worked for him. Lewis had volunteered to lead another expedition that Jefferson had proposed years earlier. When Jefferson was elected President in 1801, he asked the 29-year-old Lewis to serve as his personal secretary (assistant). Some believe that Jefferson was grooming Lewis to lead the new expedition he was proposing.

William Clark was an American explorer, soldier, and territorial governor. Along with Meriweather Lewis, Clark led the Corps of Discovery across the Louisiana Purchase and to the Pacific Ocean and back east from 1804 to 1806 during Thomas Jefferson's presidency. He also represented American interests as a Superintendent of Indian Affairs.

Meriwether Lewis demonstrated his trick gun to people he met, including Blaise Cenas near Pittsburgh, the Arikara along the Missouri River, and Clatsop leader Coboway near the Pacific Ocean.

Thomas Jefferson, in his February 28, 1803 letter to Dr. Caspar Wistar, mentioned that Meriwether Lewis had recently learned how to calculate latitude and longitude, a skill that he and Captain Clark would use every day during the Expedition.

On August 11, 1806, Pierre Cruzatte and Captain Lewis went hunting for some elk in the area of the “burnt hills” (today known as Crow Hills in northwestern North Dakota). Just as Lewis as about to fire upon an elk, a bullet struck him through the left thigh about an inch below his hip bone. Lewis was dressed in brown leather, and Cruzatte’s, having poor eye sight, had mistaken the Captain for an elk.

Meriwether Lewis had plenty of near-death experiences during the Expedition: there was that one day when he nearly slid off a cliff; the afternoon he almost poisoned himself with mineral samples; the time a grizzly chased him into the Missouri; and then there was the fateful day he was shot by one of his own men.

Meriwether Lewis took a small party of men with him and they explored upstream, ultimately finding the Great Falls of the Missouri. On June 14, 1805, Lewis assigned a variety of duties to the men and he took off on his own, with his gun and espontoon in hand.

Little is known about Seaman, but we do find in Lewis’s journal that he paid $20 for the Newfoundland dog.

Meriwether Lewis purchased his dog, Seaman, near here. Seaman was the only non-human permanent member of the expedition.

This widely known painting of Meriwether Lewis features the Captain wearing dramatically different attire than the government-issued U.S. Army uniform he would have worn at the beginning of the Expedition.

In the spring of 1803, when Meriwether Lewis was buying scientific and mathematical instruments for his pending expedition, he purchased three pocket compasses for $2.50 each, and this silver-plated pocket compass for $5.00. All were created by Philadelphia instrument maker Thomas Whitney.

Captains Meriwether Lewis and William Clark might be the most famous duo of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, but before there was Clark, there was President Thomas Jefferson. Soon after being elected the third U.S. president, Thomas Jefferson sought Meriwether Lewis as his private secretary.

William Clark’s childhood education is a bit tough to uncover. Little is known of his schooling but it quite likely started at home alongside his nine brothers and sisters, or possibly at the home of a neighbor. If the Clark family would have stayed in Virginia, William certainly could have studied with a tutor, but in 1784 they moved to the Kentucky frontier when William was 14. Tutors and other amenities were simply not available.

William Clark was responsible for the majority of the preparatory training and organization of the Corps of Discovery while the men wintered at Camp River Dubois in 1803-1804. Yet, officially his rank in the U.S. Army was still unknown.

So, this makes us wonder – on his dress military uniform, did Clark wear a lieutenant’s or captain’s epaulet (ornamental fringe)? Personal honor and integrity were the hallmarks of a gentlemen and it is possible that Clark would not have presented himself as a captain unless he had official sanction to do so.

William Clark was not actually a Captain in the Corps of Discovery, at least in the eyes of the U.S. Army. While Meriwether Lewis had requested that Clark be reinstated in the military in 1803 as a Captain, his request wasn’t granted and Clark was officially commissioned as a Lieutenant.

York, William Clark’s personal slave, is noted several times in the journal writings as being a concerned caregiver. He not only nursed Charles Floyd prior to the sergeant’s untimely death in August 1804, he is also documented as helping his master in June 1804.

When Meriwether Lewis and William Clark set out towards the Pacific Ocean in 1803, they carried a supply of mathematical instruments and tools for navigation. In addition to helping them chart a course, these instruments enabled them to document the newly-acquired landscape of the young United States. Their efforts also continue to be important today for understanding the land, its inhabitants, and the cartographic skill of Captain William Clark.

It was on March 9, 1807, just five months after the return of the Corps of Discovery, when President Jefferson appointed William Clark brigadier general of militia and principal agent of Indian affairs for the Louisiana Territory.

William Clark is said to have carved his name in Tavern Cave. Some claim one signature belongs to Sergeant John Ordway.

The men of the Corps finally reached the Pacific Ocean in the middle of November 1805. But about two weeks before, the Captains knew the Expedition was closing in on its goal. How? By simple observation.

During his term as Territorial Governor and Superintendent of Indian Affairs, William Clark lived in a large home in the city of St. Louis. But once the Missouri Territory was surveyed and all the title claims to the land were cleared, he purchased as much as 1,200 acres from Pierre Chouteau outside the city. He named this country estate, Marais Castor (Beaver Marsh), where he occasionally hunted and relaxed.