Background
During the last quarter of the eighteenth century, Jefferson had tried to launch a variety of western expeditions without success. He focused on locating the Northwest Passage, the fabled water route that connected the Mississippi River to the Pacific Ocean, which he believed might lie at the confluence of the Missouri and Columbia rivers. When Jefferson became president of the United States in 1801, he finally had both the political power and the institutional resources to convert his plans into reality. With a small budget allocated by Congress, Jefferson directed the initial planning for the expedition. He quickly selected Meriwether Lewis, a captain in the U.S. Army and his private secretary at the time, to serve as commander of the expedition. Lewis in turn selected William Clark to lead the expedition with him.
That friendship was only reinforced when Clark, who had resigned his commission as captain in 1795, only received a commission as first lieutenant in 1803. Lewis ignored the official discrepancy in rank and referred to Clark as his "co-captain." The dispute over Clark's rank helps explain why they would later be known as "Captains Lewis and Clark," even if they were, in fact, Captain Lewis and Lieutenant Clark on the expedition.
It was a tall order for Lewis, who had no technical background in science or diplomacy. Jefferson accordingly dispatched Lewis to Philadelphia, where leading figures in the American Enlightenment gave him a rushed education in science and medicine, while Clark focused on gathering men and equipment.
Transatlantic Diplomacy
In 1800 France and Spain had signed a secret agreement that, among other things, transferred ownership of the colony of Louisiana from Spain to France, but allowed the Spanish government to exercise direct administration until such time as the French saw fit. The Spanish immediately rejected Jefferson's request to dispatch an expedition into the West, concluding that it was an effort by the expansionist United States to destabilize Spanish authority. As a result, by 1803 it seemed that an American expedition to the West might be over before it began.
The event that transformed the expedition was the 1803 Louisiana Purchase, the massive land cession from France to the United States that doubled the size of the United States and, most importantly, terminated Spanish administration of the territory, removing the diplomatic impediment. But American policymakers had serious concerns about their ignorance of the territory they had just acquired. As a result, the Lewis and Clark Expedition was now a vital matter of public policy.
Exploring the West
During the winter of 1803–1804, Lewis and Clark recruited, trained, and supplied men at Camp Dubois, on the eastern banks of the Mississippi in what is now Illinois. Following the official transfer of Upper Louisiana to the United States in March 1804, the expedition formally departed on May 14 of that year.
During the ascent of the Missouri, most of the expedition's members were engaged in the challenging task of rowing and occasionally towing their vessels against the river's powerful current. Clark, an experienced river navigator, usually remained aboard one of the vessels. (He was also the expedition's main cartographer.) Meanwhile, Lewis often went ashore to observe the landscape, gather plant and wildlife samples, and supervise a few men who hunted for the animals that were the expedition's principal source of food.
In November 1804 the expedition constructed a winter encampment near the Mandan Indian villages. Quickly named Fort Mandan, it was located near what is now Washburn, North Dakota. Lewis and Clark used this opportunity to cull out members of the expedition, selecting the most reliable, hardy, and talented men to continue and sending the rest back to Saint Louis with numerous plant and animal samples, as well as a lengthy report to Jefferson. Lewis concluded that report optimistically, writing, "I can foresee no material or probable obstruction to our progress, and entertain therefore the most sanguine hopes of complete success… At this moment, every individual of the party are in good health, and excellent sperits [sic]; zealously attached to the enterprise, and anxious to proceed… With such men I have every thing to hope, and but little to fear."
A smaller contingent of thirty-three people (soon called "the permanent party") set out from Fort Mandan in April 1805. This was a diverse cohort. Anglo-Americans like Lewis and Clark dominated the members of the U.S. Army on the expedition, but they were barely a majority of the total expedition. Several men of French and Indian ancestry (often called Métis) had joined the party to serve as translators, guides, and scouts. One of the Métis, Toussaint Charbonneau, brought his wife, Sacajawea, a young woman born a Shoshone Indian but captured as a young girl by the Hidatsa, a Sioux tribe, and raised in their villages. In February 1805 Sacajawea had given birth to a son, Jean Baptiste Charbonneau, but quickly recovered from childbirth and managed to care for the infant even as the expedition got under way. Clark's slave York, who had long served as his manservant, also remained with the group as it continued westward.
In the summer of 1805, the expedition reached the headwaters of the Missouri River in the Rocky Mountains and then located the nearby headwaters of the Columbia. It was near the Missouri, perhaps, but not directly connected, as Jefferson had hoped. As Lewis immediately realized, there was no Northwest Passage.
The party departed for the return trip on March 23, 1806. Drawing on the geographic knowledge they had acquired during their travels west, the expedition made an efficient return trip, reaching Saint Louis just six months later, on September 23. The party then dispersed. Lewis and Clark soon left for Washington, enjoying celebratory gatherings along the way before finally reporting personally to Jefferson.
Continental Diplomacy
Scarcely a week went by without the expedition encountering the Indians who populated, controlled, and governed the North American West. Put simply, the expedition would have been a disaster were it not for the decisions those Indians made to provide supplies, food, geographical information, and, above all, safe passage.
In their expedition journals Lewis and Clark repeatedly stated that they met with Indians, informed them of the American claim to Louisiana, and watched as the Indians acknowledged that claim. In the written record Lewis and Clark overstated their own power and that of the United States. Indians hardly surrendered their own claims to sovereignty in the West. Instead, their reactions to Lewis and Clark ranged from bemused interest to outright hostility. The Lewis and Clark Expedition entered a world where Indians were clearly in charge. When the expedition returned, that state of affairs had not changed.
After the Expedition
The fates of the explorers following their return reflect life in the North American West at the turn of the nineteenth century. Most members of the expedition scattered into the West, seeking their fortunes in the highly competitive, often dangerous world of international and interracial commerce. Several came to a violent end, killed in negotiations gone badly.
If Lewis and Clark remain the most famous members of the expedition, the fates of two others who have more recently attracted attention reveal just as much about the West and the nation: Sacajawea, the Indian wife of Toussaint Charbonneau; and York, Clark's slave. Clark repeatedly recorded Charbonneau's poor treatment of Sacajawea, but like most women of her era she was bound by custom and law to obey her husband. She continued to travel with him along the trade routes of the upper Missouri, and eventually gave birth to another child. When she died remains uncertain, but the extant evidence suggests it was in 1812, when she may have been as young as twenty-four. Meanwhile, once the expedition was over, York repeatedly asked Clark for his freedom. Clark ignored the request for years. Like most white southerners who considered themselves fair masters, he found such requests to be both insolent and ungrateful. As with Sacajawea, the documentary record of York's life is limited. Clark eventually did free York, but not for at least a decade after the expedition.
Time Line
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1783 - Thomas Jefferson invites George Rogers Clark, William Clark's older brother, who had commanded Virginia volunteers in the Northwest during the American Revolution, to lead an expedition into the North American West. Clark declines.
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1785 - In Paris, France, Thomas Jefferson suggests to John Ledyard, an American who served on Captain James Cook's third voyage to the Pacific, that Ledyard travel overland through Russia, cross the Bering Strait, and then travel east from the Pacific across America. Ledyard agrees, but in 1788 is arrested en route by the Russians and deported.
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1792 - Thomas Jefferson, secretary of state under President George Washington, tries without success to encourage Philadelphia physician and botanist Dr. Moses Marshall to lead an exploratory expedition up the Missouri River.
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1793 - Thomas Jefferson urges members of the American Philosophical Society to sponsor André Michaux, a French botanist, who plans to travel across the American West. Michaux never crosses the Mississippi River, however.
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1795 - Meriwether Lewis and William Clark meet in the Northwest Territory while serving as officers in the U.S. Army. Clark, a captain, is Lieutenant Lewis's commander.
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1796 - William Clark resigns from the U.S. Army to pursue business ventures with his family.
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October 1, 1800 - Representatives from Spain and the French Republic sign the Treaty of San Ildefonso, a secret agreement that transfers ownership of the colony of Louisiana from Spain to France. According to the treaty, France is allowed to postpone taking possession of Louisiana until such time as it sees fit. Until then, Spain maintains nominal control.
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March 6, 1801 - President Thomas Jefferson selects Meriwether Lewis, who has reached the rank of captain in the U.S. Army, to serve as his private secretary.
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Spring 1803 - President Thomas Jefferson invites Meriwether Lewis to command an expedition to explore the North American West. Lewis accepts and the two begin making preliminary plans. The Spanish, who have administrative control of the Louisiana Territory, inform the U.S. government that they will block any attempt to send an expedition to Louisiana.
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January 18, 1803 - President Thomas Jefferson sends a secret communication to Congress to request funding for an expedition to explore the North American West. Congress allocates $2,500 for the project.
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April 30, 1803 - In Paris, American diplomats Robert Livingston and James Monroe sign the Louisiana Purchase Treaty and two conventions with France. The United States agrees to pay to France $11.25 million and to forgive $3.75 million in French debts in exchange for 828,000 square miles of land west of the Mississippi River.
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June 19, 1803 - Meriwether Lewis invites William Clark to serve as co-commander of an expedition to explore the North American West; Clark immediately accepts. Their relative ranks will become a source of irritation for Clark when Secretary of War Henry Dearborn informs him that he can only re-enter the army as a lieutenant.
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June 20, 1803 - President Thomas Jefferson writes instructions to Meriwether Lewis, his private secretary and newly appointed leader of what will become known as the Lewis and Clark Expedition, regarding the expedition's objectives.
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Winter 1803–1804 - Members of the Lewis and Clark Expedition make their winter encampment at Camp Dubois, on the eastern banks of the Mississippi River in what is now Illinois.
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March 10, 1804 - In Saint Louis, an official ceremony marks the formal transfer of ownership of the Louisiana Territory from France to the United States. Meriwether Lewis and William Clark are probably both in attendance.
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May 1804–October 1804 - The Lewis and Clark Expedition ascends the Missouri River.
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May 14, 1804 - The Lewis and Clark Expedition leaves its winter encampment at Camp Dubois; Meriwether Lewis and William Clark record the event as the official beginning of the expedition.
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August 20, 1804 - Sergeant Charles Floyd dies, probably as a result of appendicitis, near present-day Sioux City, Iowa. He is the only member of the expedition to die during the journey.
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November 1804 - The Lewis and Clark Expedition makes its winter encampment near the Mandan and Hidatsa villages near what is now Washburn, North Dakota. The expedition names the encampment Fort Mandan.
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February 11, 1805 - Jean Baptiste Charbonneau is born to Toussaint Charbonneau and Sacajawea at Fort Mandan, near what is now Washburn, North Dakota. Both parents are members of the Lewis and Clark Expedition.
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April 1805–August 1805 - The Lewis and Clark Expedition continues to ascend the Missouri River, eventually abandoning its canoes as it enters the Rocky Mountains.
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April 7, 1805 - A smaller expedition of thirty-three people (called "the permanent party") leaves Fort Mandan. The others return to Saint Louis with plant and animal samples and a report by Meriwether Lewis for President Thomas Jefferson.
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August 1805–November 1805 - The Lewis and Clark Expedition locates the headwaters of the Columbia River, descends from the Rockies, and travels downstream to the Pacific.
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August 12–13, 1805 - Meriwether Lewis and his party reach the headwaters of the Missouri River, where Thomas Jefferson had believed the fabled Northwest Passage would be located, and cross the Continental Divide. Lewis determines that there is no water route connecting the Mississippi to the Pacific Ocean.
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November 7, 1805 - William Clark writes a journal entry describing his first sight of what he believes to be the Pacific Ocean, but what is, in fact, the Columbia estuary.
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November 15, 1805 - The Lewis and Clark Expedition reaches the Pacific Ocean.
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November 1805–March 1806 - The Lewis and Clark Expedition builds a winter encampment a few miles from present-day Astoria, Oregon. They name the camp Fort Clatsop.
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March 23, 1806 - The Lewis and Clark Expedition departs Fort Clatsop and begins its return journey to Saint Louis.
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September 23, 1806 - The Lewis and Clark Expedition reaches Saint Louis.
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1807 - President Thomas Jefferson appoints Meriwether Lewis governor of the Louisiana Territory and William Clark general in the territorial militia. Clark also becomes an Indian agent, a position he will hold until his death in 1838.
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October 11, 1809 - Meriwether Lewis commits suicide while traveling from Saint Louis to Washington, D.C., to defend his conduct as governor of the Louisiana Territory.
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1813 - President James Madison appoints William Clark governor of the newly formed Missouri Territory.
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1814 - History of the Expedition under the Command of Captains Lewis and Clark, to the Sources of the Missouri, Thence across the Rocky Mountains and down the River Columbia to the Pacific Ocean. Performed during the years 1804-5-6 …, the official narrative of the expedition edited by Nicholas Biddle and Paul Allen, is published.
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1821 - Missouri enters the union as a state. William Clark's appointed position as territorial governor is eliminated, and he loses the gubernatorial election to Alexander McNair. Clark remains in Saint Louis and continues to work as an Indian agent.
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September 1, 1838 - William Clark dies in Saint Louis, Missouri, and is buried in the Bellefontaine Cemetery.
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1905 - Reuben Gold Thwaites, a Wisconsin-based writer and editor, publishes the first major collection of the original manuscript journals of the Lewis and Clark Expedition. In the century that follows, this seven-volume work will serve as the foundation for most editions of the journals.
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1983–2001 - The University of Nebraska Press publishes The Journals of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, a complete, definitive edition of the manuscript journals.
References
Further Reading
External Links
Cite This Entry
- APA Citation:
Kastor, P. J. The Lewis and Clark Expedition. (2019, November 20). In Encyclopedia Virginia. Retrieved from http://www.EncyclopediaVirginia.org/Lewis_and_Clark_Expedition_The.
- MLA Citation:
Kastor, Peter J. "The Lewis and Clark Expedition." Encyclopedia Virginia. Virginia Humanities, 20 Nov. 2019. Web. READ_DATE.
First published: April 8, 2013 | Last modified: November 20, 2019