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Spain wanted to keep the territory as an empty buffer between the U.S. and the many mineral mines in northern Mexico. After the start of the expedition, Spain sent at least four different missions to stop Lewis and Clark. During the Expedition's stay in the ]'s camps, the expedition was told they were ten days away from Spanish settlements. This warning helped Lewis and Clark stay away from the Spanish, but they never knew the Spanish had sent missions to stop them until after they returned from the journey.<ref>Brandt, Anthony. Reliving Lewis and Clark: Louisiana Purchase Ceremony. (National Geographic News, March 23, 2004.)</ref> Spain wanted to keep the territory as an empty buffer between the U.S. and the many mineral mines in northern Mexico. After the start of the expedition, Spain sent at least four different missions to stop Lewis and Clark. During the Expedition's stay in the ]'s camps, the expedition was told they were ten days away from Spanish settlements. This warning helped Lewis and Clark stay away from the Spanish, but they never knew the Spanish had sent missions to stop them until after they returned from the journey.<ref>Brandt, Anthony. Reliving Lewis and Clark: Louisiana Purchase Ceremony. (National Geographic News, March 23, 2004.)</ref>


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==Achievements==
]]]

*The U.S. gained an extensive knowledge of the ] of the ] in the form of maps of major rivers and mountain ranges
*Observed and described 178 plants and 122 species and subspecies of animals (see ])

*Encouraged Euro-American fur trade in the West
*Opened Euro-American diplomatic relations with the Indians
*Established a precedent for Army exploration of the West
*Strengthened the U.S. claim to ]
*Focused U.S. and media attention on the West
*Produced a large body of literature about the West (the Lewis and Clark diaries)


==Expedition members== ==Expedition members==

Revision as of 22:12, 8 October 2007

"Lewis and Clark" redirects here. For other uses, see Lewis and Clark (disambiguation).
Lewis and Clark

The Lewis and Clark Expedition (1804-1806), headed by Meriwether Lewis and William Clark, was the first American overland expedition to the Pacific coast and back.

WHAT NOW

YO BITCH

I WAS HERE

Reaction of the Spanish

On December 9, 1803, Lewis met with the Spanish lieutenant governor of Upper Louisiana, Colonel Carlos Dehault Delassus. Since France had never formally taken control of the territory, it was still governed by Spaniards. Delassus refused to let Lewis go up the Missouri until France formally took control of the territory, at which time France would formally give the territory to the United States. Lewis had intended to spend the winter in St. Louis since he needed to gain provisions for the trip and it was too late in the year to sensibly continue on the Missouri. Despite Lewis' claims that the Expedition was solely a scientific one that would only travel the Missouri territory, Delassus wrote to his superiors that Lewis would undoubtedly go as far as the Pacific coast, citing that Lewis was far too competent for a lesser mission.

The Spanish felt this way because of the intelligence they gained from an American traitor turned Spanish spy. General James Wilkinson was the commanding general of the United States Army. He was also in the employ of the Spanish government. In March 1804, he sent a message to Madrid telling the Spanish government that the purpose of the Expedition was to journey as far as the Pacific.

While in Cincinnati, Ohio, Lewis had written to Jefferson about going to Santa Fe. This was done for political concerns; Lewis wanted "to give his party a winning issue" in the 1804 expedition. Jefferson was willing for Lewis to wait the winter in St. Louis rather than continue up the Missouri; Lewis could gain valuable information in St. Louis and draw from Army supplies rather than the Expedition's. Jefferson knew how sensitive the Spanish were about their gold and silver mines and issued a direct order to Lewis not to go to Santa Fe. This also led Jefferson to question Lewis' judgment. Jefferson's concern was for naught; Lewis had already decided he had enough to do during the winter to get the Expedition ready for spring than to spend time traveling to Santa Fe.

The fact that the Expedition would travel as much as it could on the Missouri River was done for political reasons. For one, it was imperative to stay out of Spanish territory. Jefferson had told Lewis not to go into Spanish territory. By staying in higher latitudes, the Expedition would avoid crossing into Spanish territory.

Spain had ceded Louisiana to France under the condition that France would not give it to a third party. Spain gave France the territory because Napoleon I had put his brother Joseph Bonaparte in charge of Spain, and Napoleon's brother gave Napoleon Louisiana in exchanged for the kingdom of Etruria in Northern Italy. Slaves rebellions in Haiti led by Toussaint L'Ouverture, Jean-Jacques Dessalines, and Henri Christophe in 1802-1803 also led to Haitian independence in 1804, and Haiti was so valuable to France that without it, France's whole colonial empire in the Western Hemisphere which Napoleon was trying to re-establish would not be sufficiently profitable to justify the cost to France.

Spain wanted to keep the territory as an empty buffer between the U.S. and the many mineral mines in northern Mexico. After the start of the expedition, Spain sent at least four different missions to stop Lewis and Clark. During the Expedition's stay in the Shoshone's camps, the expedition was told they were ten days away from Spanish settlements. This warning helped Lewis and Clark stay away from the Spanish, but they never knew the Spanish had sent missions to stop them until after they returned from the journey.

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Expedition members

File:Lewis-and-clark-statue.jpg
Statue of Lewis and Clark in Seaside, Oregon, near the expedition's end
  1. Captain Meriwether Lewis — private secretary to President Thomas Jefferson and leader of the Expedition.
  2. Lieutenant William Clark — shared command of the Expedition, although technically second in command.
  3. York — Clark's enslaved black manservant.
  4. Sergeant Charles Floyd — the Expedition's quartermaster; died early in the trip. He was the one person who died during the Expedition.
  5. Sergeant Patrick Gass — chief carpenter, promoted to Sergeant after Floyd's death.
  6. Sergeant John Ordway — responsible for issuing provisions, appointing guard duties, and keeping records for the Expedition.
  7. Sergeant Nathaniel Hale Pryor — leader of the 1st Squad; he presided over the court martial of privates John Collins and Hugh Hall.
  8. Corporal Richard Warfington — conducted the return party to St. Louis in 1805.
  9. Private John Boley — disciplined at Camp Dubois and was assigned to the return party.
  10. Private William E. Bratton — served as hunter and blacksmith.
  11. Private John Collins — had frequent disciplinary problems; he was court-martialed for stealing whiskey which he had been assigned to guard.
  12. Private John Colter — charged with mutiny early in the trip, he later proved useful as a hunter; he earned his fame after the journey.
  13. Private Pierre Cruzatte — a one-eyed French fiddle-player and a skilled boatman.
  14. Private John Dame
  15. Private Joseph Field — a woodsman and skilled hunter, brother of Reubin.
  16. Private Reubin Field — a woodsman and skilled hunter, brother of Joseph.
  17. Private Robert Frazer — kept a journal that was never published.
  18. Private George Gibson — a fiddle-player and a good hunter; he served as an interpreter (probably via sign language).
  19. Private Silas Goodrich — the main fisherman of the expedition.
  20. Private Hugh Hall — court-martialed with John Collins for stealing whiskey.
  21. Private Thomas Proctor Howard — court-martialed for setting a "pernicious example" to the Indians by showing them that the wall at Fort Mandan was easily scaled.
  22. Private François Labiche — French fur trader who served as an interpreter and boatman.
  23. Private Hugh McNeal — the first white explorer to stand astride the headwaters of the Missouri River on the Continental Divide.
  24. Private John Newman — court-martialed and confined for "having uttered repeated expressions of a highly criminal and mutinous nature."
  25. Private John Potts — German immigrant and a miller.
  26. Private Moses B. Reed — attempted to desert in August 1804; convicted of desertion and expelled from the party.
  27. Private John Robertson — member of the Corps for a very short time.
  28. Private George Shannon — was lost twice during the expedition, once for sixteen days. Youngest member of expedition at 19.
  29. Private John Shields — blacksmith, gunsmith, and a skilled carpenter; with John Colter, he was court-martialed for mutiny.
  30. Private John B. Thompson — may have had some experience as a surveyor.
  31. Private Howard Tunn — hunter and navigator.
  32. Private Ebenezer Tuttle — may have been the man sent back on June 12, 1804; otherwise, he was with the return party from Fort Mandan in 1805.
  33. Private Peter M. Weiser — had some minor disciplinary problems at River Dubois; he was made a permanent member of the party.
  34. Private William Werner — convicted of being absent without leave at St. Charles, Missouri, at the start of the expedition.
  35. Private Isaac White — may have been the man sent back on June 12, 1804; otherwise, he was with the return party from Fort Mandan in 1805.
  36. Private Joseph Whitehouse — often acted as a tailor for the other men; he kept a journal which extended the Expedition narrative by almost five months.
  37. Private Alexander Hamilton Willard — blacksmith; assisted John Shields. He was convicted on July 12, 1804, of sleeping while on sentry duty and given one hundred lashes.
  38. Private Richard Windsor — often assigned duty as a hunter.
  39. Interpreter Toussaint Charbonneau — Sacagawea's husband; served as a translator and often as a cook.
  40. Interpreter Sacagawea — Charbonneau's wife; translated Shoshone to Hidatsa for Charbonneau and was a valued member of the expedition.
  41. Jean Baptiste Charbonneau — Charbonneau and Sacagawea's son, born February 11, 1805; his presence helped dispel any notion that the expedition was a war party, smoothing the way in Indian lands.
  42. Interpreter George Drouillard — skilled with Indian sign language; the best hunter on the expedition.

In popular culture

  • The episode "Margical History Tour" of the American TV series The Simpsons contains a fictional retelling of the Lewis and Clark expedition.
  • The rescue ship in Science fiction/Horror film Event Horizon is named the Lewis and Clark.
  • The Comedy Almost Heroes starring Chris Farley and Matthew Perry features a fictional party attempting to best Lewis and Clark in their journey to the Pacific Ocean.
  • Often parodied in the comic strip The Far Side by Gary Larson.
  • The Histeria! episode "Great Heroes of France" had one segment called "Lewis and Clark", which had Clark's animation style and voice based on the Superman: The Animated Series version of Clark Kent. The sketch's name spoofed the TV-series Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman which in turn spoofed the original naming of Lewis and Clark. In addition to this, Clark's voice was made to resemble Dean Martin, to match Lewis' portrayal as Jerry Lewis.
  • A song titled "Lewis and Clark" is found on The Mystery CD by Tommy Emmanuel.
  • In 1955 the movie The Far Horizons was released, starring Fred MacMurray as Meriwether Lewis, Charlton Heston as William Clark, Donna Reed as Sacajawea, and Barbara Hale as Julia Hancock. The movie perpetuates the myth of a romantic relationship between Sacajawea and William Clark. The end has Sacajawea and Julia Hancock realizing they are both in love with the same man. Realizing she can never fit into white society, Sacajawea goes back to her people. The movie is based on Della Gould Emmons' novel "Sacajawea of the Shoshones" (Portland OR : Binfords and Mort, 1943).
  • In the 1988 movie National Lampoon's European Vacation, the Griswalds won the game show when, while deciding how to answer the question about the "Lewis and what Expedition", the wife addressed her husband by his first name, "Clark?"
  • The lead character in Robert Heinlein's space exploration classic science fiction novel Time for the Stars was posted on a ship called "The Lewis and Clark", or "Elsie" to the crew.
  • In Harry Turtledove's World War and Colonization Series, the American Space Station which later turned into Earth's first Spaceship was named "The Lewis and Clark."
  • Since the late 1990s, the Pacific Northwest regional air carrier Horizon Air, has been using radio advertisements that feature Meriweather Lewis (portrayed by actor Patrick Warburton) and William Clark (actor Richard Kind) as modern day travelers. The advertisements juxtapose the hardships faced by the Expedition as compared to the relative comfort and convenience of air travel. Lewis is portrayed as the calm leader, while Clark is often trying to upstage his partner and refers to “Clark and Lewis Expedition” on several occasions.
  • In the animated show Gary & Mike, Gary tries to follow the route of the Lewis and Clark Expedition by car, with continual interruptions and side-tracks by his friend, Mike.

See also

References

  1. Ambrose, Stephen. Undaunted Courage: Meriwether Lewis, Thomas Jefferson, and the opening of the American west. (Simon & Schuster, New York, 1996). p122-123
  2. Ambrose 334, 335
  3. Ambrose 115, 116, 123
  4. http://www.isu.edu/~trinmich/Discoverers.html
  5. Brandt, Anthony. Reliving Lewis and Clark: Louisiana Purchase Ceremony. (National Geographic News, March 23, 2004.)

Further reading

History

External links

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