Meriwether Lewis Intrepid Explorer

8/12/2019 Meriwether Lewis Intrepid Explorer

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National Park ServiceU.S. Department of the Interior

Jefferson National Expansion Memorial

EXPERIENCE YOUR AMERICA August 1997

Meriwether Lewis: Intrepid Explorer

When President Thomas Jeerson considereda potential leader for an expedition acrossthe continent to the Pacic Coast in 1803, helooked no farther than his personal secretary,Meriwether Lewis. It was impossible to nd acharacter, wrote Jeerson, who to a compleatscience in botany, natural history, mineralogy &astronomy, joined the rmness of constitution& character, prudence, habits adapted to thewoods, & a familiarity with the Indian manners& character, requisite for this undertaking. Allthe latter qualications Capt. Lewis has. Whowas Meriwether Lewis, what events led him tothe point of enjoying the Presidents complete

condence, and what happened to him after thefamous expedition which bears his name?

The future explorer was born to William andLucy Meriwether Lewis on August 18, 1774 onthe family plantation Locust Hill in AlbemarleCounty, Virginia. The Lewis family also had adaughter, Jane, who was born in 1770, and anotherson, Reuben, born in 1777. Young Meriwetherand his siblings did not see much of their father,who actively fought the British during the

Revolutionary War. The elder Lewis periodicallyvisited while on leave, but after falling from ahorse into a ooded river, he caught pneumoniaand died. A short time later, Lucy married Capt.John Marks.

Meriwether Lewis spent much of his time as ayouth in the outdoors, and developed an interestin plants, animals, and geology. When Lewiswas eight or nine years old, his family moved

to a colony on the Broad River in northeasternGeorgia. In the four years he lived there he honedhis wilderness skills and became procient with ablack powder rie. He returned to Virginia at age13 for formal schooling and to learn to administerthe family plantation of nearly 2,000 acres, whichwas worked by 24 slaves.

Over the next few years Lewis was taught bya variety of schoolmasters and tutors, but hisschooling came to an abrupt end in 1792 whenhis stepfather died, his mother moved back toVirginia, and at the age of 18 he began to activelymanage Locust Hill. He spent two years on the

plantation, where he grew tobacco, corn, andwheat. Life as a planter had its challenges andrewards, but Lewis was striving for other things.He enlisted as a private in the Virginia VolunteerCorps during the Whiskey Rebellion of 1794,telling his mother that he wanted to support theglorious cause of liberty, and my country. Duringhis service he saw a good deal of unfair treatmentof enlisted men by ocers, who sometimesdidnt provide the soldiers with proper clothing,equipment, and food.

Despite the drawbacks of military life, Lewis musthave liked something about the army, for on May1, 1795, he joined the regular U.S. Army at the rankof Ensign. His enlistment came at a time whenthe United States military was dwindling from5,424 ocers and men to a total strength of only3,359. Lewis met many ocers in this tiny armywho made an impression upon him, few moreso than a fellow Virginian named William Clark,


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who commanded the Chosen Rie Company ofelite rieman-sharpshooters. After six months ofserving in the military together, Clark resignedhis commission because of family and healthproblems.

By 1799, Lewis had been appointed to alieutenancy and was posted at Charlottesville,

Virginia, where he was in charge of recruitingduty. Due to decreasing military enlistment, in1800 the army moved him to Detroit where heassumed the post of regimental paymaster. In thisposition he traveled to dierent posts throughoutthe trans-Appalachian frontier, which allowedhim to make many contacts with the key ocersin the army at that time. On December 5, 1800,Lewis was promoted to the rank of Captain.Well-known for his accuracy, thoroughness, and

honesty, he came to the attention of ThomasJeerson, the newly-elected President of theUnited States, who on February 23, 1801 wroteto Lewis, asking him to become his personalsecretary. At a salary of $500 per year, plus roomand board in the White House, the oer wasnot to be refused, and Lewis accepted withpleasure, promising to get forward to the City ofWashington with all possible despatch.

During Lewis service as the Presidents secretary,

he learned about diplomacy, statesmanship,and national policy from a master politician.Meanwhile, Jeerson came to look upon Lewisas the nest candidate to lead a government-sponsored scientic and diplomatic expeditionacross the continent, an expedition Jeersonhad proposed several times over the course ofa ten-year period. The president knew Lewisstrengths and weaknesses, and to groom theyoung man for the expedition had him tutored bythe nest minds in the United States, includingDr. Benjamin Rush, a prominent Philadelphiaphysician, Dr. Benjamin Smith Barton, a professorand botanist, Dr. Caspar Wistar, the foremostauthority on fossils of the time, and DavidRittenhouse, Americas most famous astronomerand mathematician. As the time approached forlaunching the expedition, Jeerson drafted a setof detailed instructions for Lewis which outlinedthe importance of the journey and Jeersonsgoals for it. Lewis also received permission

to choose a co-captain to assist him with theresponsibilities of managing men and supplies,making maps, and meeting with American Indiantribes, while recording the details in daily journalentries. For this important post Lewis turned tohis old army friend William Clark.

Clark spent the winter of 1804 establishing a

training camp for the Corps of Discovery atCamp Wood, which was located 18 miles northof St. Louis at the conuence of the Mississippiand Missouri Rivers. Meanwhile, Lewis was inSt. Louis, Cahokia, and Kaskaskia arranging forsupplies and equipment for the journey. Lewisalso spent time obtaining information aboutthe newly acquired Louisiana Territory throughpeople who were involved with the fur trade onthe Missouri River and who had dealings with the

Native Americans who lived there.

On May 14, 1804, the Corps of Discovery, ledby William Clark, set out on their journey upthe Missouri River. Lewis traveled overlandfrom St. Louis to join the group on the secondday of the trip, when they reached St. Charles.Meriwether Lewis was 30 years old during thatrst summer of the expedition, while Clark was34. They were young men pursuing the dream oftheir President, serving as his eyes and ears while

trying to survive to tell the story. A year and a halfand more than 4,000 miles later, the expeditionreached the Pacic Ocean. Lewis was fascinatedwith the Native Americans, plants, animals, fossilsgeological formations, topography and otherfacets of the trip, all of which he recorded in hisjournal entries. Even with all of this information,new to science, Lewis was plagued with theminor failures of his journey. He had failed todiscover an all-water route to the Pacic Ocean,and also failed to set up diplomatic alliances withAmerican Indian people to create an exclusiveRocky Mountain fur trade for the United States.

The expedition ended at St. Louis in 1806, andLewis returned to Washington, D.C. to reportto President Jeerson in person. Both Lewisand Clark were rewarded for their success.Meriwether Lewis was appointed to thegovernorship of the Louisiana Territory, whileWilliam Clark became the Indian Agent for the


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far west. Lewis returned to St. Louis to assumehis new oce. While attending to his duties asgovernor, Lewis planned to nd an editor andpublisher for the expedition journals, but therealways seemed to be more pressing business toattend to in the territory.

Being governor of the sprawling Upper Louisiana

Territory proved challenging. In 1808, St. Louiswas still a rowdy frontier town on the edge of awilderness, whose dominant business was thefur trade. Lewis was often attacked by factionsin St. Louis, many of who were interested inwresting land from the former French inhabitants.Lewis was frequently at odds with Gen. JamesWilkinson, the top ranking ocer in the U.S.Army, and even his own Lt. Governor, FrederickBates, who openly conspired against him and

insulted him in public. There is evidence thatLewis supported editor Joseph Charless and hisMissouri Gazette, the rst and only newspaperin St. Louis at the time, to counteract propagandaput forth by his political enemies. Lewis failedat many aspects of the governorship, however,most notably in the public perception of how hespent ocial government funds. His involvementin the St. Louis-Missouri River Fur Company,and its funding by the U.S. Government, wasquestioned, as was money spent on a draft for

ocial purposes, for which Lewis had not beengiven advance authorization.

In an eort to explain his actions, Lewis decidedto make the long journey to Washington, D.C.to try to clear his name. In early September 1809he began his trip down the Mississippi Riverand arrived at Fort Pickering (in modern-dayMemphis, Tennessee) on September 15. OnSeptember 29, he left the fort and planned tofollow the Natchez Trace, a heavily-traveledwilderness road. Accompanying him onhorseback was Major James Neely, Lewis servantPernier, and Neelys servant. After a few daystravel the group stopped at Grinders Stand to staythe night. This back country inn, a cluster of logcabins and shacks, was located near present dayHohenwald, Tennessee, about seventy-two milesfrom Nashville.

In the early morning hours of October 11, 1809,

shots rang out in the Grinders Stand cabin whereLewis was staying. To this day it is not completelycertain what happened. It is known that GovernorLewis died of two gunshot wounds, one to thehead, the other to the chest. He was only 35 yearsold. Most historians believe that MeriwetherLewis committed suicide due to depression andproblems in his life and career, while a popular

belief continues that he was murdered, perhapsby representatives of his political enemies. Theexplorer was buried not far from where hedied, and today a memorial along the NatchezTrace National Historic Trail pays tribute to theman who led the Voyage of Discovery to thePacic Ocean. Lewis died without clearing hisname, without publishing the journals whichwere his claim to international importance, andunmarried, with no descendants to continue his

legacy. Although unrealized during his lifetime,Meriwether Lewis accomplishments werenumerous, and they made an enormous impacton our countrys perceptions and knowledge ofthe West.


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Meriwether Lewis Intrepid Explorer