William Clark played a big part in the total effort by General Anthony Wayne to restore order to the frontier.  During the early 1790’s while assigned to Wayne’s command, Clark was frequently sent on reconnaissance missions to find out what the opposing forces were doing; this included the English, Spanish and Indians. 
          The Spanish didn’t know what to think about Wayne because he didn’t do things like previous generals had.  They were also wary of Clark.  They said he was “an enterprising youth of extraordinary activity.” 
            From his staff level position Clark saw what Wayne was doing and why; he learned valuable lessons that served him well later during the Expedition to the Pacific; lessons of training, discipline, caring for the health of the men, establishing field camps and fortifications, etc., etc.
         The last special mission Clark embarked upon for General Wayne was in 1795.  Clark was a messenger from General Wayne to the Spanish fortifications near Memphis, Tennessee.  His daily journal entries were considered “a masterpiece of deception by omission” as they gave every appearance of innocently recording miles traveled, river currents, islands, success of hunters, etc. (much like the material in his journal entries during the Expedition), but after his return to Wayne his final report was a detailed piece of spy work that included gun placements, ship numbers and types, exactly what the fort looked like on the inside and just about anything else a military commander would want to know about an enemy’s position.  The report was accompanied by drawings and maps.  This was all done from memory of what he saw as the Spanish commander gave Clark a tour of the fort.
          Clark returned from this mission in November of 1795 and took up the routine garrison life.  He met his newly assigned junior officer Meriwether Lewis.  William Clark resigned his army commission in July of 1796 and returned to life with his family.
 

          The pass Sacajawea suggested Capt. Clark use would become important in the developing Montana territory.  While it officially became the Bozeman Pass, its unofficial name along with the Trail that crossed it was more indicative of the activities associated with it; the Bloody Bozeman.
          It was in the Three Forks area and the Big Hole and Beaverhead Valleys that Sacajawea gained her image as a “guide.”  Capt. Clark recorded three times when her knowledge of the area helped pilot them.  He went on to say she had “been of great service as a pilot through this country.”  He was referring to the area she had lived in before being taken captive by the Hidatsa Indians. 
             However useful she was in her home territory, she had little knowledge of the rest of the territory the Expedition passed through.  As the Expedition continued down the Yellowstone her knowledge of the area would again dwindle and her use as a “guide” would disappear with it.

          October 21, 1805; Clark’s entry in his field notes for the day’s events included, “Collins made some excellent beer of the pasheco quarmash bread which was very good.”
Later, when he transcribed the field notes to the final journal entry he wrote, “Collins presented us with some very good beer made of the Pa-shi-co-quar-mash bread, which bread is the remains of what was laid in as stores of provisions at the first flatheads or Cho-pun-nish nation at the head of the Kossoske River which being frequently wet molded and soured."
          Clark definitely toned down his response to the beer from “excellent” “very good”.  He also added his justification on why the bread could be used that way instead of being eaten as food as originally planned.  The Expedition was short of food and scrambled to even find some survival foods not normally considered in civilization as food; dogs for example.
          Maybe he was thinking if he showed they would have otherwise been thrown away the beer would be more acceptable to those who would read the journals at some time in the future.  Remember, Clark was spending government money to purchase their food, and as we see later with the handling of Lewis’ invoices, some bureaucrat can without any prior notice or approval, change the outcome of things previously agreed upon.
          Probably the general public would see this and knowing they had been out of booze for almost 4 months, think nothing of it.  At the most they might chuckle at the change from excellent to very good.