The Lewis and Clark Expedition
                        Small Arms, Personnel, and Miscellany
                                               By Walt Walker                     
 
                A nine-part series examining some details of the
       Corps of Discovery to make the Expedition more personal
                            
Introduction
 
          I began this project to learn as exactly as possible to whom Captains Meriwether Lewis and/or William Clark were referring when they mentioned “hunters” in the Journals.  Were the hunters just from the former civilians they enlisted coming down the Ohio River in 1803 or did they also include men transferred from other army units to The Corps of Discovery?  Did the hunters use their personal arms or the rifles Lewis obtained from the Harpers Ferry Arsenal or did they use muskets that the soldiers brought with them?  While looking into this area, I discovered hunter combinations that seemed to develop naturally and the captains’ “go-to” men when meat supplies were critical.
          I have also included in the Miscellany Section, all the various spellings of “Sioux” written in Volumes Two through Eight as transcribed by Gary Moulton and also included the number of canoes the Corps constructed at the various Canoe Camps and the dates and number of grizzly bears killed or wounded by the Corps.
          In writing this piece, I will make a supposition such as “probably” or “most likely” from my own inferences reading the Journals.  They are not conclusive, just speculations.  Other readers are welcome to their own conclusions.  The project included re-reading, “The Journals of the Lewis and Clark Expedition” by Gary Moulton.  I referred to Volumes One, Nine, Ten, and Eleven on occasion.  Donald Jackson’s “Letters of the Lewis and Clark Expedition” were also used for background information. Further, my research went no deeper than my personal library and personal experience as a hunter and a former army enlisted man. This is by no means a scholarly interpretation.
 
Chapter 1: Creating the Corps of Discovery
 
           In a confidential message to Congress dated January 18th, 1803, President Thomas Jefferson laid out the need to explore The Louisiana Territory and his desire to extend that trip to the Pacific Ocean to seek a waterway for practicable travel across the continent. He created The Corps of Discovery for that mission.  He stated, “An officer with ten or twelve men chosen from various army posts along with their arms and accouterments might explore the whole line even to the Western Ocean”.  He believed that “An appropriation of $2500 would cover the undertaking”. This statement would lead to the conclusion that prior-enlisted men, as opposed to the civilians enlisted by Lewis and /or Clark, brought with them their army-issued muskets and accouterments.  Congress would approve Jefferson’s request by a “Secret Authority” as stated by Jefferson in a letter to Caspar Wistar dated February 28th, 1803. (1)
          Lewis told the president in a letter dated April 20th, 1803(2) that he has written to Major McRae, Commandant of South West Point, asking for enlisted men who meet the qualifications needed to be in his party. He also stated that he has written to the commandants of Fort Massac, Fort Kaskaskia, and Illinois (Cahokia was proposed but never developed) asking for the same. Lewis also wrote that rifles, tomahawks, and knives were being prepared at Harper’s Ferry. (3)
          Lewis, in a letter to Jefferson dated, May 29th,1803, stated that he has received a reply from Major McRae.  The major stated that of the twenty volunteers, only three or four men possessed the qualifications Lewis deemed necessary for the expedition. Lewis replied that he will take some of them to man his boats and hope that others with “better descriptions” can be had at other forts. (4)
          Lewis wrote to Clark explaining the mission and asked Clark to accompany him.  He explained his instructions to select enlisted army personnel and engage civilians who are good hunters.  Lewis wanted to include some French traders to assist the movement of baggage and food to the winter camp on the Missouri.(5)  Lewis’s “List of Requirements” showed that fifteen rifles with accouterments for each man along with clothing for all fifteen men were needed among all other listed requirements. (6)
          Henry Dearborn's letter to Major McRae, dated July 2nd, 1803 ordered the major to send a sergeant and two or three men to Fort Massac, there to be placed under Captain Lewis’s command. (7)
          Major McRae actually sent Corporal Richard Warfington, Hugh Hall, Thomas P. Howard, John Potts, and four other men.  The latter four were rejected by Lewis and Clark. (8) On the same day, Dearborn wrote several other letters regarding the expedition.  He wrote Lewis that the whole number of NCOs and privates should not exceed twelve and that Lewis could hire an interpreter to accompany the Corps. The letter to Russell Bissell, Amos Stoddard, and Daniel Bissell ordered them to detach men from their commands who were deemed suitable for such service to the expedition.  Finally, in a letter to Russell Bissell and Amos Stoddard, he ordered them to furnish one sergeant and eight good men, preferably, those who understood rowing a boat to take provisions to the winter camp up the Missouri.(9)
          On the 11th of November 1803, Lewis engaged George Drouillard (aka: Drewyer) as an Indian interpreter for $25 a month.(10) Drouillard confirmed this with Clark on the 25th of December 1803.  Drouillard said he would go to Massac to settle his matters. (11)
          Lewis wrote to Clark from Pittsburg on the 3rd of August, 1803 that he was much gratified with Clark’s decision to join him.  He was also pleased with Clark’s conditionally engaging some men to join them. Lewis stated that the men so engaged would not be used exclusively for the purposes of hunting, but they would also bear responsibility for a portion of the labor in common with the party. (12)
          The eight troops sent by Major McRae to meet with Lewis at Fort Massac had not arrived by the time Lewis left there, but arrived at Cahokia on the 16th of December, 1803.  In his letter to Clark on the 17th of December, 1803, Lewis stated that “there was not a hunter among them”, but one was a blacksmith, another a house-joiner. He speculated that a blacksmith might be useful to the party. (13)
          Finally, Lewis wrote to the President on the 19th of December, 1803, that he had made a selection of a sufficient number of men from the troops at Fort Kaskaskia to complete the party.  He then proceeded by land to Cahokia and then went on to St. Louis to confer with Spanish officials.
          Meanwhile, Clark proceeded from Kaskaskia to Cahokia and then went on to what would become Camp Dubois.  The camp was across the Mississippi from the mouth of the Missouri since the Spanish had refused them entry onto the Missouri until the formal change of ownership(14)  On December 22, 1803, Drewyer arrived at Camp Dubois with the eight men sent by Major MacCrae. Clark picked Corporal Richard Warfington and privates Hugh Hall, Thomas P. Howard and John Potts while he rejected the others.(15)
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1. “Letters of the Lewis and Clark Expedition” by Donald Jackson, Second edition, Volume I, Letter Eight, pages 10-13.
2. Ibid: Letter 12, pages 17-18
3. Ibid: Letter 28, pages 37-41
4. Ibid: Letter 40, pages 51-53
5.Ibid: Letter 46, pages 57-60
6. Ibid: Letter 53, pages 69-75
7. Ibid: Letter 60, Page 102
8. Moulton: “Journals of the Lewis and Clark Expedition”, Volume 2, page 139, note 2
9. Jackson: Letters 62, 63, 64, pages 102-103
10. Moulton: Volume2, page 85 under date of November 11th, 1803
11. Moulton: Volume 2, page 141, under date December 25th, 1803
12. Jackson:  Letter 80, pages
13. Jackson: Letter 98, page 144
14. Jackson:  Letter 99, page 145-147
15. Moulton: Vol.2, page 139 under date December 22, 1803, and note 2                               

          ​The Corps of Discovery completed their trek when they reached St. Louis in late September of 1806.  During the last few hundred miles they had met several groups of traders heading up the Missouri who were planning to try their hand at trading with the tribes that lived as far upriver as current day Nebraska.  Surely the talk of the Expedition’s adventures was on many lips and creating more than a few dreams and even plans to challenge the Rockies for the great wealth to be had from the abundance of furs.
          Spring 1807 found St. Louis businessman Manuel Lisa leading a group of 50 men up the Missouri on their way to Montana.  About a week into their journey, they met John Colter who was finally almost home after his years with the Lewis and Clark Expedition followed by a season trapping with two others, he had met the summer of 1806 in the Mandan area. Colter would not actually return to St. Louis for six years after he left in the spring of 1804.
          Colter agreed to Lisa’s offer to join his group, possibly because several other former members of the Lewis and Clark Expedition were already in the party.  This group included George Drouillard, Peter Weiser, John Potts, Richard Windsor, and Baptiste LePage.
           By November they were at the mouth of the Bighorn River on the Yellowstone where Manuel Lisa planned to build a trading fort.  This was one of the locations that Captain Clark had noted in his journals would be a good location for such a trading fort.
          While the main party set to work cutting logs and constructing the fort, John Colter, George Drouillard, and Peter Weiser, all former members of the Corps of Discovery, were sent out in separate directions to find as many tribes as possible to come in and trade with Lisa at the new Fort Raymond at the mouth of the Bighorn.  
          A fourth scout, Edward Rose, was selected to spend the winter with the Crows to trade and promote Lisa’s fort.  Exactly where he went or where he spent the winter in not known, although it was later said he spent two years living with the Crows.  Rose would later become one of the most notorious mountain men in history.  He was known to all Indians as Cut Nose.  A large and powerful man with no fear was best to be left alone.
            Colter was sent south to the Wind River and then west to Jackson Hole then on into what is now Yellowstone Park.  He traveled 500 miles alone in mid-winter, returning to Fort Raymond in the Spring of 1808.  His stories of the thermal pools and other phenomenon gave the area the name of Colter’s Hell.
            Drouillard’s first trip followed the Yellowstone west back to the location of present-day Billings where a band of the Crow tribe was camped.  He made a second trip east into the Bighorn Basin eventually covering much of northcentral Wyoming.
            Weiser was sent to the west following the Yellowstone River until reaching the area of the Bozeman Pass where he turned to the northwest, following the Gallatin River to the Three Forks area.  This was the same route Clark had used on his exploring trip from Travelers Rest the previous year.  From the Three Forks he followed the Madison to the Idaho border and the Snake River.  
         continued next week

          What if when Lewis and is little party met the Blackfeet on the Two Medicine River, those Blackfeet had been successful and made off with the guns and horses before Lewis and his men could have resisted?
            That afternoon when Lewis spotted some horses and several Indians, he said he expected “that we were to have some difficulty with them” and that if they thought they could succeed the Indians would attempt to rob the party.  At daylight the next morning four of the Indians tried to take Lewis’ party’s guns.  This attempt failed, but what if they had been able to get the party’s guns and make good their escape?  Would this have been the end of Lewis and his party? 
           From reading Lewis’ account of the scuffle that morning the Indians would probably have taken the party’s rifles and pouches, powder and lead, and fled.  If they had been able to get back to their camp with these prizes their status as warriors certainly would have gone up several notches. 
            By most accounts the eight Blackfeet that Lewis had encountered were young.  They had apparently been on a horse raid since many of the horses in their band were saddled.  Lewis said that he saw so many saddled that he thought the group much bigger than the eight he was able to see.  These young men were probably still in the learning stages of becoming warriors.  Consequently, they would probably not have risked the extra time to kill Lewis and his party or to collect more of their baggage and take it.  They would have surely taken all the horses; not only would this have added to the herd they already had, thus making them even more successful, but it would have reduced the chance of Lewis being able to give chase.  So where would this have left Lewis and his three companions
          The eight Indians that Lewis encountered were most likely 15 to 16 years old; old enough to physically look adult, but still youthful in their actions.  Older, more proven warriors may well have simply killed the party then leisurely searched their baggage taking what they pleased.  But the youthful, lesser-experienced warriors only wanted to take the guns and horses they get to the safety of home to tell their brave deeds.  The men they left on the prairie would live or die, it didn’t matter.
           Lewis and his men would have spent a few minutes assessing their situation; on foot without guns in the middle of a country that hostile people called home.  An examination of their baggage would reveal they still had their knives, navigation instruments and Lewis would have his pistol with one shot in it.  They would quickly realize giving chase was impossible.
             Instead, they concentrated on their own survival and reunion with the main expedition.  The only question would be how fast they could reach the Marias.  Traveling 20 miles per day on foot they could make it in 5 or 6 days.  According to Sgt. Gass the party that had reportaged the Great Falls and were bringing the boats downriver from there had instructions to wait for Lewis at the Marias until September 1 before proceeding on downriver to join Clark.  Gass further said Lewis planned to return to the Marias by August 5.  Since the incident at the Two Medicine was on the morning of July 27, they had ten days to get to the Marias.
             If Lewis and his companions had no further encounters with Indians and were successful in re-uniting with Ordway the only loss was a few days travel time.  But what if they were not able to get to the Marias before Ordway left?
            Their first order of business was to get out of Blackfeet country and to the Marias.  At the risk of being caught out in the open prairie they would probably head cross country directly to the Teton River.  Upon reaching that river they would have followed it downstream to the Marias.  Since they had knives and hatchets they may have opted to build a raft, but Lewis’ experience the year before on the Marias probably would have decided him against that activity.  Instead, he would have pushed on to rendezvous with Ordway.
           Once Lewis and his companions reached the Marias they would have been in good shape.  The Expedition had cached extra food and equipment there the year before.  Sgt. Ordway would have dug up the caches, but if he had left before Lewis rejoined them, he surely would have left some of the supplies just in case Lewis did make it back to that place.  Consequently, Lewis would have some food and surely some ammunition as well as two muskets that were in the cache. 
            There was sufficient deer, elk and buffalo in that area that Lewis could have fashioned some sort of watercraft for his party of four as Sgt. Pryor did down on the Yellowstone after the Crow Indians stole all his horses and left his party on foot.
         My conclusion on this matter is that if the Blackfeet had been successful, they would have only taken Lewis’ guns, ammunition and horses leaving the party alive but on foot.  The party was fully capable of making the overland trip from the Two Medicine to the Marias on foot well within the time Ordway was to wait for their return.  If they had no further adventures with Indians Lewis and his party would have had a joyful reunion with Ordway at the Marias and continued on down the river to join with Clark pretty much on schedule.