The Lewis and Clark Expedition
                                Small Arms, Personnel, and Miscellany
                                                     by Walt Walker

               A 9 part series examining details of the men and their guns

Chapter 7; Time to Leave
          
          On March 23rd, 1806, the Corps departed for home. Drewyer and the Field brothers had been sent ahead to hunt from a small canoe on March 22nd. As the party proceeded up the Columbia, Willard and Bratton were still in a weakened state.  However, by the 29th Willard had recovered.
          The corps had two  Indian-made canoes.  They were for Pryor’s squad. Pryor’s canoes were manned by Pryor, Shields, Whitehouse, Weizer, Cruzatte, Labiche, and Howard.  Gibson’s canoe had Gibson, Collins, Shannon and Colter. Up ahead there was the small canoe with Drewyer and the Field brothers. There were nineteen people left for the other canoes, including Charbono’s family. The three other large canoes would have been capable of carrying six to seven people each. York was probably in Clark’s canoe. Seaman was probably in Lewis’s canoe.  Baggage and other personal gear were probably distributed among the canoes not designated for the hunters.  Going upriver, they were not walking on land.  The hunters sent out were the good hunters. All met at their canoes and no one was left behind to catch up.
          On the 31st the Corps arrived at the Quicksand River and set up camp for several days. Again, parties were sent out to hunt.  Gass, Windsor, and Collins were among one party of five. Drewyer and the Field brothers were with a party of four also sent to the south side of the Columbia.  Gibson, Shannon, and one other,   were sent to the north side.
          Clark took a pilot, Cruzatte, Weiser, Thompson, Howard, Potts, York and Whitehouse to examine the Multnomah River.  Colter, Willard and Labiche were likely sent to hunt with the parties on the south side. The balance of the party stayed with Lewis in the camp on the north side.
          On April 4th, Gibson, Shannon, Howard, and Weiser were sent ahead to hunt.  On the 5th, Drewyer and the Field brothers were sent to join Gibson’s party.  The main party left the Quicksand River on the 6th of April. On that day Frazer used his musket to kill a grouse. On April 20th, Lewis bought a gun from the chief of the Skillute Tribe. On the 29th Lewis gave one of his personal cased pistols and ammunition to one of Wallowah chiefs.
          By the 12th of May, the party encountered the Nez Perce and Lewis gave the gun he purchased on April 20th along with powder and ball to Twisted Hair, by a previous agreement with Twisted Hair to look after the Corp’s horses over the winter. During this time, Pryor was named a hunter on May 16th and LePage on the 18th. Whether the captains gave Twisted hair another promised gun is unknown as Twisted hair did not deliver on his promise to move his abode next to Lewis and Clarks’ Camp and no mention was made of the second gun.  Twisted Hair had men deliver the balance of the horses on May 31st.  He was missing two horses that had been taken by Toby, the Shoshone guide, after Toby and his son left the Corps in 1805.
 
Chapter 8; Back to Buffalo Country
 
          On June 10th, 1806, the corps left Camp Choppunish and headed to Travelers’ Rest.  The usual hunters were sent out. On June 16th, Windsor burst his rifle barrel and he is never named as a hunter for the rest of the trip home. On June 18th, the captains sent a rifle back with Drewyer and Shannon to entice the Nez Perce guides to come up more quickly to conduct them over the Lolo Trail. Gass and the Field brothers were sent forward to hunt on the 21st. On the 22nd, all hands who could hunt were sent out. The guides arrived with Drewyer and Shannon on June 23rd and all the party arrived at Travelers’ Rest on June 30th. 
          At that point, on July 1st, Shields set to work repairing guns. Windsor’s rifle was fixed and was traded for the gun previously given to one of the Indian guides.  On July 2nd, the second promised gun, a rifle also shortened by Shields, was given to the guides.  An inventory at this point of the trip would show 13 of the contract Harpers Ferry rifles, at least one gun of the two guns listed in inventory on the coast, and 14 muskets. One musket had been traded the previous fall for a horse and two muskets were cached at Decision Point.
          Collins, Colter, Cruzatte, the Field brothers, Gass, Gibson, Labiche, Pryor, Shields, Shannon and Willard actively hunted and would continue to do so. These hunters accounted for twelve of the thirteen rifles.  Ordway had the thirteenth.  Bratton had been disabled since February and didn’t hunt again until August 28th, 1806, when he and Frazer hunted prairie dogs.
Bratton’s rifle might have been the first gun given the Indian guides while Windsor’s damaged and then shortened rifle was traded to the guides for that first rifle (Bratton’s). That first rifle was then given to the other hunter who had a damaged gun that Shields fixed by shortening the barrel. The newly fixed gun was given to one of the Indian guides.
 

Lewis and Clark Expedition
Small Arms, Personnel and Miscellany
By Walt Walker
 
Chapter 6:  Fort Clatsop and Winter
                                                                                                                                                   
          Crossing over to the Southside of the Columbia, Lewis left the camp on November 29th to look for game and a site for the winter quarters.  He took Drewyer, Colter, R. Field, Shannon, and Labiche with him. All of these men were hunters, four of the seven best with Labiche being the best fowler.  Drewyer killed an elk on the 1st of December and J. Field from Clark’s party killed one on the 2nd of December. These two elk were the first the party killed since they came over Lolo Pass. Gibson and Pryor killed two more while York was sent out to fish and hunt fowl. One of the men York surely took with him was Silas Goodrich, an excellent fisherman.
          Importantly, a list of supplies and compass directions to various points around the mouth of the Columbia and estuary was inserted between mileages on the Columbia from TIMM to Cape Disappointment. This list included two guns, one of which they found in the mountains above the falls of the Missouri.
          Charbono lost his fusil in a flash flood near the Great Falls and Clark traded one of the men’s muskets to the Shoshone for a horse.  Clark gave the man his fusil to use temporarily.  Clark later noted that Charbono hunted buffalo on the Yellowstone.  It is questionable as to what gun he used.  It would not have been a government issue. Clark must have traded Goodrich’s musket since Goodrich only liked to fish and not hunt. Muskets, not being rifled, could be used by the fowlers.  Collins was known to hunt fowl with a musket, which would indicate that the prior-enlisted men also likely kept their issued muskets along with their rifles. 
          Collins, Windsor, Ordway, and Gass were all named as hunters some time on the expedition with Collins being near Drewyer in hunting prowess.  Notable, also, is that at least until this time, the captains sent out only the men who were noted as hunters.  Frazer appears only to have hunted with his musket and other prior-enlisted men shot game and fowl from their canoes. Later, however, while wintering at Fort Clatsop, several nonhunters occasionally hunted with the regular hunters.  Hunting was very hard work and these nonhunters were mostly used to help retrieve downed game and perform garrison duties.  All the sergeants hunted, with Gass doing the most because Pryor had been assigned duties to keep him from dislocating an injured shoulder and Ordway, as the first sergeant, had charge of all the enlisted men.
            All the riflemen from Kentucky hunted during their stay at Fort Clatsop although Gibson and Bratton became disabled for a long time. Bratton’s illness even kept him disabled and weak on the return trip. He recovered somewhat at the Yellowstone and was mentioned as trapping.  He was sent out hunting again well below the Teton Sioux on the Missouri in 1806.  
          It is difficult to know which of the fifteen prior-enlisted men did not have a musket, but Goodrich seems the likely candidate.  LePage was listed as hunting often during the latter days at Fort Clatsop since Bratton, Willard, and Gibson were ill.  He also hunted at Camp Choppunish.  LePage is not listed as hunting after Travelers’ Rest. Frazer also did some hunting at Fort Clatsop. However, some of his behavior during his trip with Clark from the whale site might have limited his full participation, even though he was a good hunter.
          Potts was sent out with Collins and R. Field on the 26th of December to hunt and the party returned on January 3rd.  Drewyer and LePage set out to hunt and trap on January 17 and returned on January 24th.  Drewyer and LePage again set out to hunt on January 28th and returned on February 3rd.  Drewyer killed seven elk on this trip.  The two hunters set out again on February 4th and returned on February 9th.  Collins and Weiser hunted on February 9th and 10th.  Gass, R. Field, and Thompson set out to hunt on February 11th and returned on the 17th.  On February 15th, Drewyer and Whitehouse left to hunt and returned on the 17th.  John Thompson and R. Field hunted from the 17th to the 18th of February.  R. Field and Thompson again hunt from March 12th to March 14th. 
          In their account of the time at Fort Clatsop, the captains each said that most of the party had become experts using their rifles. The above-listed men who were not regularly mentioned as hunters might have used the rifles issued to the hunters, but once a man is issued a firearm by the army, he is responsible for its use, care, and maintenance. While at Fort Clatsop, the captains might have pulled one or some of the rifles back into company inventory to be signed out as needed. An arrangement like this would make sense since most of the men had become experts with the rifle.
          Labiche lost the front site of his gun causing him to miss several shots at elk on March 15th, thus proving he had one of the rifles. Ordway is never named as a hunter in the time at Fort Clatsop.  He does leave the fort, but for other reasons. Pryor didn’t hunt, but it may be to keep from reinjuring his shoulder.  Bratton and Gibson did not hunt again while at Fort Clatsop after their illnesses occurred.  Shields hunted late in the Corps residency at Fort Clatsop, but I believe he was needed at the fort to keeps the guns in working order. Since there were now many excellent hunters in residence, he was not utilized to hunt. Shields was an excellent hunter and would have been ranked with the best had he hunted more.
          Other than one extended foray, Gass usually attended to other duties at the fort including being in charge of the parties bringing in meat from the hunters’ kills.  Cruzatte is not mentioned as hunting.  Nor were Goodrich, Hall, McNeal, and Werner. The captains actually call Werner and Howard, “not good woodsmen”.  Willard cut his knee badly with his tomahawk so he didn’t hunt at Ft. Clatsop after that time.
          Willard returned from the Saltworks on February 10th.  He was badly injured and reported Bratton to be very sick and Gibson to be so sick that he could not sit up, stand or walk alone.  Pryor and four men went to the Saltworks to bring back Bratton, Gibson, Colter, and Weiser.  They returned with Gibson and Bratton. The Saltworks was closed down and the rest of the men returned to Fort Clatsop with salt kettles, etc.  On the 26th of February, Drewyer took Cruzatte and Weiser up the Columbia to get sturgeon and anchovies. They returned on March 2nd with a good supply.
 

                                        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
 
Chapter 4:  Into the Unknown
 
            The Expedition left Fort Mandan on April 7,1805, using six canoes they had built over the winter and the Red and the White pirogues and sent the keelboat, commanded by Corporal Warfington, with his crew and some passengers to St. Louis. Until April 16th, the party found that game was scarce along the river due to the number of Hidatsa and Assiniboine winter camps all along the way.  The game was extremely wary after being chased all winter by the tribesmen. At one point, the captains sent out ten hunters and none were able to shoot any game. When the Corps was able to get an animal, it was in poor condition after coming through the bitter winter and had not had enough time to restore its condition during spring feeding.
        After the 16th they began to encounter more game for their meat supplies and hunters were sent out more frequently. On one of those hunts on the 21st, Potts killed a buffalo calf. Buffalo calves and beaver became the preferred meats on this leg of the journey.  Potts and Drewyer were the only hunters mentioned by name, other than the captains.  Lewis wrote on April 27th, as the Corps was passing the mouth of the Yellowstone River, that he thought two hunters could supply a regiment with provisions from this area. Lewis and Drewyer made the party’s first grizzly bear kill on the 29th and Clark and Drewyer make the second kill on May 5th.  These grizzly bears were the first two of forty that the Corps would kill on their way. All but the last bear were killed in present-day Montana and Idaho. The 40th bear was killed near present-day Williston North Dakota on August 5th, 1806. Most were taken by rifle, but muskets were also used.
           From the Yellowstone to the Musselshell River, the hunters mentioned by name were Gibson, Bratton, Shields, J. Field, Labiche, Drewyer, Shannon, and the captains.  After the Musselshell, the game became scarce until after the party passed the White Cliffs and traveled on to the Marias River.  Bratton, Drewyer, Charbono, and the captains were the hunters mentioned by name on this leg.
          Here, at the mouth of the Marias River, also called Decision Point, the Field brothers, Pryor, Gass, Drewyer, Shannon, Shields, Windsor, Cruzatte, LePage, York, and the captains divided into two parties to explore up the Missouri and up the Marias trying to determine which branch was the true Missouri River. Note that all of these men were hunters and all carried rifles, except maybe LePage. After it was decided that the south branch was the Missouri the Corps drew the red pirogue out of the water and secured it between trees. Two muskets were cached near the Marias with other items. These were the muskets that had been issued to Leekens and Reed. Lewis took Drewyer, J. Field, Gibson, and Goodrich by land to find the falls, to confirm that this was the way. Hunters mentioned were Drewyer, the Field brothers, Gibson, Frazer, Shannon, Willard, and Colter.
          The White Pirogue was cached near the Lower Camp below Portage Creek and the canoes were portaged. On the portage past all of the falls of the Missouri, until the Corps reached the Upper Camp and later, the Canoe Camp nearby (where two more canoes were built). Drewyer, the Field brothers, Shannon, Willard, Shields, Gass, York, Ordway, and the captains were mentioned as hunting.   
         On July 15th, 1805, the Corps departed the Canoe Camp in eight canoes. They continued to find game plentiful with the captains and Drewyer being the named hunters.  As the party proceeded upriver into the mountains, the game became scarce. At one of their stops on July 22nd, they found a fusil, to be added to their inventory.  Clark went ahead onshore with York, Potts, and J. Field to, hopefully, find the Lemhi Shoshone.  They hunted as they went.  Then Clark changed his crew and took J. and R. Field, Frazer, and Charbono with him on land. Drewyer hunted on his own. 
            On July 30th, the Corps proceeded on from the Three Forks to find the headwaters of the Missouri, the Shoshone Indians, and a route to the Pacific Ocean.  Lewis took Drewyer, Charbono, and Gass by land.  Hunters included the captains, Drewyer, and the Field brothers.  On August 6th, one canoe overturned, and several articles were lost including a shot pouch and implements for one rifle. Two more canoes filled with water with Joseph Whitehouse thrown out and injured when one canoe passed over him. The next day they cached one of the canoes near the mouth of the Wisdom River.
            On the 10th, Lewis and his party including Drewyer, Shields, and Hugh McNeal (the cook) arrive at the future site of Camp Fortunate.  The game has not been plentiful for them.  Clark, with the remaining fourteen hunters and the rest of the party, did not arrive until August 17th.  Collins, Colter, and the Field brothers had been sent out in advance to hunt as standard procedure since leaving the Three Forks up to reaching Camp Fortunate. Leaving there, all of the hunting was done by men with the Harpers Ferry rifles from Camp Fortunate to the Canoe Camp on the Clearwater in Nez Perce country. Frazer, however, continued to hunt with his musket.  While ascending the Jefferson and Beaverhead rivers to Camp Fortunate several musket men, along with the regular rifle hunters, took game along the river as well as in the river. The rifle hunters were able to hunt the ground further away from the water.
          At Camp Fortunate and upon meeting the Shoshone Tribe, the party started trading for horses.  Clark traded a pistol, balls, powder, and a knife for a horse on the 29th of August.  The next day, he traded a fusil to a soldier for the man’s musket which Clark then traded for a horse. After they met the Tushepaws, the hunters procured enough game for their immediate needs until they traveled up and over the pass on the trail from Travelers Rest.
 
Chapter 5:  Ocean in View
 
          The party had to kill three colts and a horse to survive on the trek through the mountains to Nez Perce country. Here, the hunters took some game.  However, after leaving the Canoe Camp on the Clearwater River, where they built five canoes, large game was not to be found all the way to the Columbia River and below. They took some waterfowl and some upland birds.  However, they did not take enough to feed the party, so they had to trade for salmon and dogs to subsist.  Labiche, noted for taking waterfowl, used his fusil since the party had at least one canister of shot and some shot pouches.  
          It was not until the party reached The Dalles that they were able to successfully hunt deer.  From the Dalles, nearing the Quicksand River, several of the men traveled out hunting while the men left in camp shot several geese flying overhead.  Collins and the Field brothers killed waterfowl as did the captains but not any big game.
        Passing through the coastal mountain ranges, the thickness of the vegetation prevented hunting on foot.  The hunters took only waterfowl from there to the coast. Initially, the Corps reached the mouth of the Columbia on the north side and sent out hunters and fowlers.  Labiche was the best fowler and Collins was also very good.  Several riflemen and musket men were also good fowlers. 
          Whenever the party went to explore on foot, all the party was considered to be on the hunt.  Clark would probably not have relied on Peter Weiser or Charbono given that he had six of the seven best hunters with him on his tour of the coast north from Cape Disappointment. Lewis had previously made a similar tour and was in camp with the rest of the party. Colter stayed in camp along with the only other hunters: Shields, Cruzatte, Frazer, and Gass. There were, possibly, some other fowlers among the men who stayed.

                              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
 
Chapter 2:  Basic Training
 
          Lewis reported himself as doing some squirrel hunting coming down the Ohio in 1803.  Nathaniel Pryor hunted for a couple of days on the voyage up the Mississippi near Cape Girardeau. Lewis reported that while coming down the Ohio, the rifles (contract rifles modified at the Harpers Ferry Arsenal and in this writing: aka Harpers Ferry rifles) needed attention from getting wet even though they had been wrapped in oilcloth. From this report and the winter spent at Camp Dubois, it is difficult to determine exactly when the Harpers Ferry rifles were issued to the troops.
            Clark mentioned several times after January 1st, 1804, that the men were shooting at a mark and in contests with the country people around Camp Dubois. Deer was the only big game taken that winter. Turkeys, grouse, and some waterfowl were taken frequently. The men were not having to “live off the land” yet.  They had sufficient provisions, including butter, available to them. Even at that, the men who would become the party’s main hunters began to stand out.  Drouillard was already known to be an outstanding hunter. Reuben Field, John Collins, John Colter, George Gibson, John Shields, and Joseph Field began to show their prowess, while George Shannon (the youngest of the party) would develop later as an excellent hunter.  Shannon was only eighteen at this early stage and was a novice compared to the others. Richard Windsor would also later become a good hunter. Alexander Willard was not mentioned as a hunter but later became an excellent hunter. Nathanial Pryor and Charles Floyd also hunted but Clark used them more for other duties developing their skills in order to promote them to sergeants later on that winter or spring.  John Ordway was a sergeant and sometimes hunter, but he usually had other duties.  William Werner, Hugh Hall, and John Thompson appeared to have a knack for trapping rabbits and Moses Reed later developed into a good hunter.
            Clark reported giving out the knives, tomahawks, etc. to the men on the 6th of April.  Whether that meant that the rifles were issued to the hunters at the same time is hard to tell.  On the 10th of May, Clark ordered the men with rifles to have a hundred balls for their rifles and two pounds of buckshot for those men with muskets and fusils (also called “fuzees”). Clark reported that, on the 14th of May, the men had powder, cartridges (for the muskets), and each issued a hundred balls.
            Muskets carried by the men transferred from other army units could use buckshot for birds or use a single ball at close range for the deer-sized game to be had from the wooded country around Camp Dubois. Fusils could use either a round ball or buckshot. The French engaged for the mission carried fusils.
          So, the question to be asked is: Did the men from Kentucky use their own rifles and/or fusils before finally getting issued the Harpers Ferry rifles? The other question without an answer yet is: “Did some of the soldiers transferred into the corps have contract rifles issued from their former companies or did these men all bring muskets with them? And, finally, the soldiers who were discharged (Leekins for theft and, later, Reed for desertion) would have been stripped of all firearms and accouterments. Such arms would have been retained by the captains and probably were the two muskets cached at Decision Point to be picked up on the return trip in 1806.
          Looking into this background, I am going to assume that, as the Corps departed Camp Dubois on May 14th, 1804, the recruits from Kentucky: William Bratton, Colter, J. Field, R. Field, Floyd, Gibson, Pryor, Shannon, and Shields were the men issued the Harpers Ferry rifles.
          Further, the soldiers who transferred to the Corps brought their issued muskets with them since none of the men came from rifle companies. This does not answer the question of whether any of these men brought private firearms with them.
          All of the men designated for the return trip with the keelboat and under the command of Corporal Warfington were soldiers and carried muskets, including Robert Frazer, who later became part of the permanent party.  Pierre Cruzatte and Francois Labiche, enlisted as boatmen and interpreters, might have brought their personal firearms since Labiche was cited as being the best fowler while at Fort Clatsop and that meant that he used a fusil (fuzee).   Both of these men were also hunters of big game. Neither of them hunted much before Fort Mandan. They were kept busy with the keelboat. 
            Upon departure from Camp Dubois, the nine men from Kentucky carried issued rifles.  Also, four rifles were issued to Sgt. Ordway, Collins, Willard, and Windsor, with the two extra rifles being carried as Corps supplies along with the Leekens’ musket. All sixteen soldiers assigned to the permanent party carried their muskets.  Thus, there were fifteen Harpers Ferry contract rifles along with seventeen muskets in the company’s inventory of government guns. (16)
___________________________________________________________
16. Norm Flayderman: “Flayderman’s Guide to Antique Firearms. 8th edition, page 499 IX-B “Secondary Military Firearms”

                              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)
__________________________________________________________ 
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.