The same day, in every journal that recorded it.
For dates when two or more expedition journalists were writing, this database compares what each preserved. Analyses are drafted from the cited journal entries, then checked against the quoted text. They sit beside the primary record — they do not replace Gary Moulton’s edition, or reading the journals themselves.
The Silence of Meriwether Lewis: What Clark and the Sergeants Preserved, August 1805–January 1806
Among the unresolved mysteries of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, none is more consequential to the historical record than Meriwether Lewis's prolonged silence after August 26, 1805, until he opened Codex J on January 1, 1806. During this stretch —…
Read the analysisFeatured analyses
A curated mix — thematic essays, per-figure deep dives, and rich multi-narrator dates.
Sacagawea: The Shoshone Interpreter of the Corps of Discovery
Sacagawea entered the expedition record indirectly, through her husband. On November 4, 1804, Clark’s journal for that day records that "A Mr. Chaubonee interpreter for the Gross Ventre…
Cameahwait: The Lemhi Shoshone Chief Who Traded Horses
Cameahwait — chief of a band of Lemhi Shoshone encountered west of the Continental Divide in August 1805 — became, in the span of two weeks, a Native…
Turning Back from the Crossing: Three Views of a Wind-Bound Day on the Columbia
The entries for November 25, 1805 capture the Corps of Discovery in a moment of tactical retreat. Having pushed downriver to glimpse the Pacific, the expedition was now…
An Ancient Fortification on the Missouri: Three Views of a Vanished Earthwork
The entries for September 2, 1804, written as the expedition camped opposite present-day Bonhomme Island on the Missouri, offer an unusually clear demonstration of how the Corps' three…
Scarcity, Diplomacy, and a Frostbitten Return at Fort Mandan
The journal entries dated January 13, 1805 offer a revealing case study in how three members of the Corps of Discovery filtered the same winter day at Fort…
Foot Races, Fiddles, and a Warning About the Mountains
The expedition's Sunday at Camp Chopunnish, the so-called Long Camp on the Clearwater, was outwardly unremarkable: a hunter returned empty-handed, visitors arrived from a neighboring band, the men…
Cold Rain on the Divided Plains: Two Camps, One Expedition
By July 9, 1806, the Corps of Discovery had divided into multiple parties to explore the country between the Continental Divide and the Missouri's Great Falls. The four…
Two Botanists at Fort Clatsop: Ferns, Licorice, and the Limits of Shared Authorship
The journal entries for January 22, 1806 at Fort Clatsop offer one of the clearest demonstrations in the expedition record of how Lewis and Clark composed in tandem…
Thematic essays
Long-form analyses that cut across many dates — diet, illness, language, weather, copying patterns, naming conventions.
Diet Across the Expedition: A Seasonal Analysis
An earlier version of this page said the diet essay could not be written because no journal entries had been supplied. The…
The Silence of Meriwether Lewis: What Clark and the Sergeants Preserved, August 1805–January 1806
Among the unresolved mysteries of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, none is more consequential to the historical record than Meriwether Lewis's prolonged…
Shadowing the Sergeant: How Joseph Whitehouse Copied — and Quietly Expanded — John Ordway’s Journal
Among the enlisted journalists of the Corps of Discovery, Sergeant John Ordway and Private Joseph Whitehouse have long been recognized as textually…
Per-narrator studies
One essay for each expedition diarist — their distinctive voice, omissions, recurring themes, and how their writing evolved.
Key figure profiles
Biographical syntheses drawn from journal entries that mention each person or nation.
Auguste Chouteau: St. Louis Patron of the Corps of Discovery
Auguste Chouteau (1749–1829), co-founder of St. Louis and patriarch of its dominant mercantile family, is woven throughout the Lewis and Clark journals…
Cameahwait: The Lemhi Shoshone Chief Who Traded Horses
Cameahwait — chief of a band of Lemhi Shoshone encountered west of the Continental Divide in August 1805 — became, in the…
François Labiche: Hunter, Waterman, and Interpreter of the Corps of Discovery
François Labiche — variously spelled Labieche, Labiech, Labeech, and Labice in the journals — was an enlisted private of the permanent party…
George Catlin in the Lewis & Clark Journal Record
George Catlin (1796–1872) is not mentioned in any entry of the Lewis and Clark journals. The dataset underlying this synthesis contains zero…
George Drouillard: Hunter, Interpreter, and Sign-Talker of the Corps
No member of the Corps of Discovery save the captains themselves appears more frequently in the journals than George Drouillard — variously…
George Shannon: The Youngest Soldier of the Corps of Discovery
George Shannon was, at roughly eighteen years of age, the youngest enlisted member of the permanent party of the Corps of Discovery.…
Hugh McNeal: A Private’s Long March
Hugh McNeal first appears in the expedition record on May 26, 1804, when Captain Lewis issued detachment orders organizing the permanent party…
Jean Baptiste Charbonneau: The Infant Traveler of the Corps of Discovery
Jean Baptiste Charbonneau entered the expedition record on February 11, 1805, when his mother Sacagawea gave birth at Fort Mandan. Meriwether Lewis…
John Colter: The Hunter Who Walked Away From Home
John Colter first appears in the official record on May 26, 1804, when Meriwether Lewis issued detachment orders organizing the Corps into…
John Shields: The Expedition’s Blacksmith and Gunsmith
John Shields was, at thirty-four when the expedition departed, the oldest enlisted man in the permanent party — and one of the…
Ninian Edwards in the Lewis & Clark Journals: A Figure at the Margins of the Record
The corpus of journal entries supplied for this synthesis contains zero references to Ninian Edwards. No narrator — not Meriwether Lewis, William…
Old Toby: The Shoshone Guide Through the Bitterroots
The two journal entries provided for this synthesis (dated September 4 and September 16, 1805) do not mention Old Toby by name.…
Browse by date
859 date-bound analyses, in chronological order.
How these analyses are written
Each analysis is drafted from the primary-source journal entries cited on the page, then checked against the quoted journal text. The comparison is machine-assisted. It is not a substitute for the journals, or for Gary Moulton’s thirteen-volume edition. Date essays compare journalists who wrote on the same day. Thematic and figure essays only hold when those citations are real journal text — not later histories, and not editorial summaries.