Enlistment and First Mess Assignment
John Colter first appears in the official record on May 26, 1804, when Meriwether Lewis issued detachment orders organizing the Corps into messes at the outset of the Missouri ascent. Colter was assigned to Sergeant John Ordway’s squad, listed fifth among the privates:
9 Sergt. John Ordway. Privates. 10 William Bratton 11 John Colter 12 Moses B. Reed 13 Alexander Willard 14 William Warner 15 Silas Goodrich 16 John Potts & 17 Hugh Hall
From this organizational moment forward, Colter’s name recurs more frequently than almost any other private soldier — most often in connection with hunting, scouting, and small-party detachments.
The Hunter on the Lower Missouri
Within weeks of departure, Colter had distinguished himself as a hunter. On June 18, 1804, William Clark recorded that six hunters had crossed the river:
they Killed 5 Deer & Colter a Bear verry fat
Clark added in his second entry that the bear was “verry large & fat.”
On August 2, 1804, near the Council Bluff, Clark noted that Colter and George Drouillard returned from a long hunt:
The Two men Drewyer & Colter returned with the horses loaded with Elk, those horses they found about 12 miles in a Southerly Derection from Camp.
Later that month, on August 25, 1804, Clark included Colter in the small party that climbed the so-called Spirit Mound on the White Stone Creek — a sign of his standing among the men selected for special excursions.
The Lost Horse and the Teton Confrontation
Colter figures prominently in two episodes of late summer 1804. On September 3, Clark wrote tersely:
Colter has not over taken Shannon
— Colter had been sent ahead to overtake the lost George Shannon, an errand that fell short. Then on September 24, 1804, Colter was at the center of the first tense encounter with the Teton Sioux:
Soon after we passed the Island Colter ran up the bank & reported that the Sioux had taken his horse, we Soon after Saw five indians on the bank
The theft of Colter’s horse became the diplomatic flashpoint that opened the council. Clark recorded that the captains “Should not Speak to them any more untill the horse was returned to us.”
Through the Plains and Across the Rockies
On September 17, 1804, Clark credited Colter with killing a pronghorn (“a Goat”) and a mule deer — the latter described in detail as a curious species new to the explorers. Colter was also among the men dispatched on August 29 with Sergeant Pryor to escort the Yankton Sioux delegation across the river.
Through the winter at Fort Mandan and the long ascent of 1805, Colter’s name surfaces less frequently in the surviving entries provided here, but he reappears at critical junctures. On September 10, 1805, at Travelers’ Rest, Clark noted:
one of the hunters Colter, met with 3 Tushapaw Indians who were in pursuit of 2 Snake Indians that bade taken from ther Camps on the head of Kooskooske River 21 horses, Those Indians came with Colter to our Camp
This chance meeting — facilitated by Colter — produced the Nez Perce contact that helped guide the Corps over the Bitterroots. On September 24, 1805, Clark dispatched Colter back into the mountains:
despatched J. Colter back to hunt the horses lost in the mountains & bring up Some Shot left behind
Three days later, on September 27, Colter returned having recovered one horse and the lost canister of shot, and killed a deer along the way — sharing half with the Nez Perce.
To the Pacific and Back
Colter was among the small parties sent ahead during the difficult lower Columbia descent. On November 14, 1805, Clark recorded a scouting mission that ended in confrontation with Indians who took Colter’s gig and knife:
Soon after those people Came Colter one of the 3 men returned and informed us that he had proceeded with his Canoe as far as they Could, for the waves and Could find no white people, or Bay, he Saw a good Canoe barber & 2 Camps of Indians at no great distance below and that those with us had taken his gig & knife &c. which he forcably took from them
On November 29, 1805, Lewis selected Colter as one of five men to accompany him in a small canoe searching for winter quarters:
accompanyed by 5 men. drewyer R. Fields, Shannon, Colter & labiesh.
At Fort Clatsop, Colter shared the miseries of December 15–16, 1805, when he and four others were caught out overnight without fire in driving rain. Clark named them:
Ordway Colter Collens, Jo Whitehouse J McNeal
Through the winter Colter hunted regularly, was assigned to the salt camp on February 11, 1806, and was the last hunter still out when the Corps prepared to depart on March 22, 1806 — Lewis writing simply,
the hunters all returned except Colter, unsuccessfull.
The Recovered Tomahawk
On April 9, 1806, ascending the Columbia, Colter recognized stolen property in a Wahclellah lodge. Clark wrote:
one the men Colter observed the Tomahawk which was Stolen from on the 4th of Novr. last as we decended the Columbia, he took the tomahawk the natives attempted to wrest it from him, he held fast the Tomahawk.
Lewis confirmed the same incident, noting that Colter “retained it” despite the natives’ protests. The recovery — five months after the theft — speaks to Colter’s keen observation.
Camp Chopunnish and the Long Wait
During the protracted stay among the Nez Perce in May and June 1806, Colter appears repeatedly as a hunter ranging the high country toward Collins’s Creek. He hunted with Shannon (May 20, May 22, May 26), trekked to Quamash Flats with Collins and Shannon and returned with eight deer (May 28), traded at the Indian villages with Bratton (June 5), and on June 3 was credited by both captains with bringing in five deer and a brown bear:
Colter, Jos. Fields and Willard returned this evening with five deer and one bear of the brown Species
Earlier Brushes with Discipline
While the entries provided here do not detail Colter’s earlier court-martial of 1804 (he was tried alongside Collins for going AWOL near the Kansas River, an event referenced obliquely in the June 29, 1804 court-martial order), his consistent reappearance in trusted assignments throughout the journey indicates that whatever earlier infractions occurred were quickly forgiven. By the second year of the expedition Colter was clearly among the captains’ most trusted men, regularly chosen for advance reconnaissance and for the small canoe parties that scouted ahead.
A Note on the Record
The journals provided do not include the famous moment of Colter’s August 1806 discharge at the Mandan villages, when he requested permission to return upriver with the trappers Hancock and Dickson. The entries above end at June 5, 1806. What this sample of the record does establish is the foundation of Colter’s later reputation: a man whose hunting prowess, willingness to travel alone, and physical endurance made him indispensable to Lewis and Clark from St. Charles to the Pacific and back.
Summary
Across the entries excerpted here, John Colter emerges as the archetypal expedition hunter — repeatedly named alongside Drouillard, Shannon, the Field brothers, and Collins as one of the small circle entrusted with detached duty. He killed bears, elk, deer, and pronghorn; recovered lost horses and stolen tomahawks; scouted ahead on the Pacific coast; manned the salt camp; and weathered the Columbia rains, the Bitterroot snows, and the Nez Perce spring. The journals never give us his voice directly, but his actions are recorded in nearly every phase of the journey.
