George Shannon
Private George Shannon (1785–1836) was the youngest member of the permanent party of the Corps of Discovery at just 18 years old when the expedition departed. He became famously lost twice during the journey, once for 16 days along the Missouri when he got ahead of the main party and nearly starved. Despite his youth, Shannon proved an able soldier and was trusted with important assignments. After the expedition, he studied law and was wounded in a leg during the 1807 attempt to return Chief Sheheke to the Mandan, resulting in amputation. He went on to serve as a U.S. Senator from Missouri and helped Nicholas Biddle edit the expedition journals for publication.
Biography
George Shannon (1785-1836) was the youngest member of the permanent party at just 18 years old when the expedition departed. Despite his youth, Shannon proved resourceful — though he also became famous for getting lost.
In August 1804, Shannon became separated from the party for 16 days while hunting, surviving on grapes and one rabbit. The party eventually found him weak and emaciated, sitting by the river waiting for them — unaware they were behind him, not ahead. Clark noted his ordeal with characteristic understatement.
After the expedition, Shannon studied law and became an attorney and politician. He lost a leg during a skirmish with the Arikara while escorting Chief Sheheke back to the Mandan villages in 1807. Despite this disability, he served as a U.S. Senator from Missouri and helped Nicholas Biddle prepare the official narrative of the expedition.
Shannon died in 1836 at age 51, having lived the most conventionally successful post-expedition life of any enlisted member.
Related Locations
Note: the longest gap between tagged appearances is about 4 months (Jan 14, 1805 → May 1, 1805). George Shannon may have been present in the corps during that span but is not named in the journals.
Journal Entries (177)
Cross-Narrator Analyses
Analyses that cite or discuss George Shannon — showing 18 of the most recent matches.
George Shannon: The Youngest Soldier of the Corps of Discovery
IntroductionGeorge Shannon was, at roughly eighteen years of age, the youngest enlisted member of the permanent party of the Corps of Discovery.…
A Lost Note, a Wrong Fork, and a Canoe That Nearly Killed Whitehouse
The journals of August 6, 1805 converge on a single compound disaster at the junction of the Big Hole and Jefferson rivers.…
At the Mouth of the White River: Four Voices, One Reconnaissance
The expedition's progress on September 15, 1804, centered on a single decision: to detach two men up the White River while the…
Dog Meat, Whale Blubber, and a Captain’s Honest Disagreement
The journal entries for January 3, 1806 offer a rare and revealing instance in which Lewis and Clark, who routinely shared field…
Four Pens at the Mouth of the Quicourre
The Corps of Discovery's passage past the mouth of the Niobrara River—called by Clark the Que Courre or Rapid River—on September 4,…
In Full View of an Ocean More Raging Than Pacific
By mid-November 1805, the Corps of Discovery had reached the Pacific tidewater but could not yet claim the coast. Confined to a…
Lewis Departs Overland: A Captain’s Calculated Risk and a Lost Man’s Return
The August 9, 1805 entries cluster around two events along the Jefferson River near present-day Dillon, Montana: the return of George Shannon,…
Plumb Creek and the Yellow Bluffs: Three Views of a September Reach
September 3, 1804, on the Missouri in the later Niobrara country. Three published journals in this corpus record the day: Patrick Gass,…
Seven Elk, One Bushel of Salt: Provisioning Anxieties at Fort Clatsop
The journal entries of February 3, 1806, capture a routine but revealing day at Fort Clatsop: hunter George Drouillard and Jean Baptiste…
Shannon Returns: Four Accounts of a Lost Man’s Reappearance
The reunion with George Shannon, the youngest member of the Corps of Discovery, dominates all four journal entries for September 11, 1804.…
Smoke on the Plains: Two Views from Fort Mandan
The entries for March 6, 1805 from Fort Mandan offer a useful study in narrator divergence. William Clark and John Ordway both…
Ten Elk on a Mountainside, and a Mercury Cure at Fort Clatsop
The journal entries for January 27, 1806, offer an unusually clear window into how information traveled through the chain of command at…
Three Versions of a Cold, Windy Day on the Missouri
The expedition's journals for September 6, 1804, offer a useful case study in how three narrators operating side by side on the…
Three Views of the Portage: Surveying, Suffering, and Assembling the Iron Boat
The journal entries from June 23, 1805 capture the Great Falls Portage at a moment when the Corps of Discovery was split…
Wind, Whiskey, and a Pint of Chocolate: Three Views of a Slow Day on the Lower Missouri
The expedition was now well into its descent of the Missouri, retracing in days what had taken weeks on the outbound journey.…
François Labiche: Hunter, Waterman, and Interpreter of the Corps of Discovery
IntroductionFrançois Labiche — variously spelled Labieche, Labiech, Labeech, and Labice in the journals — was an enlisted private of the permanent party…
John Colter: The Hunter Who Walked Away From Home
Enlistment and First Mess AssignmentJohn Colter first appears in the official record on May 26, 1804, when Meriwether Lewis issued detachment orders…
Sergeant Nathaniel Pryor: A Steady Hand of the Corps of Discovery
IntroductionSergeant Nathaniel Pryor stands among the three non-commissioned officers chosen at the outset of the Corps of Discovery to lead a squad.…
From the Heacock Memorial Archive
4 lewis-clark.org articles that mention George Shannon, preserved here for Robert Heacock’s photography. The articles were written by that site’s contributing authors.
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