Awaiting Drouillard: Three Pens at a Camp on the Missouri
1804-08-17August 17, 1804, a waiting camp on the Missouri. Three published journals in this corpus…
Topic
Expedition Members
Analyses (20)
View allDrouillard’s Seven Elk and a New Rationing System
1806-01-12The journal entries for January 12, 1806 offer an unusually clear case study in how…
François Labiche: Hunter, Waterman, and Interpreter of the Corps of Discovery
IntroductionFrançois Labiche — variously spelled Labieche, Labiech, Labeech, and Labice in the journals — was…
George Drouillard: Hunter, Interpreter, and Sign-Talker of the Corps
IntroductionNo member of the Corps of Discovery save the captains themselves appears more frequently in…
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…
Hugh McNeal: A Private’s Long March
Enlistment and Mess AssignmentHugh McNeal first appears in the expedition record on May 26, 1804,…
John Colter: The Hunter Who Walked Away From Home
Enlistment and First Mess AssignmentJohn Colter first appears in the official record on May 26,…
John Shields: The Expedition’s Blacksmith and Gunsmith
An Older Hand Among Young SoldiersJohn Shields was, at thirty-four when the expedition departed, the…
Patrick Gass: The Carpenter’s Ledger
VoicePatrick Gass writes like a man balancing a ledger at the end of a long…
Pierre Cruzatte: Fiddler, Waterman, and the Man Who Shot Meriwether Lewis
Enlistment and Standing in the CorpsPierre Cruzatte (variously spelled Crusat, Crusatte, Cruzat in the journals)…
Saukee Prairie and the Sand in York’s Eye: Three Voices on the Missouri
1804-06-20The expedition's progress on June 20, 1804, along the Missouri near present-day Boonville, Missouri, produced…
Seaman: Lewis’s Newfoundland and the Fourth Member of the Corps
A $20 Purchase in PittsburghIn August 1803, while waiting for the keelboat to be completed…
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…
Sergeant Ordway’s Ledger: The Steady Voice of the Expedition’s Most Faithful Diarist
Voice: The Sergeant's Plain HandJohn Ordway writes like a sergeant: punctual, inclusive, and almost aggressively…
Silas Goodrich: The Expedition’s Fisherman
Enlistment and Mess AssignmentSilas Goodrich first appears in the expedition record on May 26, 1804,…
The Captain’s Eye: Meriwether Lewis as Naturalist, Quartermaster, and Reluctant Diarist
VoiceMeriwether Lewis writes in a register that is at once military, scientific, and quietly literary.…
The Soldier’s Ledger: Joseph Whitehouse’s Plain Account
VoiceJoseph Whitehouse wrote the expedition the way a private soldier keeps a fatigue book —…
The Surveyor’s Eye: William Clark’s Voice on the Expedition
VoiceWilliam Clark writes like a man with a compass in one hand and a rifle…
William Bratton: Hunter, Saltmaker, and Patient of the Corps of Discovery
Enlistment and Place in the CorpsWilliam Bratton enters the expedition record on May 26, 1804,…
York: The Enslaved Man Who Crossed a Continent
Introduction: A Singular Presence in the JournalsYork appears in the Lewis and Clark journals more…
