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Lewis and Clark Expedition

1804–1806 American expedition

"Lewis and Clark" redirects here. For the leaders of the expedition, see Meriwether Lewis and William Clark. For other uses, see Lewis and Clark (disambiguation).

The Lewis and Clark Expedition, also known as the Corps of Discovery Expedition, was the United States expedition to cross the newly acquired western portion of the country after the Louisiana Purchase. The Corps of Discovery was a select group of U.S. Army and civilian volunteers under the command of Captain Meriwether Lewis and his close friend Second Lieutenant William Clark. Clark, along with 30 others, set out from Camp Dubois (Camp Wood), Illinois, on May 14, 1804, met Lewis and ten other members of the group in St. Charles, Missouri, then went up the Missouri River. The expedition crossed the Continental Divide of the Americas near the Lemhi Pass, eventually coming to the Columbia River, and the Pacific Ocean in 1805. The return voyage began on March 23, 1806, at Fort Clatsop, Oregon, ending six months later on September 23 of that year.

President

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Meriwether Lewis

(1774-1809)

Who Was Meriwether Lewis?

Born in 1774 in Virginia, Meriwether Lewis was asked by President Thomas Jefferson in 1801 to act as his private secretary. Jefferson soon made Lewis another offer — to lead an expedition into the lands west of the Mississippi, which he did after enlisting William Clark. With the help of Sacagawea, the team successfully reached the Pacific Ocean in November of 1805. Their journey was famously known as the Lewis and Clark Expedition.

Early Life

Lewis was born on August 18, 1774, near Ivy, Virginia. His parents, Lt. William Lewis of Locust Hill and Lucy Meriwether, were of Welsh and English ancestry, respectively. After Lewis' father died from pneumonia, his mother and stepfather, Captain John Marks, moved him and his siblings to Georgia in what is now Oglethorpe County.

Lewis spent his childhood in Georgia building his hunting skills and spending most of his time outdoors. However, once he reached his early teens, he would be called back to Virginia under the guardianship of his father's brother, to be given a formal

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Meriwether Lewis & William Clark

Meriwether Lewis was born August 18, 1774, near Charlottesville, VA, and was a boyhood neighbor of Thomas Jefferson. In 1794, Lewis joined the militia and, at the rank of Ensign, was attached to a sublegion of General "Mad Anthony" Wayne commanded by Lieutenant William Clark. In sharing the experiences of the Northwest Campaign against the British and the Indians, Lewis and Clark fashioned the bonds of an enduring friendship.

On March 6, 1801, Lewis, as a young Army Captain in Pittsburgh, received a letter from the soon to be inaugurated President, Thomas Jefferson, offering Lewis a position as his secretary-aide. It said, "Your knolege of the Western country, of the army, and of it's interests and relations has rendered it desireable for public as well as private purposes that you should be engaged in that office." Lewis readily accepted the position.
The reference to Lewis' "knolege of the Western country" hinted that Jefferson was again planning an expedition to explore the West and had tentatively decided that Lewis