The Lewis and Clark Expedition

The Lewis and Clark Expedition. and Fort Southwest Point. , The Lewis and Clark Expedition and Fort Southwest Point , The Lewis and Clark Expedition (1804-06) was conceived by President Thomas Jefferson to be an exploration of discovery through the West and on to the Pacific Ocean. The purposes of the Expedition were to search for an all-water route across the West and to describe the land recently purchased from France, the Louisiana Purchase. The Expedition was an Army military mission commanded by Captains Meriwether Lewis and William Clark and manned by soldiers, most of whom were to be recruited from Army posts in the West., Captain Meriwether Lewis’ initial plans were to travel overland to Fort Southwest Point in 1803, recruit his core group of soldiers from there, and march them west on the Avery Trace to Nashville. At Nashville, he planned to take possession of a previously ordered keelboat, float down the Cumberland River to the Ohio River, continue westward to the Mississippi River and then north to the mouth of the Missouri River near St. Louis., These plans changed with Lewis deciding to travel overland to Pittsburgh and float down the Ohio river in a keelboat constructed in the Pittsburgh area. This plan required that recruits from Fort Southwest Point would need to travel to join Lewis and Clark at Fort Massac located near the confluence of the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers. When Lewis and Clark arrived at Fort Massac in November, 1803, the Fort Southwest Point recruits had not arrived. Captain Lewis employed a local hunter, George Drouillard, to go to Fort Southwest Point and lead the recruits to the Expedition’s winter camp on the Illinois side of the Mississippi River near St. Louis. Drouillard traveled to Fort Southwest Point and successfully led eight men to the Expedition’s winter camp named Camp Dubois located near the mouth of the Missouri River., Four of the Fort Southwest Point recruits were selected for the Expedition – Corporal Richard Warfington, and Privates Hugh Hall, Thomas P. Howard and John Potts. All four soldiers gave outstanding service and contributed to the success of the Expedition. The three privates were selected for the Permanent Party that traveled to the Pacific Ocean in 1805 and returned to St. Louis in 1806. Corporal Warfington was placed in command of the Return Party that traveled back to St. Louis in the keelboat in the spring of 1805 carrying a priceless cargo – the Captains’ journals up to that time, a first draft of Clark’s map of the West, plant, animal and mineral specimens 9including live birds and a prairie dog), and 45 Indian chiefs who accepted the invitation to visit President Jefferson in Washington., After the Expedition all four Southwest Point soldiers were awarded land grants for their outstanding service.