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Historical Background

The fate of other members of the expedition

What of the others? Of the sergeants? Of the other enlisted men? Of the interpreters? Of Sacagawea and her baby? Of York?

MOST of the enlisted men soon passed into obscurity. They are by and large a group of forgotten men. Little is known about their subsequent careers, few monuments mark the known graves, and only a handful of them left reasonably full records of their lives. A few selected and occupied the 320-acre plots in surveyed public lands west of the Mississippi that Congress granted them in 1807, at the same time it awarded them double pay. [176]

Most of them, however, apparently sold their land warrants, sometimes to other members of the expedition, and settled down east of the Mississippi. Among those who lived in the East, some are known at one time or another to have resided in present Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Virginia, West Virginia, and Wisconsin; and in the West, in California, Missouri, and Oklahoma. Some married, raised families, and prospered. A considerable number became farmers. A few of those who remained out of the Army experienced difficulty in adjusting to civilian life. They took to drink, turned into drifters, got into scrapes with the law, and sank into debt.

Patrick Gass in old age. While still in the Army, in 1813, by accident he had lost the vision in his left eye. (Woodcut from an Ambrotype by E. F. Moore, in J. G. Jacobs, The Life and Times of Patrick Gass (Wellsburg, Va., 1859).)

A substantial group reenlisted in the Army, some for short terms and others for life: Sergeants Gass and Pryor; Privates Bratton, Shannon, and Willard; and likely Privates Gibson, Howard, McNeal, and Windsor. Of these, Gass, Pryor, Bratton, and Willard, and possibly others, served in the War of 1812. Pryor rose to the rank of captain.

Colter and Drouillard played epic roles in the early history of the organized fur trade that grew in the wake of the Lewis and Clark Expedition. Also taking part in it were Potts, Wiser, and possibly Collins. [177] Colter remained continuously longer in the wilderness of the Upper Missouri and the Rocky Mountains than any other white man of his day. After leaving Camp Wood in the spring of 1804, he did not return to "civilization" until May 1810. During that time, he experienced many adventures with the Indians.

After his fur trading days were over, in 1810 Colter married an Indian woman named Sally and settled on a farm close to that of Daniel Boone near La Charette, Mo., but died 3 years later. [178] Potts and Drouillard succumbed at the hands of the Blackfeet in the Three Forks of the Missouri area, in 1808 and 1810 respectively. [179]

Subsequent to his discharge from the Army in 1815, Pryor lived and traded among the Osages, especially the Clermont band, in present northeastern Oklahoma; married one of them, who bore him a family; and represented the tribe in negotiations with the military at nearby Forts Smith and Gibson. In 1830 Clark appointed Pryor temporarily as subagent for the Clermont Osages, but he died the next year at his subagency southeast of present Pryor, Okla., which was named after him. Willard worked as a Government blacksmith for some time among the Sauk, Fox, Shawnee, and Delaware tribes.

Shannon probably had the most successful post-expedition career of the group. After the loss of his leg in 1807, except for his trip to Philadelphia in 1810 to help Biddle, he resided for some years in Lexington, Ky., where he read law at Transylvania University. There he became acquainted with Henry Clay, who befriended him. After completing his studies, he entered into practice and married. In the early 1820's he served in the Kentucky legislature. He later moved to Missouri, where he practiced law and became a State senator and U.S. attorney. He passed away in 1838.

Likely the first of the enlisted men to die was Joseph Field, about a year after the expedition returned; the last, in 1870, was Gass, who lived to be 99 years of age, the oldest of any of the men. Willard died in 1865 at the age of 88, and Bratton lived to be 63.

AFTER the expedition, Clark freed all his slaves, including York in 1811, though he was ever afterwards interested in his welfare. Clark gave him a six-horse team and wagon, which he used for a freighting business between Nashville and Richmond. But he proved to be a poor manager and his commercial venture failed, after which he turned from one odd job to another. He was apparently on his way back to join Clark in St. Louis when he fell ill with cholera and died at an unknown date somewhere in Tennessee.

SACAGAWEA and Charbonneau apparently resided at the Minitari villages at the mouth of the Knife River from 1806 until late 1809 or 1810. At that time, responding to Clark's long-standing invitation to visit him and recognizing his interest in educating their 4-year-old son, Jean Baptiste ("Pomp"), they traveled to St. Louis. Sacagawea and Charbonneau apparently stayed there with him until the spring of 1811, when they returned to the Minitari villages. Clark became the youngster's guardian and educated him. In August 1812 Sacagawea gave birth to a daughter, named Lizette. [180] That same summer, Sacagawea left the Minitari villages and joined Charbonneau, who was employed by Lisa at newly established Fort Manuel, just below the present North Dakota-South Dakota boundary. She apparently died there that December. [181]

Charbonneau outlived Sacagawea by about 28 years, residing most of the time among the Mandans and Minitaris. For the last years of his life, Clark employed him as an interpreter for those tribes. In 1833 Charbonneau worked for Prince Maximilian of Wied, a visitor to the Upper Missouri. In 1839, the year after Clark's death, Charbonneau visited St. Louis. That year, or the next, aged about 80, he died, probably in one of the Mandan or Minitari villages.

AND how about the final years of the youngest member of the expedition, Jean Baptiste? [182] By 1816, after spending some time with Clark in St. Louis, he was back among the Indians. In 1824 he met young Prince Paul of Württemberg, who was making a trip up the Missouri, at a traders' village at the mouth of the Kansas River and, with Clark's consent, accompanied him to Germany. Jean Baptiste lived abroad for 5 years, learned several languages, and then returned to the United States.

For many years thereafter, Jean Baptiste lived the life of a mountain man, traveling the mountain ranges from New Mexico to Oregon. He also served many Army officers and explorers as an interpreter and guide. In 1846 he guided Philip St. George Cooke and his Mormon Battalion to California and apparently took up residence there. In 1866 he left his home near Auburn, in the mining country, with two companions and headed toward the goldfields of Montana. On the way, aged 61, he died of pneumonia and was buried in the Jordan Valley near the present community of Danner, Oreg.

TIME and circumstances separated the members of the expedition, but to the end of their days they shared vivid memories of their trip across the Continent. Memories of an awesome new world to the west. Of adventure, trial, and danger. Of drudgery and fatigue. Of boredom and excitement. Of sickness and sundry aches and pains. Of eating horses, dogs, and roots. Of numbing cold, pelting rain, and baking sun. Of deadly rattlers, bellowing buffalo herds, and yowling wolves. Of ferocious grizzlies and pesky mosquitoes and gnats. Of endless days on foot, horse, and boat. Of their fallen comrade Floyd. Of encounters with strange Indian bands. Of spectacular mountains, surging rivers—and the shores of the western ocean.