Picture courtesy of Jim Kuntz.

Picture courtesy of Jim Kuntz.

"The Sergt at the center will command the guard, manage the sails, see that the men at the oars do their duty; that they come on board at a proper season in the morning, and that the boat gets under way in due time; he will keep a good lookout for the mouths of all rivers, creeks, Islands and other remarkable places and shall immediately report the same to the commanding officers..."
Detachment Orders, Lewis and Clark, May 26, 1804

On May 26, 1804, the Lewis and Clark Expedition camped on an island just downstream from Loutre Island. Typical of the Missouri River's ever-changing channels, neither island exists today, and the site of the island campsite is now on the opposite shore nearly across from this location. The party was delayed an hour that morning because of heavy rain, but fortunately the same weather front brought a strong east wind. The sail of the keelboat was hoisted and the boat made good time, 18 miles, equaling the longest day on the Missouri River to that date. The Corps of Discovery averaged 11.78 miles a day going up the river while in the present-day state of Missouri, which matched the most optimistic estimate of William Clark for daily progress up the Missouri.

The expedition was beginning to establish a routine of hunting for game, the mainstay of the men's diet. Captains Meriwether Lewis and Clark had acquired two horses prior to their departure from St. Charles to help the day's hunters carry meat along shore to the evening camp. On May 26, George Drouillard, a Canadian-Shawnee hired as an interpreter and hunter, went out with John Shields. The Captains instructed them to travel a day and hunt the next, though it turned out that Drouillard and Shields didn't rejoin the rest of the party again until June 2. Another man hunted that day, and Clark mentioned in his journal a "great Deal of Deer Sign on the Bank."

For their main source of meat on the lower Missouri River, the expedition hunted the white-tailed deer, shown on the marker in a John James Audubon engraving. About 115 deer were taken in Missouri on the upstream voyage.

Over the following days and months, various parties of hunters paralleled the course of the boats while hunting for food. Hunters were sometimes forced to spend the night in rough weather with only the barest shelter. Men on the boats, meanwhile, rowed, poled, or pulled their vessels by rope, an exhausting labor. The Captains had purposely chosen a crew of "good hunters, stout, healthy, unmarried, accustomed to the woods and capable of bearing bodily fatigue to a considerable degree," as Lewis wrote to Clark in an 1803 letter.

Captains Lewis and Clark signed detachment orders on May 26, detailing the organization and duties of all the men on the expedition. The three Sergeants, Charles Floyd, John Ordway and Nathaniel Pryor, stationed on the keelboat, were put in charge of the three eight-man messes. The men in these messes and their Sergeants formed the elite Corps of Discovery that was destined to journey to the Pacific and back. The crew of the two pirogues would pilot the keelboat back to St. Louis the following spring, bringing with them the first reports and scientific specimens of the expedition to be delivered to President Thomas Jefferson.

The Sergeants rotated day to day from the keelboat's helm to center to bow, and took responsibility for many important tasks such steering, checking baggage, managing the sails, calling rests, reporting landmarks, watching out for river hazards, other boats and Indians, and overseeing guard duties at camp. The Captains relieved the Sergeants from daily camp duties such as cooking and pitching tents, and instructed them to keep daily journals. The French engages, or boatmen, were also required to do regular guard duty along with the privates. George Drouillard and the heads of the two pirogues were exempt from guard duty because of their many other responsibilities.

Duties of the Sergeants on Keelboats.

SGT. AT THE HELM: Steer Boat; See that baggage arranged and stowed; Attend to compass.

SGT. AT THE CENTER: Command guard; Manage sails; Supervise oarsmen; See that boat departs on time; Watch for streams, islands; Issue "spiritious liquor"; Regulate halts; Post guards on land.

SGT. AT THE BOW: Look out for all danger, enemy or obstruction; Communicate same to Sgt. at Center; Report all other craft, hunting camps, Indians; Assist bowman in poling.

Detachment One (Keelboat)

Detachment Two (Pirogues)

Comments (0)

Show/Hide comment form

Name

Email

Comment

Write the displayed characters

Add Comment