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by James J. Holmberg, The Filson Historical Society
The following is an excerpt from a longer piece by the
same title
September 23,
1806 - The Lewis and Clark Expedition arrives
in St. Louis, essentially ending the epic journey. Lewis
and Clark collaborate on a letter to Jonathan reporting
their successful return and reporting on the expedition
since leaving the Mandan villages in April 1805. Clark
writes that since he will soon be with Jonathan, he
can tell him more then. The letter is intended for publication
and in a letter to Jonathan dated the following day,
William reminds his brother to have it published. He
also anticipates their arrival at the Falls about October
9 or 10 [they arrived November 5] and says they will
remain in the neighborhood of Louisville for a few days.
September 23,
1806 - Lewis to Jefferson. Reports the expedition's
successful return. States their intended route east
will be through Cahokia, Vincennes, Louisville, Crab
Orchard, Ky., Abingdon, Va. . . . to Washington. Direct
his mail to Louisville.
October 9, 1806
- William's letter to Jonathan is published in the Frankfort
Palladium. It is the first detailed printed account
of the return of the expedition. This report is reprinted
in newspapers throughout the country and abroad.
October 10, 1806
- the members of the Corps of Discovery are discharged
at St. Louis.
November 5, 1806
- Jonathan Clark diary. "Captains Lewis & Clark
arrived at the Falls on their return from the Pacific
Ocean after an absence of a little more than three years."
[Lewis and Clark and the party with them (some but not
all of the men) took the southern route rather than
the Vincennes route they had planned to. They crossed
into Kentucky from Illinois and came up through the
counties bordering the river to the Falls. That same
day and over a number of succeeding days Clark is in
the store of Fitzhugh and Rose in Louisville. During
this time Lewis and Clark apparently spent most of their
time in the Louisville area, but probably were in Clarksville
also.
November 8, 1806
- Jonathan Clark diary. Jonathan with Lewis and Clark
at the Croghan's Locust Grove estate for a family gathering
and welcome home celebration.
November 9, 1806
- Lewis at Louisville writes secretary of War Henry
Dearborn.
Ca. November 11,
1806 - Meriwether Lewis and most of the party,
including two Indian delegations going to Washington,
leave Louisville, traveling to Frankfort and then separating
and going by different routes - one overland due east
through Lexington and the other (led by Lewis) southeastward
through the Cumberland Gap and then down Virginia's
Great Valley.
December 14, 1806
- Clark, near Louisville [?] to William Croghan. Will
leave tomorrow for the eastward, stopping first at Col.
Richard C. Anderson's [east of Louisville] and taking
the Wilderness Road via Danville.
Ca. December 15, 1806 - William Clark and most likely
York leave the Louisville area for the East, traveling
overland via the Wilderness Road through the Cumberland
Gap and down Virginia's Great Valley.
Ca. April 1810
- Nicholas Biddle interviews William Clark re: the official
expedition history (published in 1814). From these conversations,
Biddle's notes recorded that Lewis joined Clark who
then resided at Louisville and from Louisville they
proceeded by water to St. Louis; the party consisted
of three groups of men, one of which was young Americans
from the neighborhood of Louisville, they numbered nine
and joined at Clarksville and/or Falls of the Ohio (York
is listed separately as Clark's servant); the original
design of Lewis and Clark was to go up the Missouri
in boats from Louisville after wintering at Charette
(about 150 miles up the Missouri). [How accurate Biddle's
notes are and how accurate Clark's recollections are
cannot be fully determined. As written it is clear the
facts are a bit incorrect based on the previously cited
primary sources from the date of the events themselves.
After Clark's apparent statement that his and Lewis's
intent was to go up the Missouri from Louisville, Biddle
bracketed in St. Louis, apparently assuming Clark meant
to say it instead. This is not necessarily so. In Clark's
mind, he very well may have considered the start of
the expedition to have been Louisville (more correctly
the Louisville area). His statement that he resided
in Louisville is not completely correct, because we
know he had moved across the river to Clarksville earlier
that year. Given his brief residence in Clarksville
after living in Louisville for eighteen years, he may
not have considered Clarksville his home. This possibility
is supported by an 1828 deposition Clark gave in which
he stated he had lived in Louisville until 1803 at which
time he was out of the country for three years. Regarding
the men enlisted at the Falls, they were recruited in
Louisville, most likely Clarksville, and by Lewis upriver.
They most likely were actually enlisted at Clarksville
and Louisville given their scattered dates of enlistment,
thus referring to the Falls as the place of their enlistment.]
Sources
Donald Jackson, ed. The Letters of the Lewis and Clark
Expedition with Related Documents, 1783-1854, 2 vols.
(Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1978); William
Clark Papers - Voorhis Memorial Collection, Missouri
Historical Society, St. Louis, Mo.; The Kentucky Gazette,
Lexington, Ky.; The Pennsylvania Magazine of History
and Biography, vol. 43 no. 2, 1919; Dwight L. Smith
and Ray Swick, eds. A Journey through the West: Thomas
Rodney's 1803 Journal from Delaware to the Mississippi
Territory (Athens: Ohio University Press, 1997); Jonathan
Clark Diary, Clark-Hite Collection, The Filson Historical
Society, Louisville, Ky.; Jonathan Clark Papers - Temple
Bodley Collection, The Filson Historical Society; Roy
E. Appleman, Lewis and Clark: Historic Places Associated
with their Transcontinental Exploration (1804-1806)
(Washington: U.S. Department of the Interior, National
Park Service, 1975; second printing, St. Louis: The
Lewis and Clark Trail Heritage Foundation and Jefferson
National Expansion Historical Association, 1993); Stephen
E. Ambrose, Undaunted Courage: Meriwether Lewis, Thomas
Jefferson, and the Opening of the American West (New
York: Simon and Schuster, 1996).
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