The Lewis And Clark Expedition: A Historical Turning Point In American History

The Lewis and Clark expeditions was a historical turning point in American history. It expanded our current knowledge of what used to be the Louisiana territory by leaps and bounds. When thinking of this expeditions, most people forget many people accompanied Lewis and Clark. Each member had important jobs and roles in order to push the gain of knowledge along, and there were even cases of incredulous misbehavior with appropriate punishments, and of course, along the way death had occurred. Without the information that was brought with discovering these lands, Americans would be totally lost with colonizing. There was a total of 59 people with one dog that joined over the course of the expedition, though everyone that joined did not make
Some of the voyagers included the famous Sacagawea; a 16 year old Native American who could help with translations with a peaceful demeanour that would disband hostility all while caring for her infant, George Drouillard; a 28 year old who was a good hunter and was well equipped with the knowledge of Native american character and sign language who also helped transport volunteers, Toussaint Charbonneau; a 37 year old French Canadian man who lived among the hidatsa people and could translate and if known as the husband of Sacagawea and was known for boasting about skills he didn’t have and being lazy, Patrick Gass; He made detailed notes and coined the name “corps of discovery” and also commanded the return portage around the waterfalls, and finally, Charles Floyd; a kentucky resident who kept a detailed journal about the land quality on the voyage. Each of these men and woman played the vital parts of being the cogs of the machine to help the quest for
About 3 of these crimes were being absent without leave. John Collins was absent without leave and also speaking rudely to his commanding officer and received 50 lashes after pleading guilty, and once again received 100 lashes for being drunk on the post and pleading not guilty. Hugh Halls pleaded guilty to being absent without leave and got 20 lashings. He also took whiskey out of the keg, pleaded guilty and got 50 lashings. William Werner was also absent without leave and was supposed to get 20 lashings but this was never carried out. Alexander Willard was sleeping on post, pleaded guilty and got 4 sets of 25 lashings. One of the most famous accounts of crime on the voyage was when Moses Reed deserted base with some stolen goods before having come back and asking for forgiveness. He was ordered to run through the gantlet (2 rows of men whipping him with sticks as he ran through it) 4 times and each man with 9 swichies, also known as the dreaded cat o’ nine tails, should punish him (this was actually a rather merciful punishment, most punishment for desertion is death). John Newman seemed to have a mutinous and criminal nature and received 75 lashings and was not allowed in the permanent party. Lastly, Thomas Howard was ordered 50 lashings for being hostile to natives but was forgiven by Lewis. Some men like ex-private Moses