 Article
From River Life, Volume 5, No 24, July 8, 2004
Up The River
With Lewis and Clark
Part 2, June 26, 1804-July 8, 1804
By Bill Markley
The Corp of Discovery reached the mouth of the Kansas River
across from present-day Kansas City, Missouri, on June 26, 1804. They
decided to camp there until June 29, and then continue up the Missouri
River. The men built a brush wall for protection and set up tents within
the structure. They spent their time repairing equipment, rearranging
cargo, hunting, and exploring. Some of the hunters had seen herds of
buffalo to the west.
Privates Reubin and Joseph Fields were
brothers who were part of the original group of nine men William Clark
brought with him from Kentucky. They were expert shots and were usually
out hunting for game. While out on a hunt, they killed a wolf and
captured a second young wolf to keep as a pet. No one wrote if Seaman,
Merewether Lewis’ Newfoundland dog, got along with the wolf.
During the night of June 28, Private
John Collins was on duty guarding the whiskey barrels, which the men
were storing on shore for the evening. Whiskey was one of the few luxury
items the men had with them. The whiskey would not last the entire trip
and there was no place to get more. They had been rationing the whiskey
so it would last longer. Once a day, Lewis and Clark allowed each man
one gill of whiskey. A gill is a fourth of a pint.
Sometime during the night, John
Collins’ good friend and partner in crime, Private Hugh Hall, joined him
at the whiskey barrels while the rest of the men slept. One of them got
the bright idea to sample the whiskey. After all what could a few sips
hurt?
John and Hugh had been in trouble
before. Back in Illinois during the Corps of Discovery’s winter camp,
John had stolen a farmer’s pig. John and Hugh had both been in trouble
in St. Charles for being absent without leave from the boat; John had
additional charges of behaving in an unbecoming manner at a ball, and
speaking in a language that disrespected the commanding officer’s
orders. The Corps of Discovery held a court-martial letting Hugh off but
giving John fifty lashes. John would not be the kind of person to give
the responsibility of guarding the whiskey.
John and Hugh proceeded to have more
than a few sips and by morning they were drunk. A court-martial
convened. Sergeant Nathaniel Hale Pryor presided. John pleaded not
guilty and was sentenced “to recive one hundred Lashes on his bear
Back.” Hugh pleaded guilty and the court sentenced him to receive fifty
lashes on his bare back. Lewis and Clark approved the sentences of the
court and the men carried out the sentences later that day. The Corp of
Discovery then packed their remaining gear into the boats, proceeded up
river at 4 p.m., and made camp late in the evening.
On June 30, William Clark wrote “Deer
to be Seen in every direction and their tracks ar as plenty as Hogs
about a farm.” They again broke their mast on an overhanging tree as
they pulled into shore. That night a sentry challenged “either a man or
Beast, which run off, all prepared for action.” Clark wrote. The
men were in good health except for their boils.
It was hard rowing against the current.
On July 1, the men were tired from the heat and their exertion. Lewis
and Clark gave them a three-hour break. July 2, the current was so
strong against the keelboat that Clark wrote “we could with dificuelty
Stem the Current with our 20 oars & and all the poles we had.”
July 3, the men found and kept a tame,
well-fed, white horse.
The morning of July 4, the Corp of
Discovery fired the swivel cannon to commemorate Independence Day; and
they fired it again in the evening. This was the first Fourth of July
celebration west of the Mississippi River. Lewis and Clark gave the men
an extra gill of whiskey to celebrate. One incident marred the festive
day; a snake bit Joe Fields on the side of his foot, which swelled up.
Lewis applied a poultice to the wound to draw out the poison. Later they
passed an extensive prairie that Clark named Jo Fields Snake Prairie.
They had earlier passed a creek and named it Independence Creek.
Sergeant Charles Floyd described their evening camp in his journal. “we
camped at one of the Butifules Praries I ever Saw open and butifully
Divided with Hills and vallies all presenting themselves.”
Sergeant John Ordway wrote on Thursday,
July 5, “we passed Some verry bad Sand bars the Boat turned three times
once on a Drift wood, but recived no procevable Damage, we came too at a
beaver house for Dinner.”
A whippoorwill perched on the keelboat
during the daytime on July 6. The whippoorwill is nocturnal; those who
are superstitious associate the whippoorwill and its call with death.
Most of the men recorded the incident in their journals. The day was so
hot that Clark wrote, “Those men that do not work at all will wet a
Shirt in a Few minits & those who work, the Swet will run off in
Streams.”
Patrick Gass, an Irishman from
Pennsylvania, wrote that they killed a wolf and a large wood rat on July
7. Private Robert Frazer came down with heat exhaustion; but Lewis bled
him and gave him niter, which “revived him much.” Niter is potassium
nitrate also known as saltpeter. Lewis had received medical training in
Philadelphia from Dr. Benjamin Rush who was one of the top physicians in
the country. At 7:00 p.m., an intense thunder and lightning storm hit
for a half hour accompanied by high winds, rain, and a drop in the
river’s water level.
On July 8, five of the men developed
“violent” headaches. Lewis and Clark signed an order dividing the men
into three messes to better distribute the food and provide a more
orderly way of food preparation and eating. The hunters continued to
find plenty of game to add to their menu. The Corp of Discovery was now
north of present-day St. Joseph, Missouri.
Up The River With Lewis and Clark
Part 3, July 9, 1804-July 22, 1804
|
