Lewis and Clark Trail.com Re-live the Adventure

 

Lewis and Clark History

Corps of Discovery

Most of the members of the Corps of Discovery were U.S. Army soldiers, chosen for their specific skills such as gunsmithing, hunting, or blacksmithing.

 

Quick Links
   
We Suggest ...
 
     

Follow Lewis and Clark Trail on Twitter  Lewis and Clark Trail - Facebook
 





Name Rank Monthly Rate
John Ordway Sergeant $8.00
Nathaniel Pryor Sergeant $5 &  $8.00
Charles Floyd Sergeant $5 & $8.00
Patrick Gass Sergeant $5 & $8.00
William Bratton Private $5.00
John Collins Private $5.00
John Colter Private $5.00
Pierre Cruzatte Private $5.00
Joseph Field Private $5.00
Reuben Field      Private $5.00
Robert Frazer Private $5.00
Silas Goodrich Private $5.00
George Gibson Private $5.00
Thomas P. Howard Private $5.00
Hugh Hall Private $5.00
Francis Labiche Private $5.00
Hugh McNeal Private $5.00
John Shields Private $5.00
George Shannon Private $5.00
John Potts Private $5.00
Jean Baptiste LePage Private $5.00
John B. Thompson Private $5.00
William Werner Private $5.00
Richard Windsor Private $5.00
Peter Wiser Private $5.00
Alexander Willard Private $5.00
Joseph Whitehouse Private $5.00
John Newman Private $5.00
Richard Warfington Corporal $7.00
George Drouillard Interpreter $25.00
Toussaint Charbonneau Interpreter $25.00
St. Louis Boatmen Unknown if they were paid
York ( Clark's man-servant) No Payment
Sacajawea (Charbonneau's Shoshone wife) No Payment
Private Reed AWOL

What happened to the MEN of the "Corps of Discovery" after returning to civilization?

Not all of the members of the Corps of Discovery returned to St. Louis in 1806. Sergeant Charles Floyd died, in 1804, and other members didn't go the distance, including those dismissed because of trouble they had caused. Here is a re-cap of "Corps" who explored America west.

Enlisted men were granted land warrants for a total of 320 acres each. Both captains (Meriwether Lewis & William Clark) were given 1,600 acres.

SERGEANT JOHN ORDWAY (1775 - 1817) - John purchased the land warrants of his fellow members, William Werner and Jean Baptiste La Page. He became an owner of extensive lands and attained some prosperity. He married in Missouri, and he and his wife died in Missouri about 1817. They left no survivors.

SERGEANT NATHANIEL HALE PRYOR ( 1772 - 1831)- Pryor remained in the army and was a second lieutenant until 1810. He married an Osage girl, and they had several children who were all given Indian names. He is buried at Pryor, Mayes County, Oklahoma, where a monument has been erected to his honor.

SERGEANT CHARLES FLOYD (1782 - 1804) Buried in Sioux City, Iowa.

SERGEANT PATRICK GASS - (1771 - 1870) - He served in the War of 1812, married at the age of sixty to Maria Hamilton, aged twenty. They were the parents of six children. He died at age ninety-nine years and is buried at Brooke County Cemetery, at Wellsburg, West Virginia. He was the first to publish a journal of the expedition in 1807.

PRIVATE JOHN COLTER (1775- 1813) - When the expedition was in route home, Colter was honorably discharged on August 13, 1806. He returned to the Yellowstone then headed for the upper Missouri to trap the rich beaver country of the Blackfeet Indians. He escaped from the Blackfeet in the famous encounter in which another Lewis and Clark member, John Potts, was killed. Colter now had enough of the mountains and returned to St. Louis. Back in Missouri he married a woman named "Sallie".

PRIVATE JOHN POTTS ( 1776-1810) - John joined Manuel Lisa's trapping party of 1807 to the upper Missouri. In 1810 he was a member of Andrew Henry's party to the Three Forks of the Missouri. Here he again met John Colter, where they were attacked by the Blackfeet, and John Potts was killed.

PRIVATE JOSEPH FIELDS ( 1772 - 1825 - 28) - Fields received a warrant for land located in Franklin County, Missouri. William Clark noted he was dead by 1825-28."

PRIVATE REUBEN FIELDS (1771 - 1822) - A brother of Joseph, above. Captain Clark recommended Reuben for a lieutenancy in the army. In 1808, in Indiana, he married. Reuben died in late 1822 in Jefferson County, Kentucky.

PRIVATE JOHN SHIELDS ( 1769 - 1809) - Shields spent a year trapping with his kinsman, Daniel Boone, in Missouri, and the following year with Squire Boone in Indiana.

PRIVATE WILLIAM E. BRATTON ( 1778 - 1841) - Bratton enlisted in the War of 1812. Bratton died November 11, 1841, at Waynetown, Indiana, and is buried in the pioneer cemetery there. A monument marks the final resting place.

PRIVATE ALEXANDER HAMILTON WILLARD (1778 - 1865) - He married in 1807 and had seven sons and five daughters. He is buried at Franklin, near Sacramento, California.

PRIVATE PIERRE CRUZATTE (? - 1825 - 28) - He was killed by 1825-1828.

PRIVATE GEORGE GIBSON (? - 1809) - Married after the expedition, but died in St. Louis in 1809.

PRIVATE FRANCOIS (WILLIAM) LABICHE (Unknown) - Went to Washington as interpreter to the group of Indians accompanying Captain Lewis. Clark reported, " Our Francois was alive in St. Louis, or nearby, after 1828".

PRIVATE SILAS GOODRICH (? - 1825 - 28) - Re-enlisted in the army. Clark notes he was dead by 1825-1828.

PRIVATE JOHN B. THOMPSON (? - 1825 - 28) - Clark notes that he was dead by the years 1825-1828.

PRIVATE PETER M. WEISER ( 1781 - ?) - Between 1808and 1810 he was on the Three Forks of the Missouri, and on the Snake River. He was killed prior to the years 1825 - 1828. The town of Weiser, and the Weiser River in Idaho, are named for him.

PRIVATE JOHN COLLINS (? - 1823) - Was killed while in a fight with the Arikara on June 2, 1823.

PRIVATE HUGH HALL ( 1772 - ?) - Clark notes that he drank and was one of the more quarrelsome of the party. He is reported in St. Louis in 1809 and was living in 1828.

PRIVATE GEORGE SHANNON (1785 - 1836) - In 1807, he was one of the force under Ensign Nathaniel Pryor which attempted to return Chief Sheheke to his home among the Mandans. He was elected a member of the Kentucky House of Representatives in 1820 and 1822. He was a State senator from Missouri for a time, then returned to law. He died suddenly in court at Palmyra, Missouri, in 1836, aged forty-nine, and is buried in that city.

PRIVATE WILLIAM WERNER (Unknown) - Assisted General Clark for a time as Indian Agent in Missouri. In 1828 he was reported to be in Virginia.

PRIVATE JOSEPH WHITEHOUSE ( 1775 - ?) - Clark, in his account of the members made during the years 1825-1828, lists the name, Joseph Whitehouse, without comment.

PRIVATE THOMAS HOWARD (1779- ?) - A private named Thomas Howard, served as boatman, and left Fort Adams in May 1808, under Capt. H. Stark, U.S. 1st Infantry. He married Genevieve Roy in St. Louis and had a son, Joseph.

PRIVATE ROBERT FRAZIER ( ? - 1837) - He accompanied Captain Lewis to Washington and Virginia, and then returned to St. Louis. He was reported in several scrapes with the law in St. Louis until the year 1815. He died in Franklin County, Missouri, in 1837.

ALONG WITH THE "CORPS" PARTY:

SEAMAN - Captain Lewis' Newfoundland dog.

YORK (1770 - ?) - Clark's man-servant who was willed to Clark by his father. He died of cholera in Tennessee.

INTERPRETER, GEORGE DROUILLARD (? - 1810) - He was killed by the Blackfeet Indians in 1810.

INTERPRETER, Toussaint Charbonneau (1759 - 1843) - Charbonneau resided among the Hidatsa and Mandans from 1806 until late fall of 1809. Then, he, Sacagawea and Pomp boarded a Missouri Fur Company barge and traveled to St. Louis, where he cashed in his voucher for 320 acres. In 1811, Charbonneau took employment with the Missouri Fur Company. Departing up the river with Sacagawea, he left his son Jean Baptiste (Pomp) in the care of Clark, who would see to the boy’s education. Charbonneau’s estate was settled in 1843 by his son, Jean Baptiste Charbonneau.

Superintendents of Provisions
 

 

 
 

Lewis and Clark Trail maps on this web site were provided courtesy of the National Park Service
GPO 1991-557-779


Copyright 2011, LewisAndClarkTrail.com - all rights reserved. LewisAndClarkTrail.com and "Re-live the Adventure" are trademarks.
Reproduction of any part of this web site, for any use, is prohibited without prior approval of LewisAndClarkTrail.com.

Main Page  | Lewis and Clark History  | Travel the Lewis and Clark Trail  | Communities along the Trail  |  Maps  | Lodging | Lewis and Clark Bookstore | National Parks