On or about this day, Meriwether Lewis, William Clark leave St. Louis bound for Washington City. With them are a delegation from the Osage Nation, Pierre Chouteau, York, and Mandan chief Sheheke and his family. They likely rendezvous at Fort Kaskaskia where former expedition members John Ordway and François Labiche wait with horses, supplies, and equipage.[1]It is possible that Lewis and Clark traveled more directly east from St. Louis to Vincennes skipping the southward jaunt to Kaskaskia. Both routes followed old buffalo traces, but the route between … Continue reading
Near Lexington, Kentucky, U.S. Attorney General John Breckinridge writes to President Thomas Jefferson to explain his absence in Washington City. He mentions that he has been expecting a visit from Meriwether Lewis.
Cachasunghia, Osage Warrior (1807)
by Charles B. J. F. de Saint Mémin (1770–1852)
Colorized and altered 2025 by Kristopher K. Townsend. The original is charcoal with stumping, Conté crayon, and black and white chalk on pink prepared paper nailed over canvas on a wooden frame. For the original, see The New York Historical, emuseum.nyhistory.org/objects/41610/cachasunghia-osage-warrior.
Leaving St. Louis
[$112.00 due John Ordway] being the amount of his account for a Horse, Saddle, Bridle &c. employed in the public Service from St. Louis to Washington City under the direction of Capt. Meriwr. Lewis
An entry on p. 146 of the same document records the sum of $49.00 due him for pay as an assistant to Lewis in escorting the Mandans and pack horses from 11 Oct. 1806 to 19 Jan. 1807. An entry . . . reports $23.50 due to Labiche for pay as an assistant, interpreter, and pack horseman from 21 Oct. to 20 Jan.[2]National Archives, Record Group 217, Report Book E, pp. 142, 146, 150 in Letters of the Lewis and Clark Expedition with Related Documents: 1783–1854, ed. Donald Jackson (Urbana: University of … Continue reading
The Osage delegation, led by Pierre Chouteau, includes two sons of one of the five delegates. Sheheke brings his wife Yellow Corn, and their son who had recently traveled with the expedition from the Knife River Villages to St. Louis. Working as interpreters are François Labiche and René Jusseaume—who brought his own wife and two sons.
Based on his prior delivery of delegates to Washington City, Chouteau thought his 1806 trip should take about 40 days.[3]Pierre Chouteau to Henry Dearborn, October 21, 1806, Pierre Chouteau Letterbook, 107-8, Chouteau Collection, Missouri Historical Society. They would not arrive in Washington City until 20 December, some 51 days later.
Cachasunghia (see figure) was a member of the Osage delegation traveling to Washington City. The Osage delegation and Mandan Sheheke and Yellow Corn posed for St. Mémin who used a physiognotrace to obtain accurate sketches of his subjects. Lewis intended to include their portraits in his published journal, but they were omitted in the 1814 Nicholas Biddle edition. They were published as engravings by Elias Dexter of New York.
John Breckinridge (posthumous)
By Alban Jasper Conant (1821–1915)
U.S. Department of Justice, www.justice.gov/ag/bio/breckinridge-john.
Expecting Lewis
Near Lexington, Kenty. 21. Oct. 1806
Dear Sir
I avail myself of the opportunity by this days mail, to inform you of the great regret I have felt for the last 3 weeks, in being unable to undertake my Journey to washington, on account of a severe indisposition, with which I was this summer attacked, & from which I am not yet entirely relieved. Nothing but my inability to ride would have prevented my arrival at Washington by the first of november as I promised. But I still set out to-morrow, & hope to see you in 20 days.
I have expected Capt. Lewis at my House every day for a week past; but now think it probable he has passed along. I congratulate you most sincerely on his safe return, and on the success, with which your undertaking, so important like Country, has thro’ him been completely crowned.
Accept assurances of the most sincere regard & attachment of Dear sir Your ob Sr.
John Breckinridge[4]John Breckinridge to Thomas Jefferson, Founders Online, National Archives, founders.archives.gov/documents/Jefferson/99-01-02-4451, accessed 27 January 2026.
On 12 August 1803, Jefferson consulted Breckinridge on the constitutionality of the Louisiana Purchase.
Notes
| ↑1 | It is possible that Lewis and Clark traveled more directly east from St. Louis to Vincennes skipping the southward jaunt to Kaskaskia. Both routes followed old buffalo traces, but the route between Kaskaskia and Vincennes developed first and by 1806, a mail route went from Vincennes to Kaskaskia before heading north to Cahokia and St. Louis. In 1806, the two routes merged near Xenia, Illinois. Lewis had another reason for stopping at Fort Kaskaskia: it enabled them to obtain provisions, equipage, and horses from Army supplies and helped impress the Osage and Mandan delegates with the military might of the United States. |
|---|---|
| ↑2 | National Archives, Record Group 217, Report Book E, pp. 142, 146, 150 in Letters of the Lewis and Clark Expedition with Related Documents: 1783–1854, ed. Donald Jackson (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1978), 1:325n7; Landon Y. Jones, William Clark and the Shaping of the West (New York: Hill and Wang, 2004), ch. 6. |
| ↑3 | Pierre Chouteau to Henry Dearborn, October 21, 1806, Pierre Chouteau Letterbook, 107-8, Chouteau Collection, Missouri Historical Society. |
| ↑4 | John Breckinridge to Thomas Jefferson, Founders Online, National Archives, founders.archives.gov/documents/Jefferson/99-01-02-4451, accessed 27 January 2026. |
| ↑5 | “John Breckinridge (U.S. Attorney General”, Wikipedia, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Breckinridge_(U.S._Attorney_General) accessed 27 January 2026. |
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- The Lewis and Clark Expedition: Day by Day by Gary E. Moulton (University of Nebraska Press, 2018). The story in prose, 14 May 1804–23 September 1806.
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