November 18, 1803

Fort Jefferson

Set out early this morning with a canoe and eight men in company with Capt. Clark to visit and view the ground on which Oald Fort Jefferson stood;

found six Shawano [Shawnee] hunting camps;

fort Jefferson stands on a rising ground, North of a Byo & West of the creek—
—Meriwether Lewis

I was at old fort Jefferson, it is entirly grown up with Trees—

—William Clark^[1]James J. Holmberg, ed. Dear Brother: Letters of William Clark to Jonathan Clark (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2002), 60.

Fort Jefferson, named for Thomas Jefferson, was established by William Clark’s older brother, George Rogers Clark, in 1780. Due to illnesses that prevailed in the area, lack of settlers, and the need for troops in other places, it was abandoned sometime around 1781.^[2]William Hayden English, Conquest of the Country Northwest of the River Ohio 1778–1783 and the Life of George Rogers Clark. Vol. 2. (Indianapolis: Bowen-Merrill Company, 1897), 673, 694.

See also: Clark’s Commission

Drunken Soldiers

found a number of our men who had left camp contrary to instructions & drunk, had much dificulty in geten
—Meriwether Lewis

Related: Alcohol Rations

Unwilling Spanish

Near Natchez Novr. 18h. 1803.
4 O’Clock in the Morning.

Sir,

an unwillingness exists on the part of the Spanish Officers, to surrender the Province, and that there are some grounds to fear that expedients would be practised to produce Delay; yet on the 10h. of the present month, no preparations had been made on the part of the Spanish Government to resist our taking possession.

William C. C. Claiborne^[3]“Claiborne to James Madison, 18 November 1803,” Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Madison/02-06-02-0067. [Original source: The Papers of James … Continue reading

Despite their reluctance, Spain’s representatives retro-ceded the Louisiana Province to France on 30 November 1803 and France ceded it to the United States on 20 December 1803. See also Louisiana’s Purchase.