At the Falls of the Ohio, the captains add to, and/or replace, Lewis’s original Ohio River crew with the “young men from Kentucky“. York, Clark’s slave, is also added to the roster.
Young Recruit from Kentucky
© Michael Haynes, https://www.mhaynesart.com. Used with permission.
This soldier wears a tan coatee and blue overalls as described in Outfitting the Expedition. He carries a model 1792 Springfield (see Muskets and Rifles).
Biddle’s Nine Young Men
Nicholas Biddle in his paraphrase of the expedition journals, coined a phrase still applied to Clark’s Kentucky recruits:
The party consisted of nine young men from Kentucky, fourteen soldiers of the United States army who volunteered their services, two French watermen—an interpreter and hunter—and a black servant belonging to captain Clarke—All these, except the last were enlisted to serve as privates during the expedition, and three sergeants appointed from amongst them by the captains. In addition to these were engaged a corporal and six soldiers, and nine watermen to accompany the expedition as far as the Mandan nation, in order to assist in carrying the stores, or repel1ing an attack which was most to be apprehended between Wood river and that tribe.
—Nicholas Biddle[1]Nicholas Biddle, ed., History of the Expedition Under the Command of Captains Lewis and Clark to the sources of the Missouri and thence across the Rocky Mountains and down the River Columbia to the … Continue reading
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Notes
| ↑1 | Nicholas Biddle, ed., History of the Expedition Under the Command of Captains Lewis and Clark to the sources of the Missouri and thence across the Rocky Mountains and down the River Columbia to the Pacific Ocean. Performed during the years 1804–5–6. By order of the Government of the United States (New york: Bradford and Inskeep, 1814), 1:2. |
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