Lewis, Clark, and the Osage and Mandan delegations[1]For the delegations traveling with Lewis and Clark on this day, see The Osage Delegations and Sheheke’s Delegation. spend the day in Louisville at the Falls of the Ohio, Clark’s hometown.
Elsewhere, another western expedition marches 18 miles, and then camps for two nights near present Lakin in southwestern Kansas to “recruit” (rest) their horses.
Grazing Horses
© 2010 by Kristopher K. Townsend. Permission to use granted under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license.
Recruiting Horses
Marched early. The herbage being very poor, concluded to lay by on the morrow, in order to recruit our horses, killed three cow buffalo, one calf, two wolves, one brelaw. Distance 18 miles.
—Zebulon M. Pike[2]Donald Jackson, The Journals of Zebulon Montgomery Pike (Norman, Oklahoma: University of Oklahoma Press, 1966), 1:343–44.
Pike’s “brelaw” is the badger (Taxidea taxus) a variation of the French Blaireau. Lewis and Clark called them a “brarow”. See Badgers.
At the time of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, recruit meant to strengthen either by gaining numbers or by resting. Shortly after acquiring their horses from the Lemhi Shoshones, the party spent two days with the Flathead Salish at Ross Hole in western Montana. There, Sgt. Gass uses recruit to mean both resting their horses and adding to their herd:
This was a fine morning with a great white frost. The Indian dogs are so hungry and ravenous, that they eat 4 or 5 pair of our mockasons last night. We remained here all day, and recruited our horses to 40 and 3 colts. . . .
Patrick Gass, 5 September 1805
Notes
| ↑1 | For the delegations traveling with Lewis and Clark on this day, see The Osage Delegations and Sheheke’s Delegation. |
|---|---|
| ↑2 | Donald Jackson, The Journals of Zebulon Montgomery Pike (Norman, Oklahoma: University of Oklahoma Press, 1966), 1:343–44. |
Experience the Lewis and Clark Trail
The Lewis and Clark Trail Experience—our sister site at lewisandclark.travel—connects the world to people and places on the Lewis and Clark Trail.
Discover More
- 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.
- The Lewis and Clark Journals: An American Epic of Discovery (abridged) by Gary E. Moulton (University of Nebraska Press, 2003). Selected journal excerpts, 14 May 1804–23 September 1806.
- The Lewis and Clark Journals. by Gary E. Moulton (University of Nebraska Press, 1983–2001). The complete story in 13 volumes.
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