Lewis is at the family plantation, Locust Hill, about ten miles west of Charlottesville, Virginia. He did not journal during his visit, but perhaps he recalled his midnight forays hunting in the Virginia Piedmont.[1]Traveling with Meriwether Lewis to Washington City is a Mandan delegation from the Knife River Villages—Chief Sheheke, his wife Yellow Corn, and their son. Speaking Mandan and French was … Continue reading
Midnight Forays
In preparation for the first official edition of the expedition journals, publisher Paul Allen asked Thomas Jefferson for biographical information about Meriwether Lewis:
Monticello. Aug. 18. 1813.
Sir
when only eight years of age, he habitually went out, in the dead of night, alone with his dogs, into the forest to hunt the raccoon & opossum, which, seeking their food in the night, can then only be taken. in this exercise, no season or circumstance could obstruct his purpose, plunging thro’ the winter’s snows and frozen streams, in pursuit of his object.
Th: Jefferson[2]“Thomas Jefferson to Paul Allen”, Founders Online, National Archives, founders.archives.gov/documents/Jefferson/03-06-02-0341-0002. [Original source: The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, … Continue reading
A Midnight Foray
Generated by Kristopher K. Townsend. Permission to use granted under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license.
Another document, endorsed by Thomas Jefferson but not written in his hand nor dated, offers a far more extreme version of Lewis’s childhood adventures:
he was early remarkable for intrepidity, liberality & hardihood, at eight years of age going alone with his dogs at midnight in the depth of winter, hunting wading creeks where the banks were covered with ice & snow. he might be tracked
through the snowto his traps by the blood which trickled from his bare feet.[3]“Unidentified Author’s Short Biography of Meriwether Lewis”, Founders Online, National Archives, founders.archives.gov/documents/Jefferson/03-06-02-0341-0003. [Original source: The … Continue reading
Notes
| ↑1 | Traveling with Meriwether Lewis to Washington City is a Mandan delegation from the Knife River Villages—Chief Sheheke, his wife Yellow Corn, and their son. Speaking Mandan and French was interpreter René Jusseaume who brought one of his wives and two children. Expedition private François Labiche was included to translate between French and English. Finally, records indicate expedition sergeant John Ordway was serving as Lewis’s assistant. A large bill at Staunton, Virginia (see December 11, 1806) indicates that the delegation remained there during the holidays. Meanwhile, Clark is still at his home at the Falls of the Ohio. |
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| ↑2 | “Thomas Jefferson to Paul Allen”, Founders Online, National Archives, founders.archives.gov/documents/Jefferson/03-06-02-0341-0002. [Original source: The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, Retirement Series, vol. 6, 11 March to 27 November 1813, J. Jefferson Looney, ed. (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2009), 418–426.] |
| ↑3 | “Unidentified Author’s Short Biography of Meriwether Lewis”, Founders Online, National Archives, founders.archives.gov/documents/Jefferson/03-06-02-0341-0003. [Original source: The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, Retirement Series, vol. 6, 11 March to 27 November 1813, J. Jefferson Looney, ed. (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2009), 426.] |
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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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