At winter camp on the Wood River, Clark sends letters with John Newman to Cahokia and to Lewis who is working in St. Louis. Sometime this month, the commanding general of the U.S. Army, James Wilkinson, writes his notorious “Reflections on Louisiana,” advising Spanish officials to stop the Lewis and Clark Expedition.
Red Clay Ink Stand
© 2011 by Kristopher K. Townsend. Permission to use granted under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license.
Sending Letters
I sent Newman with Letters to Koho [Cahokia]. & to Cap Lewis at St. Louis
—William Clark
Wilkinson’s Reflection
From New Orleans sometime in March 1804, James Wilkinson—the Commanding General of the U.S. Army in his role as secret agent Number 13—recommends to Spanish officials that they arrest the Lewis and Clark Expedition.
An express ought immediately to be sent to the governor of Santa Fé, and another to the captain-general of Chihuaga, in order that they may detach a sufficient body of chasseurs to intercept Captain Lewis and his party, who are on the Missouri River, and force them to retire or take them prisoners.[1]“Reflections on Louisiana,” March 1804,translated by James Alexander Robertson, ed., Louisiana under the Rule of Spain, France, and the United States, 1785–1807 (Cleveland: 1911), … Continue reading
Weather Diary
Therm at rise
weather wind Therm at 4 Oclk weather wind River 14 above 0 fair E 60 above 0 fair SSW rise 1 ft. 5 ½ in. —Meriwether Lewis and William Clark[2]To assist the reader, the editor of this web page has omitted the “1804 Day of the Month,” merged the “River: Feet and Inches” columns and spelled out some abbreviations.
Winter Camp at Wood River (Camp Dubois) is a High Potential Historic Site along the Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail managed by the U.S. National Park Service. The site, near Hartford, Illinois, is managed as Lewis and Clark State Historic Site and is open to the public.
Old Cahokia Courthouse is a High Potential Historic Site along the Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail managed by the U.S. National Park Service. The site is managed by the State of Illinois and is open to the public.
In present St. Louis, the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial “commemorates Thomas Jefferson’s vision of the continental expansion of the United States” and is a High Potential Historic Site along the Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail managed by the U.S. National Park Service.
Notes
| ↑1 | “Reflections on Louisiana,” March 1804,translated by James Alexander Robertson, ed., Louisiana under the Rule of Spain, France, and the United States, 1785–1807 (Cleveland: 1911), 2:323–47 cited in Letters of the Lewis and Clark Expedition with Related Documents: 1783-1854, 2nd ed., ed. Donald Jackson (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1978), 2:686. |
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| ↑2 | To assist the reader, the editor of this web page has omitted the “1804 Day of the Month,” merged the “River: Feet and Inches” columns and spelled out some abbreviations. |
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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Unless otherwise noted, journal excerpts are from The Journals of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, edited by Gary E. Moulton, 13 vols. (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1983-2001).