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Artists: There are many paintings
depicting scenes and events of the Expedition. Were there artists
along with the Corps of Discovery?
There are drawings, mostly of plants and animals, in the Journals,
but there were no professional artists traveling with the Corps.
Carl Bodmer, George Catlin, Charles Russell, and many others were
all working years after the events and journey they portray.
Because photography was not yet invented, what we have are
“historical fiction” recreations based on the artists’ knowledge and
imagination.
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Boats:
One keelboat, two pirogues, several
dugouts made from trees, Indian canoes, rafts, and bullboats
(watercraft of buffalo skins and willow reeds). The keelboat was
fifty-five feet long, eight feet wide at the beam, drew three to
five feet of water when loaded, carried twelve to fourteen tons of
cargo, and a crew of up to twenty-seven. It was equipped with
twenty-two oars according to Clark, and had a mast and sail
(although seldom used). The men sometimes “poled” by placing the
padded end of a long pole in their arm pits and the other end in the
river bed, then walking from the front to the back of the
keelboat—cleats were on the walkway for better traction. Cordelling
involved towing the keelboat with a rope attached to its bow.
Placed apart at short intervals the men, rope in hand, scrambled
among obstacles on the shore, or struggled with unsure footing in
the water. The keelboat was sent back to St. Louis from Fort Mandan
with specimens and written records in the spring of 1805. What
happened to it then is unknown.
The red
pirogue [pee-row] (pirogues were flat-bottomed boats with
shallow draft) was forty-two or so feet long, had a mast and sail,
seven oars, listed eight engagés on the Detachment Order of
May 26, 1804, and held about nine tons of cargo. The craft was
beached and secured at the Marias River on June 10, 1805, but when
the men returned a little over a year later they found that the boat
was “decayed” and unusable.
Estimates of the white pirogue’s length vary
from thirty-five to thirty-nine feet. It had a mast and sail, six
oars, listed six soldiers on the May 26 Detachment Order, and
carried some eight tons of cargo. It was put ashore at the Lower
Portage at Great Falls on June 18, 1805, covered with brush, and
retrieved a year later on the way back to St. Louis.
It has been said that the larger pirogue
was painted red to make it easier to see and traveled in advance
of the white craft. French-Canadian voyageurs manned the
more visible red pirogue and less experienced soldiers in the
trailing white one were thus able to watch and learn. In addition to
being rowed, the pirogues and dugouts were also towed and poled.
During late June and early July1805, the Corps
endured a laborious portage of several days to cover the eighteen
miles necessary to get around the Great Falls in Montana (Lower
Portage Camp to White Bear Islands, Upper Portage Camp). Portages
of shorter distances were necessary in the course of the journey.
An iron boat, designed and named by Lewis the
Experiment, consisted of a disassembled iron frame to be put
together and covered by bark or skins after portaging the Great
Falls. When it was assembled near the Upper Portage it leaked badly
because of inadequate waterproofing--much to Lewis’s
disappointment. The next day, July 10, 1805, the boat was taken
apart and placed in a cache. On the return journey when the
Experiment’s parts were uncovered they were found to have
rusted. What happened to them is unknown and their fate “is
something of a Holy Grail of Lewis and Clark scholars and
enthusiasts.” The iron boat was thirty-six feet long, a little over
four feet wide and about two feet deep.
When
not in the boats the men walked or rode horses. Lewis usually
walked while Clark stayed on the keelboat.
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Compensation:
Congress provided a pay scale for the expedition
ranging from $5 a month for privates, $7 for corporals, $8 for
sergeants, to $30 for Lieutenant Clark and $40 for Captain Lewis.
Double pay for all was authorized, plus land allotments of 320 acres
to each enlisted man and 1600 for the officers. The majority of the
privates received about $333.32. Lewis received $2,766.22 for the
period April 1, 1803 to March 2, 1807, including $893.64 for
subsistence; Clark received $2,113.74 for the period August 1, 1803
to February 28, 1807, including $823.74 subsistence for himself and
for York.
Drouillard was paid $833.33 and Charbonneau
$500.33 1/3 cents in wages and the price of a horse and a lodge
purchased for him.
York the slave and Sacagawea the female
received nothing.
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Death:
One member of the Corps of Discovery, Sergeant Charles Floyd,
died of natural causes, probably of appendicitis.
One, maybe two, Native Americans died. During an attempted theft of
the Lewis and Clark party’s rifles and horses by Piegan Indians in
Montana on July 27, 1806, Reuben Field stabbed one to death and
Lewis shot another, possibly fatally.
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