Undaunted Courage: Meriwether Lewis Thomas Jefferson and the OpeningFrom the New York Times bestselling author of Band of Brothers and D-Day, the definitive book on Lewis and Clark’s exploration of the Louisiana Purchase, the most momentous expedition in American history and one of the great adventure stories of all time. In 1803 President Thomas Jefferson selected his personal secretary, Captain Meriwether Lewis, to lead a voyage up the Missouri River to the Rockies, over the mountains, down the Columbia River to the Pacific Ocean, and back. Lewis and his partner, Captain William Clark, made the first map of the trans-Mississippi West, provided invaluable scientific data on the flora and fauna of the Louisiana Purchase territory, and established the American claim to Oregon, Washington, and Idaho. Ambrose has pieced together previously unknown information about weather, terrain, and medical knowledge at the time to provide a vivid backdrop for the expedition. Lewis is supported by a rich variety of colorful characters, first of all Jefferson himself, whose interest in exploring and acquiring the American West went back thirty years. Next comes Clark, a rugged frontiersman whose love for Lewis matched Jefferson’s. There are numerous Indian chiefs, and Sacagawea, the Indian girl who accompanied the expedition, along with the French-Indian hunter Drouillard, the great naturalists of Philadelphia, the French and Spanish fur traders of St. Louis, John Quincy Adams, and many more leading political, scientific, and military figures of the turn of the century. High adventure, high politics, suspense, drama, and diplomacy combine with high romance and personal tragedy to make this outstanding work of scholarship as readable as a novel. |
Contents
Thomas Jeersons America 18 01 | |
The Origins of the Expedition 17 501802 | |
Preparing for the Expedition | |
Washington to Pittsburgh | |
Down the Ohio | |
Up the Mississippi to Winter Camp | |
Over the Continental Divide | |
The Shoshones | |
Down the Columbia | |
Fort Clatsop | |
The Clatsops and the Chinooks | |
Return to the Nez Percé | |
June 10July 2 1806 | |
The Marias Exploration | |
Ready to Depart | |
Entering Indian Country | |
Encounter with the Sioux | |
September 1804 | |
Fall 1804 | |
Report from Fort Mandan | |
From Fort Mandan to Marias River | |
From Marias River to the Great Falls | |
The Great Portage | |
Looking for the Shoshones | |
The Last | |
Reporting to the President | |
Philadelphia | |
Virginia | |
JanuaryAugust 1809 | |
Last Voyage | |
NOTES | |
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Common terms and phrases
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