The Corps of Discovery, under the command of Meriwether Lewis and William Clark, was the first official expedition through the interior of the North American Continent sponsored by the United States.
Captain Meriwether Lewis passed Charles Town in Virginia (later renamed Wellsburg) on September 7, 1803. Lewis brought the expedition's keelboat down the Ohio River to rendezvous with William Clark near Louisville, Kentucky.
The expedition spent the winter of 1803-04 at a camp located near what is today Wood River, Illinois, preparing for the arduous journey to the Pacific Ocean and back.
...passed Charles town on the E. shore above the mouth of the mouth of the Buffaloe over which there is built a handsom wooden bridge, this has the appearance of a handsome little village, containing about forty houses....Meriwether Lewis, September 7, 1803
[Text at Photo of Patrick Gass:]
Patrick Gass (1771-1870)Meriwether Lewis considered Patrick Gass a man of "capacity, diligence, and integrity." Gass, a good soldier and a first rate carpenter, volunteered for the expedition, over the objections of his superiors, while stationed at Fort Kaskaskia in Illinois. When Sgt. Charles Floyd (the expedition's only casualty) died on 20 August 1804, Gass was elected by the party to replace him as "Sergeant in the corps of volunteers for North Western Discovery." Gass returned to Wellsburg after the expedition - he was the last living member of the Corps of Discovery at his death in 1870.
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