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Lewis Expedition: The Louisiana Purchase

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Imagine preparing for a journey that will take months, maybe even years. You are not sure where you will be going, what you will see, or who you will meet. Will I have food to eat? What kind of people will I see? Will I make it back alive? The challenge of the unknown lay ahead. The explorers, commissioned by President Thomas Jefferson, had no idea what they would encounter on their expedition, but onward they journeyed into the mysterious land known only as the Louisiana Purchase. The expedition would be a turning point in American history and would provide President Jefferson the opportunity to expand the borders of the United States to include both the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. With the contribution of Lewis, Clark, and the many …show more content…
Lewis helped subdue the Whiskey Rebellion, a Pennsylvania argument led by farmers against taxes. The next year he served with William Clark, a man who would later help him on one of the greatest expeditions of all time. Lewis joined the regular army and achieved the rank of captain. William Clark entered the military at the age of 19. First he served in the state militia and then entered the U.S. Army. Clark became friends with Meriwether Lewis while the two served together in 1795. As a captain in the army, Lewis received a letter from president-elect Thomas Jefferson asking him to be one of his aides. Lewis accepted the job that Thomas Jefferson …show more content…
Clark was appointed to oversee Indian affairs. Lewis died (by committing suicide) 3 years later on October 11, 1809. His grave is near Hohenwald, Tennessee, along the Natchez Trace National Parkway. Clark married Julia Hancock and when she died in 1820, he married Harriet Kennerly Radford. Clark had eight children total. He named his first child Meriwether Lewis Clark after his partner and very close friend. William Clark died on September 1, 1838, at 68 years old, near St. Louis, Missouri. He is buried in the Clark Family plot in Bellefontaine

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