Capt. Lewis gets shot by fellow explorer Series on Web site

August 26, 2006 12:50 am

'The Trail Map,' a painting by artist R. L. Rickards, shows the trail Lewis and Clark followed from its beginning at Du Bois River, Ill., near St. Louis, (indicated in red) to the ocean. Their return to St. Louis is indicated in green.

Part 88 of a series

JOSEPH DICKSON and Forest Hancock were coming up the Missouri River as the Corps was descending it. These trappers brought the first news from the eastern United States Lewis and Clark had heard in nearly two years. The trappers had been robbed of their furs by the Sioux, but were doggedly going on. They were replenished with shot and powder from Corps supplies. Dickson and Hancock continued upriver toward where Lewis and Clark told them good beaver-trapping areas awaited. They soon decided to come back and communicate with the Corps to gain more upriver knowledge and possibly gain a recruit.

Capt. Lewis is shot: Lewis took a break to secure some meat for his men. He and Pvt. Pierre Cruzatte (the Corps' one-eyed, nearsighted fiddle player) went elk hunting. Cruzatte, mistaking buckskin-clad Lewis for an elk, shot him in his backside. Until the pain abated, Lewis had to lie on his stomach in the bottom of a canoe for several days.

From the Journals, week of Aug. 7, 1806:

AUG. 7: "Set out early resolving to reach the Yellowstone river today 83 miles at 4 p.m. arrived at the entrance of the Yellowstone landed at the point and found that Capt. Clark had been encamped at this place had left found the remnant of a note game scarce mosquitoes troublesome reason his going on " -- Capt. Lewis

AUG. 8: "Not finding Capt. Clark I knew not what calculation to make with rispect to his halting and therefore determined to proceed as tho' he was not before me the men with me have not had leasure to make cloaths [clothes] and most of them are therefore extreemly bare " --Capt. Lewis

AUG. 9: "[with Clark, whose party was camped down stream from Lewis'] loaded the Canoes and proceeded on down about 6 miles and landed at the camp of [Pvt. John] Shields and [Pvt. George] Gibson whome I had sent down [stream] to hunt last evening, they had killed five deer [I] walked in a Grove of timber met with an Elk which I killed largest Buck I ever Saw " --Capt. ClarkAUG. 10: "[with Lewis] I hastened the repairs which were necessary to the perogue and canoe which were completed by 2 p.m. at 4 directed the vessels be loaded and got under way the musquetoes more than usually troublesome this evening "--Capt. LewisAUG. 11: " [with Clark] had not proceeded more than 2 miles before I observed a Canoe land found two men from the illioies [Illinois] Jos. Dixon and Hancock those men on a trapping expedition up the River " --Capt. ClarkAUG. 11: " [with Lewis] happened on a herd of Elk I went out with [Pvt. Pierre] Cruzatte [who was nearsighted] only I was in the act of firing on the Elk a second time when a ball struck my left thye [thigh] missing the bone it passed through the left thye and cut across the hinder part of the right thye; I called out to him damn you, you have shot me received no answer; I was perswaded that it was an Indian that had shot me. [after investigation and finding the spent bullet of military source in his buckskins and no Indians in the neighborhood] no doubt in my own mind of his having shot me " --Capt. LewisAUG. 12: "I must note a singular cherry I have never seen it inblume [This was Lewis's last journal entry for the trip--he was still recording flora discovered]"--Capt. LewisAUG. 13: " all hand were on board and we Set out at Sunrize and proceeded on vary well with a Stiff breeze astern [with the] assistance of the wind, the Current and our oars 86 miles "--Capt. ClarkNEXT WEEK: The Corps of Discovery return to the Mandan villages, where they had wintered in 1804-05. NOTE: The Lewis and Clark Exploratory Center in Charlottesville has a 55-foot full-scale keelboat on its property in Darden Towe Park off State Route 20 northeast of Charlottesville (Stony Point Road) adjacent to the Rivanna River. It has also embarked on a fundraising campaign to create a hands-on center for children of all ages to learn about Lewis and Clark's adventures and the technology of the early 1800s. For details, visit lewisandclark east.org.BILL SPEIDEN of Orange County serves on the board of directors of the Lewis and Clark Exploratory Center in Charlottesville. Contact him by phone at 540/672-2596, or e-mail
Email: oxpwr@yahoo.com. --Capt. Clark

AUG. 10: "[with Lewis] I hastened the repairs which were necessary to the perogue and canoe which were completed by 2 p.m. at 4 directed the vessels be loaded and got under way the musquetoes more than usually troublesome this evening " --Capt. Lewis

AUG. 11: " [with Clark] had not proceeded more than 2 miles before I observed a Canoe land found two men from the illioies [Illinois] Jos. Dixon and Hancock those men on a trapping expedition up the River " --Capt. ClarkAUG. 11: " [with Lewis] happened on a herd of Elk I went out with [Pvt. Pierre] Cruzatte [who was nearsighted] only I was in the act of firing on the Elk a second time when a ball struck my left thye [thigh] missing the bone it passed through the left thye and cut across the hinder part of the right thye; I called out to him damn you, you have shot me received no answer; I was perswaded that it was an Indian that had shot me. [after investigation and finding the spent bullet of military source in his buckskins and no Indians in the neighborhood] no doubt in my own mind of his having shot me " --Capt. LewisAUG. 12: "I must note a singular cherry I have never seen it inblume [This was Lewis's last journal entry for the trip--he was still recording flora discovered]"--Capt. LewisAUG. 13: " all hand were on board and we Set out at Sunrize and proceeded on vary well with a Stiff breeze astern [with the] assistance of the wind, the Current and our oars 86 miles "--Capt. ClarkNEXT WEEK: The Corps of Discovery return to the Mandan villages, where they had wintered in 1804-05. NOTE: The Lewis and Clark Exploratory Center in Charlottesville has a 55-foot full-scale keelboat on its property in Darden Towe Park off State Route 20 northeast of Charlottesville (Stony Point Road) adjacent to the Rivanna River. It has also embarked on a fundraising campaign to create a hands-on center for children of all ages to learn about Lewis and Clark's adventures and the technology of the early 1800s. For details, visit lewisandclark east.org.BILL SPEIDEN of Orange County serves on the board of directors of the Lewis and Clark Exploratory Center in Charlottesville. Contact him by phone at 540/672-2596, or e-mail
Email: oxpwr@yahoo.com. --Capt. Clark

AUG. 11: " [with Lewis] happened on a herd of Elk I went out with [Pvt. Pierre] Cruzatte [who was nearsighted] only I was in the act of firing on the Elk a second time when a ball struck my left thye [thigh] missing the bone it passed through the left thye and cut across the hinder part of the right thye; I called out to him damn you, you have shot me received no answer; I was perswaded that it was an Indian that had shot me. [after investigation and finding the spent bullet of military source in his buckskins and no Indians in the neighborhood] no doubt in my own mind of his having shot me " --Capt. Lewis

AUG. 12: "I must note a singular cherry I have never seen it inblume [This was Lewis's last journal entry for the trip--he was still recording flora discovered]" --Capt. Lewis

AUG. 13: " all hand were on board and we Set out at Sunrize and proceeded on vary well with a Stiff breeze astern [with the] assistance of the wind, the Current and our oars 86 miles " --Capt. Clark

NEXT WEEK: The Corps of Discovery return to the Mandan villages, where they had wintered in 1804-05.

NOTE: The Lewis and Clark Exploratory Center in Charlottesville has a 55-foot full-scale keelboat on its property in Darden Towe Park off State Route 20 northeast of Charlottesville (Stony Point Road) adjacent to the Rivanna River. It has also embarked on a fundraising campaign to create a hands-on center for children of all ages to learn about Lewis and Clark's adventures and the technology of the early 1800s. For details, visit lewisandclark east.org.

BILL SPEIDEN of Orange County serves on the board of directors of the Lewis and Clark Exploratory Center in Charlottesville. Contact him by phone at 540/672-2596, or e-mail
Email: oxpwr@yahoo.com.

To see the entire "Lewis and Clark This Week" series on The Free Lance- Star's Web site, visit fredericksburg .com/News/FLS/ Projects/2005/lewis_ and_clark.