LEWIS AND CLARK AT FORT MASSAC

Prepared by Sheila Richey, Fort. Massac Site Interpreter

Reconstruction | Encampment at Fort Massac | Pictures

In 1803 Thomas Jefferson, President of the United States, initiated the exploration of the West by arranging an expedition to be led by Meriwether Lewis, his private secretary, and William Clark, the younger brother of General George Rogers Clark. Lewis and Clark recruited a small company of men to explore the course of the Missouri River and to find a direct water passage to the Pacific Ocean. This small group of explorers was to become the Corp of Discovery.

Meriwether Lewis started the expedition on March 15, 1803 from Washington, D.C. He traveled overland to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and started down the Ohio River on August 31. Before starting on the journey, Lewis had written William Clark, an old friend, to join him on the expedition. Lewis and Clark were to share the command of the expedition with the rank of Captains.

Lewis met Clark at the Falls of the Ohio near the present day Louisville, Kentucky and Clarksville, Indiana. They visited with, General George Rogers Clark to learn more about the western frontier before continuing down the Ohio. Lewis and Clark left Clarksville, Indiana on October 26, 1803. They encamped below the mouth of the Cumberland River on November 10, and arrived at Fort Massac in the Illinois Territory on November 11. Along their journey down the Ohio, they recruited men for the expedition.

During the early 1800's Fort Massac was a recruiting area. Captain Daniel Bissell, commander of the fort, was a captain in the First Infantry Regiment. Lewis and Clark recruited the members of the expeditions from three sources: Anglo-American frontiersmen from the Ohio River Valley, U. S. Army enlisted men, and the French settlers of Illinois and Missouri.

The U. S. Army enlisted men were from four companies stationed at small posts on the western frontier: Captain Daniel Bissell's company of the First Infantry Regiment, stationed at Fort Massac; Captain Russell Bissell's company of the same Regiment, stationed at Fort Kaskaskia; Captain John Campbell's company of the Second Infantry in Tennessee; and Captain Amos Stoddard's company of artillerists, stationed at Fort Kaskaskia.

At Fort Massac Lewis and Clark recruited George Drouillard, John Newman, and possibly Joseph Whitehouse. George Drouillard was an important member of the Corps of Discovery. He was hired as a hunter and sign interpreter for the Corps. His proper name was George Pierre Drouillard, but in their journals Lewis and Clark spelled his name Drewyer. He was not a soldier. He had been hired to hunt for the soldiers at Fort Massac.

George Drouillard's father was Pierre Drouillard of Detroit. Church records list Pierre Drouillard having a child with an Asoundechris Flathead in 1773. The child was baptized George Pierre Drouillard. George Drouillard's parentage makes him part Shawnee and French Canadian. Pierre Drouillard was for many years an official of the British Indian Department at Detroit and from 1793-1798, he was a spy for Virginia, at one time hired by George Rogers Clark.

Since George Rogers Clark knew Pierre Drouillard, it is believed that William Clark was aware of George Drouillard, before they met at Fort Massac. George Drouillard had been at Fort Massac for several years before he was asked to join the Corps of Discovery in 1803. Earlier in 1794, General Anthony Wayne had sent Major Thomas Doyle to Fort Massac to build the first American fort at the site.

During Major Doyle and company's journey down the Ohio they met five Canadian hunters at the mouth of the Saline River. George Drouillard was one of the frontiersmen who joined the expedition as it passed downriver. These frontiersmen built huts near the fort and George Drouillard thereby became one of the first permanent settlers in what is now Massac County. "It is possible that Drouillard may have been the "George" described by Doyle as a Shawnee who spoke seven Indian languages and served as interpreter and message bearer."

George Drouillard served as scout and message carrier for the commandants of Massac until 1803. Captain Daniel Bissell did not want to let Drouillard go because he was also valued as a hunter and interpreter for Fort Massac.

Drouillard was hired by Lewis for $25.00 a month, the equivalent pay of a second lieutenant, and the promise of a warrant for land on his return. He was considered a civilian employee, even though "Mr Swan Assistant Military agent at Fort Massac advanced him thirty dollars on account of his pay." This may have been the incentive for Drouillard to leave Fort Massac. But more probable was the captains' prior knowledge of him and their faith in him to accomplish his mission.

Drouillard was advanced the thirty dollars for expenses to travel to South Point, Tennessee to pick up more recruits. Drouillard left the fort to pick up these recruits and then to meet Lewis and Clark at their winter headquarters at the Wood River Camp in the Illinois Territory (also called Camp DuBois, or Camp Wood). Today, there is a Lewis and Clark Museum at the Wood River Camp site at Hartford Illinois.

In May of 1804, the Corps of Discovery left Camp Wood with 45 men and traveled to Fort Mandan. As planned, twelve returned to St. Louis in 1805 from Fort Mandan with the keel boat, while 33 men went on to Fort Clatsop near Astoria, Oregon.

The hunters were kept busy trying to feed the men of the expedition. Based on the amount of rations the Hudson Bay Company held for voyageurs, which was 10 lbs of fresh red meat per man per day, starting out the hunters of the Corps would have had to furnish 460 lbs of meat a day and then 330 lbs. for the permanent Corps. They hunted elk, deer, beaver, bison, and black bear and during the hungry times even ate dogs.

Another recruit from Fort Massac was Private John Newman from Captian Daniel Bissell's 1st Infantry Company. "He was powerful, strong willed and quick tempered. While enroute up the Missouri with the expedition, he made mutinous remarks, but afterwords did all he could to atone." Because of these actions, he was sent back with the return party in April 1805 from Fort Mandan. Private Newman was tried by court-martial.

He was sentenced to seventy-five lashes and was expelled from the permanent party. He was sentenced to hard labor until he was sent back from Fort Mandan. Eventually Congress allowed Newman pay for his period of service up to his expulsion and a land warrant. This had been granted on Lewis's recommendation.

Both Fort Massac and Fort Kaskaskia claim that Private Joseph Whitehouse was recruited at their fort. Captain William Clark lists him as one of the "Nine young men from Kentucky," which would indicate he grew up in that state. As a young man, he enlisted in the U.S. Army and during one period was stationed at Fort Kaskaskia. He was transferred from Captian Daniel Bissell's company to the expedition and was entered on the roll as of January 1, 1804.

Many of the other recruits also have a start date of January 1, 1804. This would appear to mean that Whitehouse and the other members recruited from the other military commands had remained on the payroll of their former units until December 31, 1803. Whitehouse worked as a tailor and hide-curer during the expedition. After the expedition, Whitehouse sold his 160-acre land claim to George Drouillard for $280.00.

Private Whitehouse was one of the eight members of the Corps that kept journals. Captain Meriwether Lewis, Captain William Clark, Sergeant Charles Floyd, Sergeant John Ordway, Sergeant Patrick Gass, Sergeant Nathaniel Pryor and Private Robert Frazer also kept journals. Six of those journals were published and five original manuscripts exist. Both Pryor's and Frazer's journals were lost and Patrick Gass's original manuscript is thought to have been lost.

Other members of the expedition may have been recruited at Fort Massac. Each day new research reveals more information on the members of the expedition. It was a small world in 1803 and since brothers Daniel Bissell and Russell Bissell were captains at Fort Massac and Fort Kaskaskia, it is a possibility that members of the Corps served under both brothers and were stationed at different times at Fort Massac or Fort Kaskaskia.

Lewis and Clark were at Fort Massac from November 11 - 13, 1803. Meriwether Lewis and William Clark recorded a few observations about Fort Massac in their journals.

Meriwether Lewis writes, "11th November, Arived at Massac engaged George Drewyer in the public service as an Indian Interpretter, contracted to pay him 25 dollards pr. month for his services."

Meriwether Lewis, "12th Novr, remained, took equal altitudes A.M. but was prevented from compleating the observation by taking an observation in the evening by the clouds"?

Meriwether Lewis, "13th Novr. left Massac this evening about five oclock----descended about three miles and encamped on the S.E. shore raind very hard in the eving and I was siezed with a violent ague which continued about four hours and as is usual was succeeded by a feever which however fortunately abated in some measure by sunrise the next morning"

The only comment about Fort Massac by Clark was found written crosswise in his field notes.

William Clark, "Left Fort Masacre the 13th of Novr 1803 at 4 oclock with an at."

When the expedition left Fort Massac on November 13, they traveled three miles and camped on the southeast shore of the Ohio in current McCracken County, Kentucky. Lewis had become ill and they camped overnight. The next morning the Lewis and Clark expedition went to the confluence of the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers, now present day Cairo, Illinois. Here they spent five days taking celestial observations.

Fort Massac will celebrate the bicentennial of the Expedition with a special event from November 11 - 13, 2003.

LEWIS AND CLARK AT FORT MASSAC

Ohio River Valley History