Expedition Members / John Boley

John Boley

Private, U.S. Army

By Barbara Fifer

Wood Gatherers

by Michael Haynes

Sketch of a young soldier with an arm full of firewood

© Michael Haynes, https://www.mhaynesart.com. Used with permission.

For John Boley, assigned to the return party, the Corps’ 1804 travels apparently whetted an appetite for frontier exploration.

Boley was one of the expedition’s solid journeymen members. At Camp Dubois in early March 1804, Lewis and Clark disciplined him along with John Colter, Peter Weiser, and John Robinson because all four had used “hunting or other business [as] a pretext to cover their design of visiting a neighbouring whiskey shop.” Lewis made examples of them in his Detachment Orders for March 3, restricting them to camp for ten days[1]Moulton, ed., Journals, 2:179. After that, Boley had no further disciplinary problems, nor did his name appear except on listings of mess assignment and return party members.

 

Repeat Explorer

Zebulon Pike (1808)

by Charles Willson Peale

Early 19th-century officer portrait

Image provided by the U.S. National Park Service.

Zebulon Pike led two expeditions in the new Louisiana Purchase territory coinciding with the Lewis and Clark Expedition and the Freeman-Custis Expedition. The first expedition explored the upper reaches of the Mississippi River and the second crossed the southwest going over the Rocky Mountains in present southern Colorado.

—Kristopher K. Townsend, ed.

After reaching St. Louis on the barge (called the ‘boat’ or ‘barge’ but never the ‘keelboat’)—20 May 1805—he volunteered for Zebulon Pike‘s expedition that was to leave on 9 August 1805 to reconnoiter the upper Mississippi River and its headwaters. Pike and his men returned to St. Louis on April 30 the following year.

On 15 July 1806, Pike was headed west again, with Boley in his command. This group escorted some Osage Indians ransomed from the Potawatomis back to their home near Lake of the Ozarks, along with Pawnee, Otoe and other Osage leaders returning from a visit to President Jefferson. After that, a smaller group under Pike was to explore the Arkansas River, locate the Red River’s headwaters, and try to speak with the Comanches on the Plains.[2]Bob Moore, “Zebulon Pike: Hard-Luck Explorer.” http://zebulonpike.org/pike-hardluck-explorer.htm The notorious Gen. James Wilkinson initiated the exploration of the Southwest without Jefferson’s or Congress’s prior approval, and sent his son, Lt. James Biddle Wilkinson, as part of the military escort that was to return after reaching the Arkansas. Boley was part of the junior Wilkinson’s group, and is said to have been among three deserters on the homeward leg.

Boley was last heard of in 1823, living in Missouri with his wife.

 

Notes

Notes
↑1 Moulton, ed., Journals, 2:179.
↑2 Bob Moore, “Zebulon Pike: Hard-Luck Explorer.” http://zebulonpike.org/pike-hardluck-explorer.htm

Discover More

  • The Lewis and Clark Expedition: Day by Day by Gary E. Moulton (University of Nebraska Press, 2018). The story in prose, 14 May 1804–23 September 1806.
  • The Lewis and Clark Journals: An American Epic of Discovery (abridged) by Gary E. Moulton (University of Nebraska Press, 2003). Selected journal excerpts, 14 May 1804–23 September 1806.
  • The Lewis and Clark Journals. by Gary E. Moulton (University of Nebraska Press, 1983–2001). The complete story in 13 volumes.

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Unless otherwise noted, journal excerpts are from The Journals of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, edited by Gary E. Moulton, 13 vols. (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1983-2001).