Expedition Members / Ebenezer Tuttle

Ebenezer Tuttle

(1773–unknown), Private

By Barbara FiferJoseph A. Mussulman

Private Tuttle joined the army in Pittsburgh on 1 January 1803. He either travelled down the Ohio with Lewis or was already posted at Fort Kaskaskia when Lewis and Clark arrived there in November 1803 looking for volunteers. Previously, he resided in the city of his birth, New Haven, Connecticut. His occupation recorded as a farmer.[1]Company Book of Amos Stoddard’s Artillery Company, Louisiana Territory Collection, Military Command Records, Adjutant’s Records, 1803–1805, Missouri State Historical Society Archives, St. … Continue reading

Tuttle was assigned to the return party, but on 12 June 1804, Pvt. Joseph Whitehouse wrote that seven Chouteau Fur Company pirogues heading downstream met up with the upward-bound Corps. The men gave the traders some of their wool blankets in exchange for buffalo robes and moccasins (although Whitehouse didn’t explain why), and the captains bought 300 pounds of buffalo grease. The captains also hired one of Chouteau’s party, Pierre Dorion, Sr., to return upriver with them until they met the Sioux, among whom he had lived for 20 years, to help persuade some of their chiefs to visit President Jefferson. Perhaps in an exchange of personnel, Whitehouse explains “we put on board . . . one Man . . . belonging to Captain Stoddards company of Artillery, who is going to Saint Louis . . . .” The man sent back could have been John Robinson, Tuttle, or Isaac White.[2]Moulton, ed., Journals, 2:520-21, 522.

 

Notes

Notes
1 Company Book of Amos Stoddard’s Artillery Company, Louisiana Territory Collection, Military Command Records, Adjutant’s Records, 1803–1805, Missouri State Historical Society Archives, St. Louis, Missouri.
2 Moulton, ed., Journals, 2:520-21, 522.

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.