J.M.: The Lewis & Clark Expedition was many things but basically it was a military operation. You’ve made that abundantly clear in Undaunted Courage. In what ways, or in how many ways can it be said, do you think, to have been indeed, in fact, in practical fact, a military expedition? S.A.: It was a military expedition. There were paddlers that were voyagers from St. Charles and St. Louis who got as far as Fort Mandan. And then in the spring of 1805 when they set out from Fort Mandan, there was George Drouillard, the hunter, there was York, Captain Clark’s slave, there was Sacagawea and her baby Pomp, John Baptiste Charbonneau everyone else was in the army. And, obviously the captains were leading a military expedition to explore the great northwest, and they ran it as a military expedition from beginning to end. Do you want me to go on? J.M.: Yes. S.A.: In so many ways they maintained a very tight discipline. They posted sentries every night. They had the men divided into squads. They had their own mess, and a cook that would prepare on those big iron kettles whatever the food was for the evening. They had courts martials, quite a number of them actually, the most famous coming when a couple of guys broke into the whiskey barrel and helped themselves, which infuriated every other member of the expedition, because that whiskey was theirs and they were the ones that were being stolen from. So when the courts martial was held they were found guilty and the captains had fifty lashes well laid on. On a couple of occasions there was one hundred lashes. This is tough discipline. I mean these guys bared their backs and the men, especially in the whiskey incident, really laid into them. Then the captains would get them into the pirogues, without a shirt on of course. They didn’t rub salt into the wounds, but they did everything else. And these guys had to go out and paddle with the sun shining down on their sore, bruised, broken, bleeding backs. That’s just one aspect of the overall picture, which to repeat, was a military expedition. Close Window from Discovering Lewis & Clark®, © 2004 VIAs, Inc.