Day-by-Day / March 1, 1804

March 1, 1804

Orders for Sgt. Floyd

Winter Camp at Wood River, IL The day begins with sub-zero temperatures, and trouble brews when some of the enlisted men disobey Sgt. Ordway’s orders. In Washington City, the Secretary of War orders Major Bruff to replace Amos Stoddard as military commander of Upper Louisiana.

Expedition Stores

Fort Mandan Visitors Center

Stacks of wood boxes and kegs

Taken in cooperation with the Fort Mandan Visitors Center. Photo © 2013 by Kristopher K. Townsend. Permission to use granted under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license.

Sgt. Floyd’s Duties

Detachment Orders
Camp River Dubois, Febr. 20th 1804

Floyd will take charge of our quartes and store and be exempt from guard duty untill our return, the commanding Officer hopes that this proof of his confidence will be justifyed by the rigid performance of the orders given him on that subject.—

Meriwether Lewis Capt.
1st. U.S. Regt. Infty.

Related: Charles Floyd | Outfitting the Expedition

A Change in Command

War Department 1st March 1804

Thos. H. Cushing

SIR, You will please to order Major Bruff to repair to upper Louisiana to take Command of that Department—He should be at Massac by the 1st of May—You will direct Capt: Stoddard to send a suitable Boat with a noncommissioned Officer and four men to Massac by the 25th of April to wait at that place until the Major arrives, to convey him up the River—

. . . . .

I am &ca

[Henry Dearborn]

Henry Dearborn was Secretary of the War Department and Colonel Thomas Cushing was Adjutant and Inspector General in the U. S. Army from 1802 to 1807. Bruff did not take over as the military commandant of Upper Louisiana until 1 July 1804. Amos Stoddard continued as civil commandant until 1 October 1804 when he was replaced by the Illinois territorial governor, William Henry Harrison.[1]Clarence E. Carter, The Territorial Papers of the United States (Washington, DC: United States Government Printing Office, 1948), 13:16–17 including notes, digitized by Google books.

 

Weather Diary

Therm at sun symbol rise weather wind Therm at 4 Oclk weather wind River
12 below 0 fair N W 4 above 0 N W fall 9 inches

—Meriwether Lewis and William Clark[2]To assist the reader, the editor of this web page has omitted the date column, merged the “River” columns, and spelled out some abbreviations.

Related: Thermometers and Temperatures | Weather Observations

 
logo: Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail logo: National Park Service

Winter Camp at Wood River (Camp Dubois) is a High Potential Historic Site along the Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail managed by the U.S. National Park Service. The site, near Hartford, Illinois, is managed as Lewis and Clark State Historic Site and is open to the public.

Notes

Notes
↑1 Clarence E. Carter, The Territorial Papers of the United States (Washington, DC: United States Government Printing Office, 1948), 13:16–17 including notes, digitized by Google books.
↑2 To assist the reader, the editor of this web page has omitted the date column, merged the “River” columns, and spelled out some abbreviations.

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.

This page was funded in part by the Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail, U.S. National Park Service.

This site is provided as a public service by the
Logo: Lewis & Clark Trail Heritage Foundation
Lewis and Clark Trail Heritage Foundation
with cooperation and funding from the following organizations:

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).