Day-by-Day / September 28, 1803

September 28, 1803

Cincinnati arrival

Cincinnati, OH Lewis arrives in Cincinnati where he rests his crew and writes a letter to William Clark. He tells Clark that he has two recruits that may be suitable for the expedition.

Cincinnati in 1802

Henry Howe

Outline sketch of two-story buildings on a bench above the river

Henry Howe, Historical Collections of the Ohio, 2:facing 44.

Five Hundred Miles

Cincinnati, October 3rd 1803.

Dear Sir [Thomas Jefferson],

I reached this place on the 28th Ult; it being necessary to take in a further supply of provisions here, and finding my men much fatiegued with the labour to which they have been subjected in descending the river, I determined to recruit them by giving them a short respite of a few days, having now obtained the distance of five hundred miles.

MERIWETHER LEWIS. Capt.
1st. U.S. Regt. Infty.[1]Donald Jackson, ed. Letters of the Lewis and Clark Expedition with Related Documents: 1783-1854, 2nd ed., (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1978), 126.

In the lexicon of that day, to recruit meant “to recuperate or allow to recuperate.”[2]Alan H. Hartley, Lewis & Clark Lexicon of Discovery (Pullman, WA: WSU Press, 2004), 143. The term was also used on 10 July 1804 and 30 September 1805.

Two Recruits

Cincinnati Sept. 28th 1803.

Dear Clark,

I have two young men with me whom I have taken on trial and have not yet engaged them, but conditionally only, tho’ I think they will answer tolerably well.

MERIWETHER LEWIS.[3]Jackson, 125.

The two young men were likely George Shannon and John Colter. See The Personnel Plan and Ohio River Recruits.

Cincinnati in 2021

A small river enters the Ohio in front of the large city of Cincinnati

© 2021 by Robert Heacock. All rights reserved.

Above: The Licking River flows into the Ohio at Cincinnati.

Ohio River at Cincinnati

Henry Howe gives a description of the Ohio River at Cincinnati before major locks and dams:

The Ohio river at Cincinnati is 1,800 feet, or about one-third of a mile wide, and its mean annual range from low to high water is about 50 feet; the extreme range may be about 10 feet more. The greatest depressions are generally in August, September, and October, and the greatest rise in December, March, May, and June. The upward navigation is generally suspended by floating ice for eight or ten weeks in the winter. Its current at its, mean height is about three miles an hour; when higher and rising, it is more; and, when very low, it does not exceed two miles.
—Henry Howe[4]Henry Howe, Historical Collections of Ohio in Three Volumes (Columbus: Henry Howe & Son, 1891), 2:33.

 

Notes

Notes
↑1 Donald Jackson, ed. Letters of the Lewis and Clark Expedition with Related Documents: 1783-1854, 2nd ed., (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1978), 126.
↑2 Alan H. Hartley, Lewis & Clark Lexicon of Discovery (Pullman, WA: WSU Press, 2004), 143.
↑3 Jackson, 125.
↑4 Henry Howe, Historical Collections of Ohio in Three Volumes (Columbus: Henry Howe & Son, 1891), 2:33.

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).