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Meriwether Lewis (August 18, 1774 – October 11, 1809) was an American explorer, soldier, and public administrator, best known for his role as the leader of the Corps of Discovery, whose mission was to explore the territory of the Louisiana Purchase.
Life
Lewis was born near Charlottesville, in Albemarle County, Virginia, to William and Lucy (née Meriwether) Lewis. He moved with his family to Georgia when he was ten. At thirteen, he was sent back to Virginia for education by private tutors.
He also joined the Virginia militia, and in 1794 was sent as part of a detachment involved in putting down the Whiskey Rebellion. In 1795, he joined the regular army, in which he served until 1801, at one point in the detachment of his future associate William Clark. He achieved the rank of captain.
He was appointed private secretary to President Thomas Jefferson in 1801 and was intimately involved in the planning of the expedition. Jefferson sent Clark to Philadelphia to be schooled in cartography and other necessary skills.
After returning from the Lewis and Clark Expedition, Lewis received a reward of 1500 acres (6 km²) of land and was appointed governor of Missouri; he settled in St. Louis.
He died of a gunshot wound at a tavern called Grinder's Stand, about 70 miles (110 km) from Nashville, Tennessee, on the Natchez Trace, while en route to Washington; he had been shot in the head and chest. Whether his death was from suicide or murder has never been conclusively determined. But it was reported that he was extremely depressed and had attempted to jump into the Mississippi River and drown shortly before his death; and it is unlikely that Jefferson and Clark, both good friends of Lewis, would not have sought justice if they believed that he had been murdered.
The explorer was buried not far from where he died. He is honored today by a memorial along the Natchez Trace National Historic Trail.
Legacy
For many years, Lewis's legacy was overlooked, inaccurately assessed, and even tarnished by his suicide. Yet his contributions to science, the expansion of the American Empire, and the lore of great world explorers, are incalculable.Ambrose|Ambrose, Stephen. Undaunted Courage: Meriwether Lewis, Thomas Jefferson, and the Opening of the American West. Simon & Schuster: 15 February 1996. ISBN 0684811073.
Several years after Lewis's death, Thomas Jefferson wrote
- Of courage undaunted, possessing a firmness and perseverance of purpose which nothing but impossibilities could divert from its direction, ... honest, disinterested, liberal, of sound understanding and a fidelity to truth so scrupulous that whatever he should report would be as certain as if seen by ourselves, with all these qualifications as if selected and implanted by nature in one body for this express purpose, I could have no hesitation in confiding the enterprise to him.Jefferson, Thomas, Paul Allen, 18 August 1813, in Letters of the Lewis and Clark Expedition with Related Documents: 1783–1854, edited by Donald Dean Jackson. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1962, pp. 589–590.
The alpine plant Lewisia (family Portulacaceae), popular in rock gardens, is named after Lewis, as are Lewis County, Tennessee; Lewiston, Idaho; and the U.S. Army installation Fort Lewis, Washington. In 1941, a United States Liberty ship named the SS Meriwether Lewis was launched. She was torpeoded and sunk in 1943.
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1774 births | 1809 deaths | American explorers | American naturalists | Deaths by firearm | Explorers of North America | Lewis and Clark | People from Virginia | Suicides by firearm | United States Army officers | Welsh-Americans
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"Meriwether Lewis"