Lewis chose William Clark as his co-leader for the mission. The excursion lasted over two years. Along the way they confronted harsh weather, unforgiving terrain, treacherous waters, injuries, starvation, disease and both friendly and hostile Native Americans.
Nevertheless, the approximately 8,mile journey was deemed a huge success and provided new geographic, ecological and cultural information about previously uncharted areas of North America. Meriwether Lewis was born in Virginia in but spent his early childhood in Georgia. He returned to Virginia as a teenager to receive his education and graduated from college in He then joined the Virginia state militiaβwhere he helped to put down the Whiskey Rebellion βand later became a captain in the U.
At age 27 he became personal secretary to President Thomas Jefferson. William Clark was also born in Virginia in but moved with his family to Kentucky at age At age 19, he joined the state militia and then the regular Army, where he served with Lewis and was eventually commissioned by President George Washington as a lieutenant of infantry.
Even before negotiations with France were finished, Jefferson asked Congress to finance an expedition to survey the lands of the so-called Louisiana Purchase and appointed Lewis as expedition commander.
He studied medicine, botany, astronomy and zoology and scrutinized existing maps and journals of the region. He also asked his friend Clark to co-command the expedition. But for all intents and purposes, the two shared equal responsibility. From there, Clark took the boat up the Mississippi River while Lewis continued along on horseback to collect additional supplies.
