Clark, Like Lewis,
Held A Commission In The Military Service Of The United States, And His
Appointment As One Of
The leaders of the expedition with which his name
and that of Lewis will ever be associated, made the two
Men equal in rank.
Exactly how there could be two captains commanding the same expedition,
both of the same military and actual rank, without jar or quarrel,
we cannot understand; but it is certain that the two young men got on
together harmoniously, and no hint or suspicion of any serious disagreement
between the two captains during their long and arduous service has come
down to us from those distant days.
[1] It is a little singular that Captain Clark's name has been
so persistently misspelled by historians and biographers.
Even in most of the published versions of the story of the Lewis
and Clark expedition, the name of one of the captains is
spelled Clarke. Clark's own signature, of which many are
in existence, is without the final and superfluous vowel;
and the family name, for generations past, does not show it.
As finally organized, the expedition was made up of the two captains
(Lewis and Clark) and twenty-six men. These were nine young men
from Kentucky, who were used to life on the frontier among Indians;
fourteen soldiers of the United States Army, selected from many who
eagerly volunteered their services; two French voyageurs, or watermen,
one of whom was an interpreter of Indian language, and the other
a hunter; and one black man, a servant of Captain Clark.
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