"In 1803 President Thomas Jefferson selected his personal secretary, Captain Meriwether Lewis, to lead a voyage up the Missouri River to the Rockies, over the mountains, down the Columbia River to the Pacific Ocean, and back. Lewis was the perfect choice. He endured incredible hardships and saw incredible sights, including vast herds of buffalo and Indian tribes that had had no previous contact with white men. He and his partner, Captain William Clark, made the first map of the trans-Mississippi West, provided invaluable scientific data on the flora and fauna of the Louisiana Purchase territory, and established the American claim to Oregon, Washington, and Idaho. Ambrose has pieced together previously unknown information about weather, terrain, and medical knowledge at the time to provide a colorful and realistic backdrop for the expedition. Lewis saw the North American continent before any other white man; Ambrose describes in detail native peoples, weather, landscape, science, everything the expedition encountered along the way, through Lewis's eyes." "Lewis is supported by a rich variety of colorful characters, first of all Jefferson himself, whose interest in exploring and acquiring the American West went back thirty years. Next comes Clark, a rugged frontiersman whose love for Lewis matched Jefferson's. There are numerous Indian chiefs, and Sacagawea, the Indian girl who accompanied the expedition, along with the French-Indian hunter Drouillard, the great naturalists of Philadelphia, the French and Spanish fur traders of St. Louis, John Quincy Adams, and many more leading political, scientific, and military figures of the turn of the century." "This is a book about a hero. This is a book about national unity. But it is also a tragedy. When Lewis returned to Washington in the fall of 1806, he was a national hero. But for Lewis, the expedition was a failure. Jefferson had hoped to find an all-water route to the Pacific with a short hop over the Rockies - Lewis discovered there was no such passage. Jefferson hoped the Louisiana Purchase would provide endless land to support farming - but Lewis discovered that the Great Plains were too dry. Jefferson hoped there was a river flowing from Canada into the Missouri - but Lewis reported there was no such river, and thus no U.S. claim to the Canadian prairie. Lewis discovered the Plains Indians were hostile and would block settlement and trade up the Missouri. Lewis took to drink, engaged in land speculation, piled up debts he could not pay, made jealous political enemies, and suffered severe depression." "High adventure, high politics, suspense, drama, and diplomacy combine with high romance and personal tragedy to make this outstanding work of scholarship as readable as a novel."--BOOK JACKET.

Includes bibliographical references (p. 493-496) and index.

1. Youth 1774-1792 2. Planter 1792-1794 3. Soldier 1794-1800 4. Thomas Jefferson's America 1801 5. The President's Secretary 1801-1802 6. The Origins of the Expedition 1750-1802 7. Preparing for the Expedition: January-June 1803 8. Washington to Pittsburgh: June-August 1803 9. Down the Ohio: September-November 1803 10. Up the Mississippi to Winter Camp: November 1803-March 1804 11. Ready to Depart: April-May 21, 1804 12. Up the Missouri: May-July 1804 13. Entering Indian Country: August 1804 14. Encounter with the Sioux: September 1804 15. To the Mandans: Fall 1804 16. Winter at Fort Mandan: December 21, 1804-March 21, 1805 17. Report from Fort Mandan: March 22-April 6, 1805 18. From Fort Mandan to Marias River: April 7-June 2, 1805 19. From Marias River to the Great Falls: June 3-June 20, 1805

20. The Great Portage: June 16-July 14, 1805 21. Looking for the Shoshones: July 15-August 12, 1805 22. Over the Continental Divide: August 13-August 31, 1805 23. Over the Bitterroots: September 1-October 6, 1805 24. Down the Columbia: October 8-December 7, 1805 25. Fort Clatsop: December 8, 1805-March 23, 1806 26. Jefferson and the West: 1804-1806 27. Return to the Nez Perce: March 23-June 9, 1806 28. The Lolo Trail: June 10-July 2, 1806 29. The Marias Exploration: July 3-July 28, 1806 30. The Last Leg: July 29-September 22, 1806 31. Reporting to the President: September 23-December 31, 1806 32. Washington: January-March 1807 33. Philadelphia: April-July 1807 34. Virginia: August 1806-March 1807 35. St. Louis: March-December 1808 36. St. Louis: January-August 1809 37. Last Voyage: September 3-October 11, 1809 38. Aftermath.