Seven years later, President Thomas Jefferson completed the Louisiana Purchase from France in 1803 for $15 million. Wiki Commons A New Frontier to ExploreĪ bout of poor health forced him to resign from the military in 1796 at the ripe old age of 26, but Clark’s adventures were just beginning. At the same time, a man named Meriwether Lewis was in charge of the 2nd Brigade.Ĭlark participated in multiple skirmishes and battles, including the Battle at Fallen Timbers in 1794, which helped end the Northwest Indian War.Ī portrait of William Clark by Charles Wilson Peale. When the Legion of the United States was organized in 1792, Clark became a lieutenant of the 4th Brigade under the Revolution’s famed Gen.
After fighting Native Americans in the Northwest Territory, Clark was commissioned as a militia captain in the Indiana Territory when he was just 20. After relocating to Kentucky, Clark joined up with the local militia in 1789 when he was 19. The ninth of 10 children, he was far too young to fight in the American Revolution and watched his five older brothers go off to war, longing for his own military service. Too Young for the RevolutionĬlark was born in 1770 in Virginia. In addition to charting a huge expanse of untamed wilderness and helping to extend the reach of the United States to the Pacific, he worked for or with a good handful of US presidents and was a major player during one of the most controversial times in the nation’s history as it grew into the very lands he once explored.Īs the 183rd anniversary of Clark’s death approaches, let’s take a look at the extraordinary life led by this legendary explorer. William Clark may be best remembered for his pivotal role as half of the team behind the Lewis and Clark Expedition, but the 30 years of his life that bookended his time with the Corps of Discovery were just as exciting.
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