Undaunted Courage: Meriwether Lewis, Thomas Jefferson and the Opening of the American West

A fantastic book written by a fantastic author.

Stephen Ambrose's "Undaunted Courage" is a great entry in the ranks of what you might call popular history...books with a serious purpose and covered in the right amount of depth to fully inform the reader, without the extensive detail that characterizes history written for historians. It focuses more on Captain Meriwether Lewis than on Captain William Clark, in fact it is as much a biography of Lewis as an account of the expedition, as the subtitle makes clear: "Meriwether Lewis, Thomas Jefferson, and the opening of the American West." Not that Clark was a mere supporting character, far from it, but Lewis bore the greater responsibility of planning the journey and reporting directly to Jefferson and Congress on their progress and results. He also received greater reward afterward, including appointment as Governor of the territory of Louisiana in 1807 - which had tragic consequences, which I will leave to the reader to discover.After a 100-page section outlining Lewis's early life and career, the historical background, and his and Jefferson's ambitious planning of the project, Undaunted Courage follows the Lewis and Clark expedition from its beginnings in the Pittsburgh area to its successful goal of reaching the Pacific coast, and then back again. It seems there is a huge body of historical literature covering the expedition in great detail, so Ambrose's purpose was to distill it to a volume more readable to the average person. You can learn the technical and human challenges that Lewis and Clark, and their Corps of Discovery, had to overcome, at every juncture on the journey. You will learn how the Corps varied in number depending on its needs, with several men included only so far as the trip to the mouth of the Missouri, where the "core Corps" followed the main path to the West, which of course was the main objective of their mission. There was much more interaction with the various Indian tribes than I expected, including their long winter with the large Mandan tribe in 1804-1805, where they roamed far and wide, studied their cultures, partied with the Indians (and slept with their wives), and prepared for the long push up the western stretch of the River and to cross the Rocky mountains.A few impressions from this book:- I was struck by the different experiences Lewis and Clark had with the Indian tribes they encountered. The Mandans of North Dakota, who shared their quarters with the Corps, were very friendly and did not bargain too hard with the White men for supplies and horses. So too the Nez Perce were extremely generous, and worried about the Corps' fate when they attempted to cross the Bitter Root mountains in early Spring before the snow melted, in June 1806. But the Teton Sioux and the Blackfeet tribes, both very warlike and feared by other Indians, caused terrible trouble, and Lewis's small, separated party finally had a small battle with Blackfoot horse-thieves in Montana in July 1807, before escaping on canoes down the Missouri River. This just scratches the surface of the Corps' Indian experience, and you should know Lewis wrote lengthy notes about the ethnology of all the tribes he met.- While the Corps did not lose any men to violence, they lost only one man to illness. Sergeant William Floyd died of appendicitis early in the journey, and was buried on a hill overlooking the Missouri. The men were often sick, and all of them, especially Lewis who nearly died in late 1806, suffered from dysentery from poor diets - often subsisting entirely on plant roots. It is a tribute to both Lewis and Clark's medical skills they kept the men healthy enough to continue, after necessary rest and recovery. In fact, the two leaders' determination and toughness were an absolute inspiration to all their men.- Their lowest point was the winter spent in the small fort they built near the Oregon coast. It was named Fort Clatsop, for the nearby tribe. They had enough to eat but the weather was consistently wet, cold and windy. There was very little recreation, and the Clatsops, while friendly enough, tried to take advantage of the white men's hospitality.- Lewis and Clark discovered "immence" herds of buffalo that covered the plains for miles. (Their spelling was atrocious, but so was most peoples spelling back then - they were still very articulate and wrote extensive notes on the Indians, geography, and flora and wildlife they encountered.) The bison were so tame the men often walked right through the herds. Which is remarkable, since the Indians, thanks to horses and a few guns they had, hunted the buffalo very heavily, showing the white men some of their techniques. The Corps also hunted elk, beaver, and antelope, when they could get close enough. They ate huge amounts of meat so they could keep going, often 6 pounds a day per man.- Almost no American anticipated the heights or distances in crossing the Rocky Mountains. Captain Lewis was in awe on first seeing them, and discouraged at the prospect of crossing them, which they had to do with snowy trails in many stretches. It is more testimony to Lewis and Clark's leadership that they survived the crossing, both ways.- Lewis and Clark were not only tough military leaders, they were astute judges of how far to push their luck. Still, the book assesses a few of their weaknesses, such as failing to take full advantage of the linguistic skills of Sacagawea, the Shoshone woman (married to a French trader) who joined the expedition soon after St. Louis.- Finally, while there was very little violence during the journey, all the men showed the necessary courage and toughness it required. They stood down potentially hostile Indians, they negotiated in good faith with all they tribes they traded with (with one exception which I will leave you to read about), and did their utmost best to represent friendly and honest ambassadors from the US government, which of course had just purchased most of the land they traveled from the French. Lewis and Clark's expedition was executed about as flawlessly as President Jefferson could have ever hoped. It is a bright and shining example of American greatness early in our history.Ambrose has essentially done the heavy lifting for us readers, telling an amazing story gathered from 200 years of notes and other histories. without sacrificing anything important. As such, "Undaunted Courage" is a tremendous achievement, and a book anyone with more than a passing interest in US history should read.

Bought this as a Father’s Day gift and my dad devoured it.

Hardy good read

Every US student knows about Lewis & Clark. But reading the daily details of what they faced on the trail, how they were used by Washington, and attempts to monetize and control the story afterwards gives a true perspective on how groundbreaking this journey was, for both the men and the country. The book kind of fizzled out at the end, but then so did the journey.

Having been born in South Dakota, raised in Minnesota, and with ancestors who lived in Nebraska, and North and South Dakota, I was fascinated with the story of this first exploration into these areas. As an adult, I have also traveled extensively in the West, and of course I have heard of the Lewis and Clark expedition since grade school, but I have never before encountered a book for the popular reader that gave this fascinating first-person detail on these important events. Along with the extremely interesting travelogue, (the reader cannot wait to see what happens around the next bend of the river or at the meeting with the next Indian tribe) a number of horrible tragedies occurred:In the first place, the Indian policy of Lewis, as well as Jefferson, leaves something to be desired. For all their promising of the carrot and stick approach, it does not seem that the carrot was very big or tasty in view of the contact the warlike tribes had already had with Canadian traders from whom they had received guns and alcohol. The mishandling of the Sioux and the Blackfoot was a calamity for the USA with repercussions for decades to come. It does not seem that the tribes who were friendly and helpful to the expedition with the exception of the Mandan were ever amply rewarded for their helping hand.It is a great disaster that the journals did not get published in popular form for almost 100 years after they were written. One wonders that Jefferson did not take more responsibility for getting them out during his presidency and Lewis' lifetime. Although a neighbor of the Lewis family, and cognizant of the family tendency for depression and mental instability, he did not protect his prized prodigy from the fatal effects of this weakness plus alcoholism and over medication with poisonous substances. I agree with the author that appointing Lewis as the governor over the Louisiana territory was a bad idea. He could not handle well the political intricacies and intrigues involved in his governorship. What a terrible end to a talented and valuable man. One wonders why Clark did not accompany his good friend on his last fatal journey. One also wonders why Russell did not send some responsible person along but allowed Lewis to take off with his depression, alcoholism, and other problems accompanied only by the black servant who obviously had no authority over his employer. Lewis obviously thought he was in financial ruin by the refusal of Madison's administration to pay the debts incurred, as he thought, at government expense. One wonders what Jefferson really thought when he heard of Lewis's tragic end, and also why Jefferson himself was not able to do much with the journals once they came into his hands. Another tragedy was the handling of York by Clark when he asked for his freedom as compensation for his valiant and faithful service during the expedition. An unfortunate detail is the fact that when Clark's commission finally came through, it was for lieutenant rather than the promised captaincy.As to the writing of the book, outside of a fair amount of uninteresting detail before the expedition gets underway, which might be of interest to some people, it is excellent as Ambrose always is. I would give it five stars.