Day-by-Day / January 19, 1803

January 19, 1803

Laying the foundation

From Fort Fayette, Capt. Amos Stoddard writes a letter to Col. Henry Burbeck informing the latter that he has arrived at Pittsburgh and is awaiting further orders. Those orders would be to establish a fort on the Mississippi to support Jefferson’s upcoming western expeditions.

Fort Fayette (1796)

“Plan of the Town of Pittsburg” (detail)

Early engraved map showing a square Fort Fayette just outside of the 1795 town of Pittsburgh

“Plan of the town of Pittsburg, from Georges-Henri-Victor Collot’s A Journey in North America . . ., 1826.” Published by Arthus Bertrand, Paris. Image provided by David Rumsey Map Collection, David Rumsey Map Center, Stanford Libraries. Permission to use granted under the Creative Commons CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 license.

Fort Lafayette, eventually named Fayette, lay just west of the town on the “Road to Philadelphia.”

Stoddard Arrives in Pittsburgh

[19 January 1803]

I believe I have been remiss in not informing you of my arrival at this post [Fort Fayette], and the state of my Company . . . . The winter clothing of the men is finished—and all the summer articles are now in the hands of the Taylor.

We now begin to puzzle ourselves about the place of our destination. People of great prominence tell me, that we are going to descend the Mississippi—others again will insist on it, that we are bound to Black Rock at the Out-let of Lake Eries. I have prepared for my fate, whatever it may be . . . .
[—Amos Stoddard][1]William L. Clements Library, The University of Michigan, Henry Burbeck Papers, Photocopy in Robert A. Stoddard, The Autobiography Manuscript of Major Amos Stoddard (San Diego: Robert Stoddard … Continue reading

Stoddard’s fate would become clear in early March, when he received orders to continue to Kaskaskia on the Mississippi below St. Louis. On 2 July 1803, War Department Secretary Henry Dearborn will ask him “to afford Capt Meriwether Lewis all the aid in [his] power . . .”[2]Donald Jackson, ed. Letters of the Lewis and Clark Expedition with Related Documents: 1783-1854, 2nd ed. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1978), 1:103.

 

Notes

Notes
↑1 William L. Clements Library, The University of Michigan, Henry Burbeck Papers, Photocopy in Robert A. Stoddard, The Autobiography Manuscript of Major Amos Stoddard (San Diego: Robert Stoddard Publishing, 2016), 61.
↑2 Donald Jackson, ed. Letters of the Lewis and Clark Expedition with Related Documents: 1783-1854, 2nd ed. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1978), 1:103.

Discover More

  • The Lewis and Clark Expedition: Day by Day by Gary E. Moulton (University of Nebraska Press, 2018). The story in prose, 14 May 1804–23 September 1806.
  • The Lewis and Clark Journals: An American Epic of Discovery (abridged) by Gary E. Moulton (University of Nebraska Press, 2003). Selected journal excerpts, 14 May 1804–23 September 1806.
  • The Lewis and Clark Journals. by Gary E. Moulton (University of Nebraska Press, 1983–2001). The complete story in 13 volumes.

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Unless otherwise noted, journal excerpts are from The Journals of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, edited by Gary E. Moulton, 13 vols. (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1983-2001).