Back in the early 1800s, the United States of America looked nothing at all like it does now. The “western frontier” was, at the time, right around the border of Ohio and Pennsylvania, and the country was eager to claim more of the land on the continent as quickly as it could. In 1803, everything changed when Thomas Jefferson completed the Louisiana Purchase, according to Biography, as the U.S. purchased more than 800,000 square miles of new territory. Jefferson was keen to have the area explored and mapped, and he appointed two men — Meriwether Lewis and William Clark — to assemble a team to explore the region and return to Washington with notes. To this day, much of the geographical, social, and historical fabric of the United States is tied in one way or another to the Lewis and Clark expedition.

At the time of his appointment, Lewis was serving as Jefferson’s private secretary. In turn, Lewis called upon an old Army buddy to be his co-commander. The two men had met a few years earlier, when one of them came this close to being dishonorably discharged from the Army due to the fallout from a drunken brawl.

Meriwether Lewis was sent to William Clark's command for disciplinary reasons

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