Meriwether Lewis Achievements

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On August 8th, 1774, near Ivy, Virginia, the great American Explorer Meriwether Lewis was born. He was raised on a 1,000 acre plantation by his mother, Lucy, and stepfather, John. John was in the United States Army and Meriwether took after him to become a soldier and eventually a captain. While working in the Army, Lewis also became a politician. In 1800, when Thomas Jefferson had been elected president, Mr. Lewis was asked to leave the military and be the President’s personal secretary. Despite all of his accomplishments, Meriwether’s greatest accomplishment was the exploration of the west.

Lewis did not have a formal education until the age of 13. In his earlier years, he would often go out hunting his dog alone at night. In 1794, Meriwether joined the state militia and helped stop the Whiskey Rebellion, farmers revolt against taxes. Soon after the rebellion was over, he joined the United States Army and climbed up the ranks all the way to captain. By 1800, people had heard about Meriwether Lewis, even the president elect, Thomas Jefferson. With
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Jefferson. In 1803, Jefferson purchased Louisiana from France. Nobody knew what was out west, so the president offered Lewis the position to lead explore the wild west in exchange for money and land. The expedition, known now as the Corps of Discovery, played a big role in the country’s “Manifest Destiny” or desire to expand across North America. Before Lewis and old time friend and partner, William Clark started on their journey, people thought that there was a waterway that went all the way through to the other ocean, which we later found out not to be true. Lead jointly by Captain Meriwether Lewis and Second Lieutenant William Clark, commissioned by the president, The Corps of Discovery set off from St. Louis with the objective to study the area’s plants, animals, geography, and to see how Louisiana could be exploited