War of 1812

Teaching American
History
Middle School
Cynthia W. Resor
October 5, 2012
War of 1812
200th Anniversary
1812-1815
Why don’t we get excited about the
War of 1812?
•
•
•
•
Complicated causes
Confusing timeline
Inconclusive outcome
Battles in many locations
• Seen as an extension of American Revolution
• OR
• as a civil war waged on the U.S.-Canadian boundary
– The Civil War of 1812: American Citizens, British Subjects,
Irish Rebels, & Indian Allies by Alan Taylor
Causes of War of 1812
The Napoleonic Wars (1803–15)
• Part of a wider war . . .
– The Napoleonic Wars (1803–15) were a series of wars
declared against Napoleon's French Empire by opposing
coalitions.
– Both sides in Europe implemented policies that denied
American rights to neutral trade
• Thus trade with either side was seen as an act of allegiance to
one and hostility to the other
– In Europe. . . . . War of the Sixth Coalition 1812–1814
• War of the Sixth Coalition (1812–1814), a coalition of Austria,
Prussia, Russia, the United Kingdom, Portugal, Sweden, Spain and
a number of German States finally defeated France and drove
Napoleon into exile on Elba
– The main effect of the War of 1812 on the wider
Napoleonic Wars was to force Britain to divert troops,
supplies and funds to defend Canada.
• Apart from the seizing of then-Spanish Mobile by the United
States, War of 1812 not really involved with broader Napoleonic
War
Napoleon by artist
Jacques Louis David
British polices angered USA the most . . .
• British ships patrolled too close to
American ports
• American merchant vessels searched
and seized
• “Impressment” of sailors
judged to be defectors
from British navy or British
|subjects
• 1807 – British frigate fired on
American naval vessel
– – killed 3 and seized 4
Frigate
Anti-Military Policies of Pres. Jefferson
• Jefferson believed wars, armies,
navies caused debt, taxes, more
wars and destruction of republics
• Cut army / navy to minimum
• Tried to control British with a total
embargo
– Made New Englanders REALLY MAD
(made most money in shipping –
wanted gov. to protect them)
• Pres. Madison tried NonIntercourse Act
– Slight loosening of Jefferson’s
embargo – but not effective
War Hawks
• primarily from southern and western
states
– Kentucky, Tennessee, and Ohio,
territories in the Old Northwest
– Wanted war with Britain
• the interference of the Royal Navy in
American shipping
– War Hawks believed hurt the American economy and injured
American prestige
• believed that the British were instigating American Indians on
the frontier to attack American settlements
– Wanted to invade British Canada to punish the British and end
threat
– Tippecanoe – Nov. 11, 1811 –Indiana Governor William Henry
Harrison fought with Shawnee Indians
– leader - Speaker of the House Henry Clay of Kentucky
• John C. Calhoun of South Carolina
• Richard Mentor Johnson of Kentucky
A print depicting the famous confrontation between Tecumseh and William Henry
Harrison at Vincennes, Indiana, in 1810.
Tecumseh biographer John Sugden describes this depiction of this "famous event"
as "extremely inaccurate", particularly the clothing of the Native Americans
(Tecumseh: A Life, 1998, following p. 210).
The War begins – June 18, 1812
• Federal Army – less than 7,000 troops with poor leadership
• State militias expected to fight
– Governors of New England states blamed war on Jefferson and
Madison – opposed war and refused to raise militias
• First loss Governor of Michigan Territory and General
William Hull
• Wanted to build a naval fleet on Lake Erie to properly defend Detroit,
Fort Mackinac, and Fort Dearborn but was ignored
• began an invasion of Canada on 12 July 1812 but withdrew to the
American side of the river after hearing the news of the capture of
Fort Mackinac by the British
– Hull surrendered Fort Detroit to Sir Isaac Brock on August 16,
1812
• Thought he was about to be overwhelmed by Indians
• was court-martialed for the disaster and put on trial
– sentenced to be shot but received a reprieve from President James Madison.
Kentucky’s role
in the
War of 1812
When the news reached Kentucky . ..
• Kentuckians celebrated the declaration of war
– “the news was hailed as a second decree of Independence”
– Public celebrations; firing of cannons and muskets
– By Oct. 1812 – 6 of Kentucky’s U.S. Congressmen were in
uniform
• In 1812 – Kentucky was the leading state in the West
• Most population of western states (Ky, Tenn, Ohio)
• Kentucky was wealthiest
– Some Kentuckians the regular (federal) army, many others
joined state militia units
• Many older men (40 -50’s) of wealth joined
• ESTIMATED – 11,000 KY regulars, militia and volunteers in the war
– A Boston merchant in Ky said that Kentuckians “are the most
patriotic people I have ever seen or heard of.”
Problems for Kentucky troops . .
•
•
•
•
Kentuckians wanted to serve in the Northwest, but not really interested in rest of
the war
State militias VERY poorly trained
Many enlisted for only 6 months
Gov. Isaac Shelby had to turn away volunteers if they could not arm and equip
themselves
– Ky. short on supplies, no organized supply system existed
•
Officers chosen by election (not by experience)
– EXAMPLE: Micah Taul
•
•
clerk of Wayne County Courts in 1801
colonel of Wayne County Volunteers in the War of 1812
–
–
–
•
Picked because he won a fight with his opponent
“After a hard fight, fist and skull, biting, gouging, etc, I came off victorious,” said Taul
Later elected to Congress as Ky rep.-March 4, 1815-March 3, 1817
At first, Kentuckians under command of Gen James Winchester of Tennessee – but
Winchester was not trusted
– Soldiers under Winchester’s command “killed a porcupine and skinned it and stretched the
skin over a pole that he used for a particular purpose in the night, and he went and sat down
on it, and it like to have ruined him . . .they sawed his pole nearly in two so that when he went
to use it at night, it broke in two and let his generalship, uniform and all, fall backwards in no
very decent place, for I seen his Regimentals hanging high upon a place the next day taking the
fresh air.”
•
Kentuckians wanted Ind. Gov. William Henry Harrison
370 miles from Richmond to Detroit, Michigan
- 74 hours of walking at 5 mph – (10 days of walking at least)
230 more miles to York (Toronto, Canada)
Detroit's coldest month - January - average temperature at night is 17.8°F
Crazy Kentuckians
• The British viewed Kentuckians as bloodthirsty brutes who were not
civilized because they adopted the Indian war techniques. British Sergeant
James Commins said:
“These Kentucky men are wretches suborned by the Government and
capable of the greatest villanies. They are served out with the blanket
clothing like the Indians, with a long scalloping knife and other barbarous
articles and with Red Paint with which they daub themselves all over and
in summer nearly went naked. In this manner, they would surprise our
piquets (soldiers serving as sentries) and, after engagements, they scallop (scalp)
the killed and wounded that could not get out of their way . . . . . The
Americans not being able to flatter their own Indians over to Canada
induced them to make a fool of the Kentucky men, being the most
barbarous, illiterate beings in America.”
Crazy Kentuckians
• General Hull threatened a British officer,
saying:
• “as a justification of such conduct (the British were
allies with the Indians), our government would send
the Kentuckians into Canada.”
Kentuckians were known to take Indian scalps
– Kentuckian John Ketcham recalled:
– “In my first month’s service, I killed and scalped an Indian –
was very proud of it – got leave to go to Kentucky to show
it to my Daddy and Mamma. I guess they thought I had
done right.”
A report about Captain Ballard of Kentucky by a Penn.
Officer said:
– Ballard “had two Indian scalps that he had taken at
Frenchtown, and had concealed them in the waist of his
pantaloons while a prisoner. While in the fort with us, he
ripped open his waist band, took out the scalps, fleshed
them with his knife, salted them, and set them in hoops in
true Indian style. He said he had 20 scalps at home . . . .
And that he would raise 50 scalps before he would die.”
• The Indians killed every American they found with a
scalp
– Indians called Kentuckians “Big Knives”
September 1812, after Hull’s defeat
Indiana War of
1812
• Kentuckian Zachary
Taylor, captain in the
U.S. Army
• Just 27 years old
• defended Fort Harrison
in Indiana Territory
from an attack by
Indians under the
command of the
Shawnee chief
Tecumseh
• First land victory for
the USA in the War of
1812
Battle of the River Raisin
January 18, 1813
• The Battle of Frenchtown (Battle of the River Raisin)
– defeat for the Americans
– massacre of some wounded soldier (approx. 30) enraged Americans
• Called “The River Raisin Massacre” and the rallying cry was
“Remember the Raisin”
• January 18, 1813 - Americans forced the retreat of the British and
their Indian allies from Frenchtown in a minor skirmish
– Americans trying to take back Detroit
• BUT January 22 - the British and Native Americans launched a
surprise counterattack - 500 allied Native Americans under the
Shawnee leader Tecumseh (but he did not fight in this battle)
• Americans fought but lost – surrendered
– Some Kentuckians refused and said they would fight to the death
rather than trust the Indians but had to surrender
Battle of the River Raisin
January 18, 1813
(Frenchtown then; Monroe, Michigan today
The River Raisin Massacre
• Over 500 Americans were taken as prisoners
– British General Procter marched the uninjured prisoners north and
then across the frozen Detroit River to Fort Malden
• Many prisoners made it to Fort Malden; prisoners until the end of the war
over two years later
• those unable to keep up with the march were murdered as well
– "The road was for miles strewed with the mangled bodies."
• Some were taken as captives to Indian villages
– Around 80 wounded Kentuckians left behind at Frenchtown.
• January 23, morning after the battle, the Native Americans began
robbing and killing injured Americans
– Buildings burned that housed wounded
• those that managed to crawl to safety were tomahawked at the door
– Not sure how many killed – 40 – 65???
• Many Kentuckians died at River Raisin – estimates around 400
• When Gov. Shelby heard news – kept General Assembly an extra
day to authorize enlistment of 3,000 more militia
• 9 KY counties in Kentucky were later named for officers
who fought in the Battle of Frenchtown
– Of the following list, only Bland Ballard survived the battle
– Allen County (after Lieutenant Colonel John Allen)
» Had a wounded leg, tried to flee for 2 miles, finally just sat down
and waited for the Indians, killed one with a sword before he was
killed
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
Ballard County (after Major Bland Ballard)
Edmonson County (after Captain John Edmonson)
Graves County (after Major Benjamin Franklin Graves)
Hart County (after Captain Nathaniel G. S. Hart)
Hickman County (after Captain Paschal Hickman)
McCracken County (after Captain Virgil McCracken)
Meade County (after Captain James M. Meade)
Simpson County (after Captain John Simpson)
» Simpson had given up his seat in Congress to fight
• When the news of the massacre at the River
Raisin reached Kentucky,
– The Kentucky Legislature authorized Governor Shelby
to command of reinforcements
• Shelby was 63-year-old & hero of the American
Revolutionary War
– General Harrison asked for only 2,000 reinforcements,
but 4,000 Kentucky volunteers were formed in
Newport and immediately sent to General Harrison's
aid.
– Also a brigade formed under the command of General
Green Clay (father of Cassius M. Clay) and rushed to
Fort Meigs.
Dudley’s Defeat & the Relief of Fort
Meigs – May 5, 1813
• 1,200 Kentuckians commanded by Gen. Green Clay to relieve the siege at
Ft. Meigs
• Approx. 650 Kentuckians commanded by Colonel William Dudley killed or
captured
– Orders were confused or not followed
• Prisoners marched to Ft. Miami (northern Ohio)
• Many killed along the way
• Captives were plundered “almost all lost their hats and coats, some even their shirts, and
some their pantaloons also. He who did not instantaneously give up his clothes
frequently paid his life for it,” Ky. Soldier Leslie Combs
– At Ft. Miami, prisoners forced to “run the gauntlet” – more shot or
tomahawked
– Attacked again inside the fort, British couldn’t stop their Indian allies from
attacking
– Finally Tecumseh arrived and stopped the slaughter
– Surviving prisoners were paroled. They walked the hundreds of miles back to
Kentucky.
Battle on the Lakes
• Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry
• supervised the building of a fleet at Erie,
Pennsylvania (just 27)
• September 10, 1813 - led decisive naval victory
at the Battle of Lake Erie
– and helped to win 9 other battles in/around lakes
– Perry's report to General William Henry Harrison
• "We have met the enemy and they are ours; two ships, two
brigs, one schooner and one sloop.
• 1st time in history that an entire British naval squadron had
surrendered
Accounts by Kentuckians
of River Raisin Battle,
Massacre and Capture by
Indians
Why read primary sources?
Common Core Standards
English Language Arts Standards » History/Social Studies » Grade 6-8
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RH.6-8.1 Cite specific textual evidence to support analysis of
primary and secondary sources.
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RH.6-8.2 Determine the central ideas or information of a
primary or secondary source; provide an accurate summary of the source distinct
from prior knowledge or opinions.
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RH.6-8.4 Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they
are used in a text, including vocabulary specific to domains related to
history/social studies.
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RH.6-8.5 Describe how a text presents information (e.g.,
sequentially, comparatively, causally).
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RH.6-8.6 Identify aspects of a text that reveal an author’s point
of view or purpose (e.g., loaded language, inclusion or avoidance of particular
facts).
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RH.6-8.9 Analyze the relationship between a primary and
secondary source on the same topic.
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RH.6-8.10 By the end of grade 8, read and comprehend
history/social studies texts in the grades 6–8 text complexity band independently
and proficiently.
Primary Source Activity
Journal of Elias Darnall
• A journal, containing an accurate and interesting
account of the hardships, sufferings, battles, defeat,
and captivity of those heroic Kentucky volunteers and
regulars commanded by General Winchester, in the
years 1812-13 also, two narratives by men that were
wounded in the battles on the River Raisin and taken
captive by the Indians by Elias Darnall. Published
1914
• http://openlibrary.org/books/OL7124875M/A_journal_
containing_an_accurate_and_interesting_account_of_t
he_hardships_sufferings_battles_defeat_
Accounts of Mallary and Davenport
• Narrative of Mr. Timothy Mallary
– From Bourbon County, KY
• Narrative of Mr. John Davenport
– Montgomery County, KY
– Published in Darnall’s book
• http://openlibrary.org/books/OL7124875M/A_journal_
containing_an_accurate_and_interesting_account_of_t
he_hardships_sufferings_battles_defeat_
Account of William Atherton
• Narrative of the suffering & defeat, of the
North-Western Army under General Winchester :
massacre of the prisoners, sixteen months
imprisonment of the writer and others with the
Indians and British
– By WILLIAM ATHERTON
– http://archive.org/details/narrativeofsuffe00atheuoft
– In Atherton’s account, he stated the following goal:
• “I think it is proper that the rising generation should know
what their fathers suffered, and how they acted in the hour
of danger; that they sustained the double character of
“Americans and Kentuckians”
More journals
• This website has excerpts AND links to
complete journals from journals of many
different people that participated in or
witnessed the War of 1812
– (not just Kentuckians)
• http://www.pbs.org/wned/war-of1812/essays/1812-personal-journals/
Back to the Kentuckians
in the War of 1812
Ky. Hero George Croghan
• George Croghan (1791 –1849)
– pronounced "Crawn"
• Born at Locust Grove (Louisville)
• William Clark and George Rogers Clark were his uncles
• Defense of Ft. Stephenson – August 1813
– Major George Croghan (just 21 years old) & 160 U.S. Regulars
insisted that he could hold the fort
– Superior force of British and Indian allies tried to take fort,
failed
• Had reputation of drinking too much
– Andrew Jackson said that Croghan’s defense of Ft.
Stephenson entitled him “to be drunk for the rest of his
life”
Battle of Thames - October 5, 1813
• decisive United States victory
– Americans commanded by Ind. Gov. William Henry Harrison
– Kentuckians led by Gov. Shelby & Richard Mentor Johnson
– Native American leader Tecumseh killed in battle
– Kentuckians avenged earlier defeats and applauded all over nation
artist's depiction
of the battle and
the death of
Tecumseh
Who killed Tecumseh?
– Richard M. Johnson?
• Later served as Vice-President of the United States
(1837-1841) under President Martin Van Buren.
– William Whitley?
• a Revolutionary War veteran of Crab Orchard
• volunteered for the raid on Tecumseh's camp, and was
killed during the attack
William
Whitley
House –
Crab
Orchard
William Henry Harrison
This portrait of Harrison originally showed
him in civilian clothes as the congressional
delegate from the Northwest Territory in
1800, but the uniform was added after he
became famous in the War of 1812.
Nathaniel Currier's lithograph
(c. 1841) is one of many images
that portrayed Johnson as
Tecumseh's killer.
Narrative of Kentuckian William Greathouse
about Battle of the Thames
• William Greathouse – from Bardstown
• Entire narrative in today’s TAH folder
• His father & grandfather Greathouse were a part of 1782 Crawford
Expedition
– His father made it home; his grandfather was a prisoner of the Indians for 7
years
– William Crawford (1732 – 11 June 1782)
• American soldier and surveyor who worked as a western land agent for George
Washington; fought in the French and Indian War and the American Revolutionary War
• Crawford came out of retirement and lead an expedition against enemy Indian villages
along the Sandusky River.
– Crawford led about 500 volunteers (mostly from Pennsylvania)
– Native Americans and their British allies at Detroit had learned about the
expedition
• Had 440 men to the Sandusky to oppose the Americans
• Crawford and dozens of his men were captured
• Many of Crawford’s force executed in retaliation for the Gnadenhütten massacre earlier
in the year, in which about 100 peaceful Christian Indian men, women, and children had
been murdered by Pennsylvania militiamen.
• Crawford‘ tortured for at least two hours before he was burned at the stake.
• His execution was widely publicized in the United States, worsening the already strained
relationship between Native Americans and European Americans.
Battle of New Orleans
January 8, 1815
• The Treaty of Ghent (ending the war) had been signed on
December 24, 1814 in Europe
– News hadn’t arrived in USA
• General Andrew "Old Hickory" Jackson commanded
–
–
–
–
–
–
2,500 Kentuckians composing 1/4 of army of regulars
Tennessee Militia Men
Creole Louisiana Militia
free Negroes
Jean Lafitte's pirates
New Orleans volunteer
militia
• Battle over in 45 minutes
– 500 British prisoners and killed and wounded 2,100 British
– 13 American dead
The Buccaneer (1958)
• Movie about Jean
Lafitte and the Battle of
New Orleans
– Yul Brynner as Lafitte
– Charlton Heston in
supporting role as
Andrew Jackson
– Zorro: A Novel (P.S.) by
Isabel Allende
• Fiction – Lafitte makes an
appearance
Kentuckians in New Orleans
• U.S. War Department didn’t have money to pay troops but
demanded Kentuckians provide reinforcements in New
Orleans
• Gov. Shelby acknowledged these Ky troops were “composed by drafts
& substitutes from amongst the poorer kind of citizens”
• Kentuckians departed without equipment or provisions
– Quartermaster of Ky militia paid for transportation out of his
own pocket (hoped to get reimbursed later)
– Others took out loans to provision troops
– Most arrived in New Orleans without guns
• Andrew Jackson said “I don’t believe it! I have never seen a
Kentuckian without a gun and a pack of cards and a bottle of whiskey
in my life.”
– Louisiana legislature provided Kentuckians $16,000 for supplies
After the battle . .
• Jackson’s official report to the secretary of war
started a controversy that lasted until 1817
and helped Kentuckian John Adair’s (led Ky.
troops) election as governor in 1920
• Jackson underestimated the number of Kentucky
troops engaged in the victory and said that Kentuckians
on the west bank of the river fled from battle
– Jackson and Adair quarrel by letter (publicized)
and through the press for years.
Treaty of Ghent
• December 24, 1814
• released all prisoners
• restored all captured lands and ships
– no significant changes to the pre-war boundaries,
although the U.S. did gain territory from Spain
– Did not even mention impressment or problems
that had occurred at sea
Other results of war:
• End of the Federalist party (because of their opposition to the war)
• Realization that a federal army was needed
– Couldn’t just depend on state militias
• Native Americas were the main losers in the war, losing British protection,
and never regained their influence
– In the Southeast, Andrew Jackson's destruction of Britain's allies, the Creek
Indians ended the threat of hostilities
• opened vast areas in Georgia and Alabama for settlement
• U.S. occupied all of West Florida during the war and in 1819 purchased the rest of Florida
from Spain
• Creek Indians who escaped to Spanish Florida joined the Seminoles
– Long resistance known as the Seminole Wars (1814 – 1850s)
• Increased the manufacturing capabilities of the United States
– British blockade of the American coast created a shortage of cotton cloth in
US
• Led to the creation of a cotton-manufacturing industry, beginning at Waltham,
Massachusetts by Francis Cabot Lowell
• Contributed to construction of the Erie Canal (1817 to 1825)
Did your ancestors serve in War of 1812?
• Adjutant General of Kentucky. Report of the
Adjutant General of the State of Kentucky:
soldiers of the War of 1812. USA: Adjutant
General's Office, 1891.
– http://archive.org/details/kentuckysoldier00repor
ich
• Or searchable on Ancestry.com
Resor’s ancestors
• James Williams (1763-1851) – 5th great grandfather
–
–
–
–
Born Sulllivan Co., Va.
enlisted for Revolutionary service from Sullivan in 1778
Moved Cumberland Co. Ky, about 1802
Enlisted for 1812 service in Capt. William Wood's company
of Cumberland volunteers
– 8 Aug. 1838, had his pension transferred to Hempstead
Co., Arkansas.
– From Clinton County Pension List.
• Cited in Notes on Kentucky Veterans of the War of
1812, G. Glenn Clift, Borderland Books, Anchorage, KY
1964.
Kentucky Resources
• Kentucky and the Second American
Revolution: The War of 1812
– By James Wallace Hammack, Jr.
• 1976
• Also see articles in today’s folder from the
Register of the Kentucky Historical Society
Who was left out of this
story of War of 1812?
• The story of the Native Americans. . . .
• What was happening along the East Coast?
– At Sea?
– In Washington DC?
• Burned by British in August 24, 1814
– James Madison's slave Paul Jennings, was an eyewitness
» After purchasing his freedom later from the widow Dolley Madison,
he published his memoir in 1865, considered the first from the
White House:
» A Colored Man's Reminiscences of James Madison
• free on Google Books and
http://archive.org/details/coloredmansremin00jenn
– In the southeast US?
– The Civil War of 1812: American Citizens, British Subjects,
Irish Rebels, & Indian Allies by Alan Taylor
Star Spangled Banner
• O say can you see, by the dawn’s early light,
What so proudly we hail’d at the twilight’s last gleaming,
Whose broad stripes and bright stars through the perilous
fight
O’er the ramparts we watch’d were so gallantly streaming?
And the rocket’s red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there,
O say does that star-spangled banner yet wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave?
• Smithsonian Website
•
•
Information, activities, quiz – War of 1812
http://americanhistory.si.edu/starspangledbanner/the-war-of-1812.aspx
Songs about War of 1812
– War of 1812 songs (modern) –
– http://www.pbs.org/wned/war-of1812/classroom/intermediate/every-song-tells-story/
– The Battle of New Orleans
» I tunes
– Arrogant Worms "War of 1812" song
» http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ety2FEHQgwM
War of 1812 - Resources
• Lesson Plans with new PBS series “War of 1812”
– http://www.pbs.org/wned/war-of-1812/classroom/intermediate/
– Can watch on-line for FREE
» http://video.pbs.org/video/2089393539
• Library of Congress resources – with links to
other good sites and bibliography including
children’s books
– http://www.loc.gov/rr/program/bib/1812/
Blogging Historical
Journals
Sample:
http://ese549.blogspot.com/
Student blogging
•
•
•
•
Get permission of administration / parents.
Teach ALL students how to respond politely in a blog.
Teach the technology – take whole group to lab get started.
Give alternatives for students that don’t have the
technology.
– Example - allow class time to use classroom computer.
• Once you start the blog – encourage students to respond to
one another.
• Set blog so that YOU must review posts before they are
public
• Check blog regularly.
The Technology
• https://www.schoology.com/home.php
– Access closed to everyone but students or those
given permission.
•
•
•
•
Google Blogger
WordPress - http://wordpress.com/
http://blog.com/
More ideas:
– http://sixrevisions.com/tools/top-free-onlineblogging/
Lewis
&
Clark
Corps of Discovery
1804-1806
http://lewisandclarkjournals.unl.edu/read/?_xmlsrc=img_1805-07-28.01.xml&_xslsrc=LCstyles.xsl
True or False?
• At the time Thomas Jefferson was living …
1.
2.
there were woolly mammoths roaming the West.
there was a tribe of blue-eyed Indians living in the West who
spoke Welsh, the language of people from Wales, a region on
the west coast of the island of Great Britain.
3. there was a river or series of connected rivers, starting at the
Mississippi, that crossed the western mountains and reached
the Pacific Ocean.
4. the Blue Ridge Mountains were taller than the Rocky
Mountains.
5. the West had many erupting volcanoes.
6. unicorns could be found in the West.
7. there were mountains in the West made of undissolved salt.
8. some beavers in the West were seven feet tall.
9. buffaloes were friendly and had slim waists.
10. Peruvian llamas roamed the West.
» http://edsitement.neh.gov/lesson-plan/day-lewis-and-clark#sectactivities
• It is likely that Thomas Jefferson believed
many of them to be true because such "facts"
were included in books in his library.
THE JOURNEY OF LEWIS AND CLARK
by the numbers
• 1. The journey westward and back took place May 14, 1804
– Sept. 23, 1806.
• 2. The journey took two years, four months (28 months) to
complete.
• 3. The length of the journey was approximately 7500 miles
(12,075
• Kilometers.)
• 4. They crossed through 11 of today’s states.
• 5. 7500/28 = 268 miles per month = 67 miles per week =
about 10 miles per day!
• (However, they did not travel every day, nor did they travel
10 miles every day.)
Kentucky
Connections
• William Clark
– his second-oldest brother, George Rogers Clark, served in
Revolutionary War in Kentucky fighting against Britishallied American Indians
– March 1785 –William, his parents, three sisters, and the
Clark family's slaves arrived in Kentucky
• completed the journey down the Ohio River by flatboat
– Clark family settled at "Mulberry Hill“
• a plantation along Beargrass Creek near Louisville. This was
William Clark's primary home until 1803
– Remember - War of 1812 - Ky. Hero George Croghan –
nephew of William and George Rogers Clark
– Lived at Locust Grover, near Louisville – see above
Teaching Geography
with Lewis and Clark
-
-
- demonstrate an understanding of patterns on Earth’s surface using a variety of
geographic tools (e.g., maps, globes, charts, graphs, photographs, models):
- locate, in absolute or relative terms, landforms and bodies of water
--locate, interpret patterns on Earth’s surface, and explain how different
physical factors (e.g., rivers, mountains, seacoasts) impacted where human
activities were located in the United states prior to Reconstruction
describe how the physical environment and different viewpoints promoted or
restricted
human activities (e.g., exploration, migration, trade, settlement, development)
and land use
From Kentucky Core Academic Standards- 8th grade social studies - geography
Geography ideas online
• Excellent lesson plans:
– http://www.pbs.org/lewisandclark/class/l01.html
• Students’ Guide to Map Making
– Could teach an entire unit on Lewis & Clark and
geography using just this website:
• http://www.edgate.com/lewisandclark/
Map of the USA BEFORE Lewis & Clark
A map exhibiting all the
new discoveries in the
interior parts of North
America / inscribed by
permission to the
honorable governor
and company of
adventurers of England
trading into Hudson’s
Bay in testimony of
their liberal
communications to
their most obedient
and very humble
servant A. Arrowsmith,
January 1st 1795
http://jeffersonswest.u
nl.edu/archive/view_d
oc.php?id=jef.gis.00007
Literacy
through
historical
journals
- excerpts
March 3, 1804, to September 26, 1806
• Descriptions of events from a secondary source – a TIMELINE
•
•
•
http://www.pbs.org/lewisandclark/archive/idx_time.html
September 25, 1804 - Near what is now Pierre, South Dakota, the Teton Sioux (the Lakota) demand one of the
boats as a toll for moving farther upriver. A fight nearly ensues, but is defused by the diplomacy of a chief named
Black Buffalo. For three more anxious days, the expedition stays with the tribe.
October 24, 1804 - North of what is now Bismarck, North Dakota, the Corps of Discovery reaches the earth-lodge
villages of the Mandans and Hidatsas. Some 4,500 people live there – more than live in St. Louis or even
Washington, D.C. at the time. The captains decide to build Fort Mandan across the river from the main village.
• Descriptions of the same events from primary sources – journals of 7
Corp Members
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
October 01, 1804 through October 05, 1804
http://www.pbs.org/lewisandclark/archive/idx_jou.html
October 01, 1804
William Clark ... we Saw a man opposit to our Camp on the L. S. which we discovd. to be a Frenchman, ...
October 02, 1804
William Clark This Island we call Isd. of Caution
October 02, 1804
John Ordway ...no hunting for Indians Troublesome.
October 04, 1804
William Clark Several Indians on the Shore viewing of us called to us to land one of them gave 3 yels & Sciped
[skipped] a ball before us, we payed no attention to him, proceeded on ... we call Good hope Island,
October 04, 1804
Patrick Gass We set out early; but were obliged to return to the place where we halted yesterday at 12 and to take
the other side of the river; the water was so shallow and sand bars so numerous.
October 05, 1804
William Clark ... refreshed the men with a glass of whiskey.
October 05, 1804
Joseph Whitehouse Some whight frost last night
Journal
Activity
• Analyzing the
Lewis and Clark
Journals Lesson
Plan
– http://www.pb
s.org/lewisandc
lark/class/l04.h
tml
• Writing a Journal
Entry
– http://www.pb
s.org/lewisandc
lark/class/l17.h
tml
http://www.pbs.org/lewisandclark/class/pdf/Lesson4.pdf
Full Text of the Journals
• The site features the full text — almost five thousand pages
— of ALL of the journals.
– Also included are a gallery of images
– important supplemental texts
– audio files of selected passages
– Native American perspectives.
– full-text searchability
– http://lewisandclarkjournals.unl.edu/index.html
• More excellent lesson plans from PBS
• Middle School –
• http://www.pbs.org/lewisandclark/class/idx_les.html
• Interactive activity
• http://www.pbs.org/lewisandclark/into/index.html
• Lewis & Clark The National Bicentennial
Exhibition Lesson Plans
– http://www.lewisandclarkexhibit.org/4_0_0/index.ht
ml
If you were planning a 2 year
journey to explore a new continent,
what supplies would you take?
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Mathematical Instruments:
surveyor’s compass
hand compass
quadrants
telescope
thermometers
2 sextants
set of plotting instruments
chronometer (needed to calculate longitude)
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Clothing:
45 flannel shirts
coats
frocks
shoes
woolen pants
blankets
knapsacks
Stockings
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Arms and Ammunition:
15 prototype Model 1803 muzzle-loading .54 caliber rifles
knives
500 rifle flints
420 pounds of sheet lead for bullets
176 pounds of gunpowder packed in 52 lead canisters
1 long-barreled rifle that fired its bullet with compressed air, rather than by
flint, spark and powder
•
•
Camp Supplies:
150 yards of cloth to be oiled and sewn into tents and sheets
pliers
chisels
30 steels for striking to make fire
handsaws
hatchets
whetstones
iron corn mill
two dozen tablespoons
mosquito curtains
10 1/2 pounds of fishing hooks and fishing lines
12 pounds of soap
193 pounds of "portable soup" (a thick paste concocted by boiling down
beef, eggs and vegetables)
three bushels of salt
writing paper, ink and crayons
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Presents for Indians:
12 dozen pocket mirrors
4,600 sewing needles
144 small scissors
10 pounds of sewing thread
silk ribbons
ivory combs
handkerchiefs
yards of bright-colored cloth
130 rolls of tobacco
tomahawks that doubled as pipes
288 knives
8 brass kettles
vermilion face paint
33 pounds of tiny beads of assorted colors
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Medicine and Medical Supplies:
50 dozen Dr. Rush’s patented "Rush’s pills"
lancets
forceps
syringes
tourniquets
1,300 doses of physic
1,100 hundred doses of emetic
3,500 doses of diaphoretic (sweat inducer)
other drugs for blistering, salivation and increased kidney output
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Traveling Library:
Barton’s Elements of Botany
Antoine Simon Le Page du Pratz’s History of Louisiana
Richard Kirwan’s Elements of Mineralogy
A Practical Introduction to Spherics and Nautical Astronomy
The Nautical Almanac and Astronomical Ephemeris
a four-volume dictionary
a two-volume edition of Linnaeus (the founder of the Latin classification of
plants)
tables for finding longitude and latitude
map of the Great Bend of the Missouri River
•
http://www.pbs.org/lewisandclark/inside/idx_equ.html
•
•
•
Lewis accumulated almost two tons
of goods using the $2,500 Congress
had allocated for the expedition.