Lewis and Clark Timeline
Post Expedition 1811 - 1820

1811

The Wilson Price Hunt expedition travels to the west coast for John Jacob Astor's Pacific Fur Company. They make the second great American overland crossing after Lewis and Clark. The group discovers Union Pass at the north end of the Wind River Mountains and establishes Fort Astoria, a fur trading post, at the mouth of the Columbia River.

Congressional elections bring western "war hawks" to Congress: Henry Clay of Kentucky and John C. Calhoun of South Carolina advocate strong nationalist policies, including U.S. expansion through the conquest of Canada.

President Madison's Annual Message to Congress requests preparations for national defense.

Tecumseh's brother, Tenskwatawa ("The Prophet"), is defeated by William Henry Harrison in the Battle of Tippecanoe.

Ft. Ross is built by Russia 80 miles north of San Francisco as a center for fur trading operations in North America.

The sidewheeler New Orleans, the first steamboat to be built west of the Appalachians, is built in Pittsburgh, initiating steamboat navigation in the west.

1812

Congress declares war against Great Britain.

White settlers are driven out of the Lake Michigan region by American Indians during the Fort Dearborn massacres.

The term "Uncle Sam" is introduced. Samuel Wilson, a meat-packer in Troy, New York, is called "Uncle" Sam to distinguish him from a younger Samuel Wilson from the same town. Soldiers begin to call Wilson's meat "Uncle Sam's" because of the stamp "U.S." on provision boxes.

The War of 1812 brings immigration to the United States to a complete halt.

The General Land Office is created, and duties previously handled by the Secretary of the Treasury are delegated to a Land Commissioner and his appointed Surveyors General.

Louisiana is admitted as the eighteenth state in the Union. It is the first state to be admitted to the Union west of the Mississippi.

1813

"We have met the enemy and they are ours: two ships, two brigs, one schooner, and one sloop." Captain Oliver Hazard Perry defeats and captures the British fleet on Lake Erie.

Tecumseh, chief of the Shawnees, is killed in the Battle of the Thames in Ontario, Canada. General William Henry Harrison's victory there signals the collapse of the Indian confederacy in the Northwest.

John Jacob Astor's bid for a fur empire crumbles before British traders and as a result of the War of 1812. Fort Astoria is abandoned at gunpoint, as the Americans sell out to the British Northwest Company, which renames the post Fort George.

Zebulon Pike is killed leading U.S. troops in an attack on York, the capitol of Upper Canada. United States forces burn York.

The U.S. captures the Spanish fort at Mobile and occupies West Florida, the western half of which had been annexed in 1810.

President Madison requests an embargo against New York and New England merchants who are trading with the enemy. Congress passes the measure over strong opposition. Frontier trade with the enemy persists.

Craps is introduced to the U.S. by Bernard Xavier Phillip de Marignel de Mandeville.

1814

Napoleon is defeated by the British under the Duke of Wellington. Wellington's British forces arrive in the United States by the summer.

Washington, D.C. is burned by the British.

Francis Scott Key's "The Star Spangled Banner" is written during the bombardment of Baltimore's Fort McHenry by the British.

A decisive American victory is won in the Battle of Plattsburgh on Lake Champlain. The treaty of Ghent ends the War of 1812.

The first steam-powered warship, Demologos, designed and constructed by Robert Fulton, is launched in New York Harbor.

At the end of the Creek War in the Southeast, Andrew Jackson strips the Creeks of their land in Mississippi Territory.

Meriwether Lewis' journals, entitled History of the Expedition, are published.

1815

Troops under Andrew Jackson defeat British forces in the Battle of New Orleans before word of the Treaty of Ghent reaches the U.S.

At Portage des Sioux, at the confluence of the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers, treaties of peace and friendship are signed with American Indian tribes. The treaties terminate resistance in the Old Northwest and enable rapid settlement of the area.

Peace brings renewed western expansion into the Mississippi Valley, from the Great Lakes to the Gulf of Mexico.

Congress declares war against Algiers. A treaty is concluded four months later, stipulating that no more payments of tribute will be demanded by the Dey of Algiers, and that all Americans reduced to slavery will be released without ransom.

Napoleon returns to France from exile. He is defeated at the Battle of Waterloo, and finally exiled to St. Helena, an island in the southern Atlantic.

American railroading begins as John Stevens of Hoboken, New Jersey is issued the first railroad charter in America. Stevens builds a small circular track on his land, and runs a steam engine of his own invention on it by 1825.

The Life of Doctor Benjamin Franklin by Mason Locke Weems, based largely on Franklin's Autobiography, is published in the U.S.

1816

A law assisting American fur traders in their efforts to exclude the British from U.S. land is passed by Congress.

The first hand printing press is constructed in America by George Clymer of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

In the first "pugilistic encounter" in America, Jacob Hyer defeats Tom Beasley in a grudge fight and calls himself America's first boxing champion.

Indiana is admitted as the nineteenth state in the Union.

1817

James Monroe is inaugurated as the fifth President of the United States.

The Bush-Bagot Agreement, limiting naval power on the Great Lakes, is signed by Great Britain and the United States.

Henry Schoolcraft, a geologist and ethnologist, makes pioneer studies of the North American Indians in his exploration of the Missouri and Arkansas Rivers.

Construction of the Erie Canal is authorized by the New York legislature. The canal, linking Albany on the Hudson River with Buffalo on Lake Erie, will become a significant artery in the westward movement of Americans from the East Coast.

Alabama Territory is formed.

Mississippi is admitted as the twentieth state in the Union.

1818

The Cabinet, Senate, and House condemn General Andrew Jackson's occupation of St. Marks and Pensacola in Spanish-held East Florida. Jackson executes two British subjects accused of aiding the hostile Seminoles. Popular approval, however, prevents punishment of Jackson.

Secretary of State John Quincy Adams, asserting that Jackson's campaign is for the defense of U.S. interests, sends an ultimatum to the Spanish government: either control hostile Indians or cede Florida to the U.S.

The U.S.-Canadian border is fixed at the forty-ninth parallel between Lake-of-the-Woods and the crest of the Rocky Mountains. The Oregon boundary question is left open for later settlement, and a treaty allows joint occupation of Oregon by the United States and Great Britain.

Thirteen stripes on the U.S. flag are made constant by law. Upon admission of each new state to the Union, a star will be added to the flag.

The black-ball line of sailing packets begins regular Liverpool-to-N.Y. service. Liverpool becomes the main port of embarkation for Irish, British, German, and Norwegian immigrants.

Illinois is admitted as the twenty-first state in the Union.

1819

The Adams-Onis Treaty provides for the cession of East Florida to the U.S., and defines the western borders of the Louisiana Purchase.

A financial panic, particularly affecting the southern and western states, is caused by the collapse of credit on purchases of western lands.

The U.S. Supreme Court, in McCulloch v. Maryland, expresses a nationalist doctrine of "implied powers." This doctrine holds that if the "end" is legitimate and the "means" are not prohibited by the letter and spirit of the Constitution, the means are Constitutional.

Jethrow Wood of New York develops a cast-iron three piece plow with interchangeable parts.

John Hall invents an improved breechloading rifle.

Congress authorizes an annual sum of $10,000 as a "civilization fund" to teach agriculture, reading, writing and arithmetic to American Indian people, in hopes that they will adopt the ways of white society.

Arkansas Territory is formed.

Alabama is admitted as the twenty-second state in the Union.

1820

Congress adopts the Missouri Compromise: Maine is to be admitted as a free state, Missouri as a slave state. Slavery will be excluded from the territory of the Louisiana Purchase north of 36° 30' latitude.

Maj. Stephen Long heads an expedition to the area below the Missouri River, seeking to locate the source of the Red and Platte Rivers, and to explore the upper Arkansas River. The expedition discovers Long's Peak, travels into Colorado as far as the present site of Denver, and climbs Pike's Peak. Long reaffirms the "Great American Desert" myth in a caption on one of his maps.

A Land Act abolishes the credit provisions of earlier land acts, but reduces the minimum purchase to 80 acres and the minimum price per acre to $1.25. A farm can now be purchased for $100.

Maine is admitted as the twenty-third state in the Union. Fourth census:

U.S. population - 9,638,453