During the winter of 1803, Lewis and Clark camped opposite the mouth of the Missouri River, where they drilled and trained men chosen for their special talents and experience as backwoodsmen and for their ability to endure hardship. Some men judged too undisciplined for military command were dismissed. The Corps of Discovery included military volunteers, other Americans, and Frenchmen hired as hunters, trackers, blacksmiths, carpenters, general laborers, boatmen, and interpreters, with six months pay in advance plus clothing and food. Its numbers changed during the journey because some men were hired only to help with the keelboat and pirogues as far as the Mandan villages. On July 7, 1804, as the party passed the future site of St. Joseph, it consisted of fifty men, four horses, and a dog. Sacagawea, the only woman with the Corps of Discovery, and her husband joined later at a Mandan village. President Thomas Jefferson directed that observations be recorded with great pains and accuracy, and William Clark wrote field notes at the end of each day. Seaman, a Newfoundland bought by Lewis for $20, accompanied the party to the Pacific; he was last mentioned in the journals on July 15, 1806, near what is now Great Falls, Montana, and was much admired by Native Americans, who often offered to trade for him. In 1804-06, Captains Meriwether Lewis and William Clark led about 40 soldiers and boatmen on a journey commissioned by Jefferson to find a route to the Pacific Ocean through the newly acquired Louisiana territory. Along the way they mapped the land, recorded its resources, and contacted its native inhabitants. The United States had purchased the Louisiana territory, more than 830,000 square miles, from France in 1803, and although Lewis and Clark differed in temperament, they worked harmoniously throughout the two-year journey.
