On Monday, August 20, 1804, during the Lewis and Clark expedition, Sergeant Floyd died after being described as "as bad as he can be to live," and was buried with all the honors of war on top of a high round hill overlooking the river and country for a great distance, just below a small unnamed river that was thereafter called Floyds River and the bluffs Sergeant Floyds Bluff. In a journal passage from that day, the party recorded stopping to make a warm bath for him in hopes it would brace him, but before he could be placed in it he expired with great composure, having said before his death that he was going away and wished a letter to be written. A cedar post was fixed at his head with his name, title, and the day of the month and year. On September 4, 1806, William Clark wrote that the expedition returned to Floyds Bluff at midday, ascended the hill with Captain Lewis and several men, and had the grave completely filled up before proceeding on. The expedition itself had been sent in 1803 by President Thomas Jefferson under Meriwether Lewis and William Clark to explore the newly acquired Louisiana Purchase, seek an all-water route to the Pacific Ocean, and make peaceable contact with native peoples. The explorers left on May 14, 1804, reached the Pacific in November 1805, and returned to St. Louis on September 23, 1806, after traveling more than 8000 miles in two years, four months, and nine days.