Clark

This chapter focuses on William Clark, who replaced Brigadier General Benjamin Howard in command at Saint Louis. Major General William Henry Harrison suggested Clark, whom he knew from the days when they had both served under “Mad Anthony” Wayne. Son of a prominent Virginia family, and the younger brother of George Rogers Clark—the conqueror of Kaskaskia and Vincennes—William had followed his elder brother into the army. William was already experienced in Indian warfare when he commanded a column of riflemen at the battle of Fallen Timbers (1794), and the next year he was present when the Treaty of Greenville brought the Indian war to a close. After the treaty, Clark resigned from the army and occupied himself with his private affairs until Meriwether Lewis suggested him as joint commander of the Corps of Discovery.