In 1803, the United States purchased roughly 800,000 square miles of land west of the Mississippi River. The President of the United States, Thomas Jefferson, knew that he had to send an expedition to map this new land. On February 28, 1803(www.pbs.org), he received approval from Congress to send an expedition to map the new territory. To lead the expedition, he chose his long time friend and well-respected military officer Meriwether Lewis. Lewis was rich plantation owner who joined the Virginia militia during the Whiskey Rebellion. He was also a wise man who knew that he needed help to organize an expedition. As a result, he turned to a friend he knew from the military, William Clark. Lewis and Clark had met each other while fighting in the Indian Wars in the Ohio Valley. The expedition that Lewis and Clark would embark on would be the biggest expedition ever...