Lewis&Clark Expedition Bag

[Joey R]

Greetings, Does anyone have any info or pics of the bags used on the L&C expedition? There supposedly is a interpretation of one on the  Frank Willis site off the CLA blog site but I can't get it to download. In advance, Much Thanks.

[Randy Hedden]

Since most of the men on the Corps of Discovery were enlisted soldiers in the American army you need to look at was the common issue of the day.  The soldiers carried 1792 contract muskets so the bag and horn carried by them would have been whatever was issued with the 1792 musket.

Roland Cadle has a picture on his website of the common issue horn and bag for the 1792 musket issue.  What Roland pictures is a contemporary bag and horn that he sells as Corps of Discovery bag and horn.

I am going to go out on a limb and say that possibly Frank and Roland collaborate on the bag and horn combinations.

http://villagerestorations.com/procurements

This might be of some help?

Randy Hedden

[T.C.Albert]

I was thinking that Roland had some pretty good documentation to suport that double bag and lever spout horn set he shows...I think it was/ is on display with the Corp of Discovery stuff down by St.Louis???
Don Stith may have some ideas about the bags and horns the Corp was issued too? I thnk he was doing a gun kit based on what they carried as well?
TCA

[Eric Fleisher]

Here is a link to Frank's website.  He has a photo and some text on that page about the bag.  If you click on the photo, you can get a larger view. 
http://www.bagsandhorns.com/id30.html

[Longknife]

Lewis had "15 powder horns and pouches, complete" made by Robert C. Martin. 162 High, Philidelphia. There are no descriptions of these horns and pouches  that I know of.  It is assumed that Lewis would have had them "custom" made in a military fashion. The earliest known documentation for military rifle pouches was described in "The Handbook for Rifleman" written by Lieutenant Colonel William Duane in 1812. The Rifle shop has a pattern for this pouch that can be used to make a suitable military styled L&C pouch. The main difference that I have observed in the reproductions of this pouch is that no white buff leather is used in the L&C pouch and I have not been able to find out why. At Camp River Dubois they have the Village restorations pouches ( with no buff leather). Here is the TRS pattern.....Ed

Since most of the men on the Corps of Discovery were enlisted soldiers in the American army you need to look at was the common issue of the day.  The soldiers carried 1792 contract muskets so the bag and horn carried by them would have been whatever was issued with the 1792 musket.

Roland Cadle has a picture on his website of the common issue horn and bag for the 1792 musket issue.  What Roland pictures is a contemporary bag and horn that he sells as Corps of Discovery bag and horn.

I am going to go out on a limb and say that possibly Frank and Roland collaborate on the bag and horn combinations.

http://villagerestorations.com/procurements

This might be of some help?

Randy Hedden

P.S. The enlisted men carried 1795 Springfield muskets and would have been issued cartridge boxes. Lewis obtained 15 rifled guns at the Harpers Ferry arsenal  and the pouches and horns in Philadelphia to accompany these rifled guns. I will not open a can of worms here and state exactly what those rifled guns were except that they are described several times in the journals as "short rifles".....Ed

http://www.therifleshoppe.com/prints_&_drawings.htm

[Dphariss]

Greetings, Does anyone have any info or pics of the bags used on the L&C expedition? There supposedly is a interpretation of one on the  Frank Willis site off the CLA blog site but I can't get it to download. In advance, Much Thanks.

There is no way of knowing what they looked like.
If they were special ordered there is an excellent chance they were made to Lewis's  own idea as to what was needed or from a bag the maker had for display.
While its possible to replicate some things, like the muskets they took along. A lot of what they used is simply lost to time. The rifles and the equipment that went with them seems to fall into this category.
I have read that everything that was on the expedition was sold at auction in St Louis after the trip so someone coming up with an actual expedition bag and horn to copy is pretty unlikely. I guess its possible there is a description in one of the pre-expedition journals of Lewis. But they did not spend a lot of time describing the equipment they had.

Dan