Felo De Se: The Death of Meriwether Lewis
The facts stand immutable: in the early morning hours of October 11th 1809 Captain Meriwether Lewis, the famed American explorer and governor of the Louisiana Territory, died of a gunshot wound at a small inn named Grinder’s Stand high on the Natchez Trace (Guice 17). Two centuries later, speculation still exists that his death was not a suicide as originally reported, but a murder by parties unknown. Even further afield is the theory that his suicide was due to tertiary syphilis acquired from a native woman during the famed exploration. With all the “evidence” piled in front, it’s hard to see the man behind the mystery, but this paper will attempt to separate the facts and formulate an opinion based…show more content… His exact reason for being on the Natchez Trace is well documented; he was on his way to Washington D.C. to dispute the Secretary of War’s denial of payment on money he had personally drafted in part to help return a Mandan chief to his village. The denied monies and subsequent debts had significant impact on Lewis’ liquid assets, yet he still retained much in the way of land and real estate. The journey itself is subject to much speculation, but what is known is that during the trip down the Mississippi, Lewis was put in at the army fort at Chickasaw Bluff commanded by Major Gilbert Russell. Major Russell was very plain in his sworn testimony as to the state of Meriwether Lewis at the time of his visit. He wrote that during the trip downriver, the crew had stopped Lewis from committing suicide twice and that he arrived at the Bluffs in a state of “mental derangement” (Guice 159). Major Russell quartered Lewis in his own room and, after a time of six or seven days, Lewis regained his faculties and some ten days later, he borrowed a bit of money and some horses and, accompanied by an Chickasaw Indian Agent named Major James Neely, departed for the Natchez
