Each of the sergeants of the expedition was required to keep a journal to record the day's activities. This scene depicts a typical camp somewhere along the river in Missouri. As a few men enjoy the music of Pierre Cruzatte's fiddle after a weary day's work, Sgt. Ordway begins writing in his journal. These journals were long and bound along the top of the pages. They were covered in red Morrocan leather. Ordway is wearing the linen fatigue uniform of his rank; a sergeant's vest with a small standing collar and trousers tucked into tarred gaiters which cover his shoes. His issue round hat and Infantry knapsack rest beside him. These journals kept by the sergeants, Lewis and Clark hundred years as few documents in American history have. What a tedious chore this must have seemed to the sergeants after each exhausting day but their diligence has given us a record that is a priceless look into their westward trek., form the only first hand record of the expedition. They have been studied and dissected over the last two
