Undaunted Courage: The Pioneering First Mission to Explore America's Wild Frontier

This was much more than just a group of men going on a discovery and gathering trip. This was an excursion by the military into enemy territory. Captain Meriwether Lewis, the personal secretary to President Thomas Jefferson, was chosen in 1803 to head a historic expedition into the Great Plains and the Rockies. It was a huge, unexplored region that the Indians dominated; it was wild. Lewis was the ideal candidate because he was bold and charismatic and had seen the wild continent of North America before any other white guy. UNDAUNTED COURAGE is a tragic story as well as a hero's journey. When Lewis returned to Washington in 1806, he may have been greeted as a hero, but his findings did not live up to the president's vision of vast, productive plains that were waiting to be explored. Lewis started drinking and accruing debt because he thought the mission had been a failure. This is one of the greatest adventure stories ever told, and it quickly rose to the top of the US bestseller charts. It is full of colorful characters, including Sacagawea, the Indian girl who accompanied the expedition, William Clark, the tough frontiersman, Jefferson, the president who was obsessed with conquering the west, and Drouillard, the French-Indian hunter. UNDAUNTED COURAGE is a remarkable piece of research and an exciting adventure that combines romance, personal sorrow, danger, suspense, and diplomacy.