Undaunted Courage, by Stephen E. Ambrose

[Joanne]

Undaunted Courage: The Pioneering First Mission to Explore America's Wild Frontier 4 stars


The story of Lewis Merriweather, starting with his youth, his time spent under command of William Clark in the army, all leading up to his work with Thomas Jefferson and his appointment as commander of The Corps of Discovery. (What we all learned of as The Lewis and Clark Expedition).

Ambrose uses journals of Lewis and Clark and the men who took part in the expedition as soldiers. I was brought into this journey of discovery, hook, line and sinker. Truly the most important, inspiring story I have read in a while. The dedication to doing the job set out for by Thomas Jefferson, not only of Lewis and Clark, but their troops, is awe inspiring. While suffering weather conditions, encounters with unknown Native Americans, sickness and hunger they trudged across daunting landscape that white men had never traveled. While doing this, they observed and recorded new species of flora and animals while observing landscapes that make my eyes pop today, hard to imagine these men seeing it for the first time.

Another book that took me a full 2 months to complete, without regret. Even as a self-proclaimed history nerd, this one has to be taken in small doses.