Patrick Gass

Patrick Gass ( born June 12, 1771 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, † April 2, 1870 in Wellsburg, West Virginia) was a sergeant in the United States Army and a key member of the Lewis and Clark Expedition.

Life

Gass appeared in 1789 as a soldier in the army and served in the summer of 1803 in the garrison of Kaskaskia in the Illinois territory on the Ohio River under Captain Russell Bissell. He volunteered to participate in the planned expedition of Lewis and Clark. However, his boss did not want to let go of one of his best men. Meriwether Lewis drew Gass due to an order from the Minister of War Henry Dearborn still a.

Originally Gass should accompany a good boatman, the expedition only until the winter quarter 1804/1805. After the death of Charles Floyd on August 20, 1804 he was promoted to Sergeant and accompanied the expedition as a squad leader to the end. As a carpenter, he was instrumental in the construction of canoes and the three winter accommodation in Camp Wood, Fort Mandan and Fort Clatsop.

In the summer of 1806, when the expedition on the way back to the Missouri River, divided into several groups, Gass was assigned the task of transporting the previously abandoned in boats with his people from the land, past the great falls of the Missouri.

The diaries of Gass were the first reports of the entire Lewis and Clark Expedition, which were published at the beginning of 1807.

Patrick Gass died at the age of 98 years in West Virginia.

636419
de