Who is zebulon m pike

Yet Pike wanted to explore the mountain he had seen, so he set out with a party through bitter cold and waist-deep snow to find the mountain. CHNC , however; perhaps partly due to the heavy snows, Pike believed that the mountain could not be climbed. Two months later, the party found the source of the Arkansas, which they had been sent to do, and returned back east, their job for the army completed.

Mondale Collection. Skip to main content. About Copyright Contact. Topics African Americans. Business and Industry. Cities and Towns. Crime and Punishment. Health and Medicine. Native Americans. Appearing as it did, four years before the publication of the journals of Lewis and Clark, Pike's book provided the American public with its first written description of the trans-Mississippi West.

He was appointed deputy quartermaster general of the army on April 3, , serving until July 3 of that same year. On March 12, , he was appointed brigadier general and inspector general and adjutant general of the army. He was killed in action at the storming of York, now Toronto , Canada, on April 27, , when the enemies' powder magazine exploded.

Theodore J. Crackel, Mr. Francis B. Donald Jackson, ed. Milo Milton Quaife, ed. Louis via the Arkansas and Mississippi Rivers. Tensions with Spain were high, and many Americans expected a war.

Wilkinson, who was Governor of Louisiana during this period, was ordered to engage in intelligence operations against Spain, using army officers disguised as traders if necessary. What Wilkinson was really up to, however, has remained a mystery.

It appears that, in collaboration with Aaron Burr, he was planning a coup in the West. It has never been determined whether this was a traitorous movement designed to separate the western territories from the Union, or a plot to conquer Spanish territory without officially involving the United States Government.

A letter between Pike and Wilkinson, written on July 22, , leaves little doubt that Pike was to scout as close as possible to Santa Fe , New Mexico , allowing for the possibility that he might be captured by Spanish authorities. If discovered, he would use the cover story that he had become lost while en route to Natchitoches, Louisiana. Zebulon Pike set out on July 15, , with an assortment of 18 enlisted men from the First Infantry Regiment; his second-in-command, Lieutenant Wilkinson; a volunteer physician, Dr.

John H. Robinson; and Baronet Vasquez, an interpreter from St. Pike talked a band of Pawnee into hauling down the Spanish flag which flew above their village, and replacing it with the Stars and Stripes, despite the fact that a troop of Spanish cavalry strong had recently visited.

Upon reaching the Arkansas River, Lieutenant Wilkinson left the party with five men, returning successfully to St. Louis despite three desertions. Pike and the 15 others started up the Arkansas River on October 28th, following the trail of a troop of Spanish cavalry. On November 11th, Pike made a bold decision; despite the fact that his party did not have the clothing, equipment, or supplies for a winter expedition, they would press on.