Pike At His Peak

THE OVERLOOK

By Tom Clavin

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          While a title has not been chosen yet, we do know that the next book by the Bob Drury and Tom Clavin team will be about Jedediah Smith and the mountain men of the American West in the 1820s. Time-wise, the story fits in after Blood and Treasure and before The Heart of Everything That Is, both of which were (ahem) New York Times best sellers. Jed Smith was a great explorer who has not gotten the recognition he deserves. Someone who shares that dubious distinction and served as a sort of bridge between the Lewis and Clark Corps of Discovery expedition and Smith’s adventures was Zebulon Pike. If he is known at all, it is because of a mountain.

Pike was born on January 5, 1779, in Lamington, New Jersey. He would follow in the footsteps of his father, Zebulon Sr., who had begun his career in the military service of the United States in 1775 at the beginning of the Revolutionary War. Through his father he was a direct descendant of Robert Pike, who was famous for being an opponent of the Salem witchcraft trials.

 Zebulon Jr. grew to adulthood with his family at a series of outposts in Ohio and Illinois, which comprised the northwest frontier at the time. He was commissioned as a second lieutenant of infantry in 1799 and promoted to first lieutenant later that same year. Pike's duties included working on logistics and payroll at a series of frontier posts. Things got more interesting when General James Wilkinson, the governor of the Upper Louisiana Territory, became his mentor.

In the summer of 1805, Wilkinson ordered Pike to locate the source of the Mississippi River, explore the northern portion of the newly created Louisiana Territory, and expel Canadian fur trappers illegally trading within the borders of the U.S. Pike left St. Louis on August 9, proceeding upstream by pirogue. He and his crew reached the confluence of the Mississippi and Minnesota Rivers on September 21, where he negotiated a treaty with the Dakota tribe, purchasing the future site of Fort Snelling. The troop traveled further upriver, stopping to construct a winter camp at the mouth of the Swan River, south of present-day Little Falls. However, they continued upstream along the frozen river on foot, visiting several British North West Company fur posts along the way. Pike informed the traders they were within the boundaries of the U.S. and henceforth required to abide by its laws and regulations.

Along the way, Pike met with many prominent Ojibwe head men, prevailing on them to surrender the medals and flags given to them as tokens of allegiance by the British and replacing them with American peace medals. He also relayed the desire that the Ojibwe and Dakota cease their mutual hostility and invited the head men to attend a peace conference in St. Louis. (They declined the invitation to travel through several hundred miles of hostile territory.) On February 10, they ceremonially shot the British red ensign from the fur company's flagpole, replacing it with an American flag. On a short but important side trip, Pike traveled to the North West Company fur post on Upper Red Cedar Lake (later renamed Cass Lake), designating the lake as the upper source of the Mississippi and taking celestial observations to determine its latitude.

After waiting out the worst of the remaining winter, Pike and his men got back in their pirogues on April 7 and headed downstream. Thirteen days later, they arrived in St. Louis. The Pike expedition was the second one dispatched by the government into its new territory and the first to come back because the one led by by Meriwether Lewis and William Clark had yet to return.

There would be no rest for Zebulon Pike. General Wilkinson almost immediately ordered him to mount a second expedition, this time to explore, map, and find the headwaters of the Arkansas and Red Rivers. Additional objectives of this expedition into the southwestern part of the Louisiana Territory were to evaluate natural resources and establish friendly relations with Native Americans. Pike was unaware of his mentor’s sinister other motive -- to prepare for an American invasion of New Mexico. Pike and his company of men set off on July 15, 1806.

 In early November, the company sighted and tried to climb to the summit of the peak later named Pikes Peak. They made it as far as Mt. Rosa, located southeast of Pikes Peak, before giving up the ascent in waist-deep snow and having already gone almost two days without food.  They then continued south, searching for the Red River's headwaters. With winter’s approach, they built a fort. Probably without realizing it, Pike’s group had crossed the border and Spanish authorities showed up and arrested them in February 1807.

Pike and his men were taken to Santa Fe then to the capital of the Chihuahua Province and presented to the commandant, General Salcedo. Pike was treated well and invited to formal social dinners but still not quite given the treatment of a visiting dignitary, and his men were kept prisoner. Salcedo housed Pike with Juan Pedro Walker, a cartographer who also acted as an interpreter. Walker transcribed and translated Pike's confiscated documents, including his journal. Spanish authorities feared the spread of both democracy and Protestant Christian sects that might undermine their rule.

During this time, Pike had access to various maps of the southwest and learned about Mexico's discontentment with Spanish rule. Spain filed official protests with the government of President Thomas Jefferson about Pike's expedition, but since the nations were not at war -- and Spain was rebelling against Joseph Bonaparte, brother of Napoleon, who was fighting England in the Peninsula War -- Commandant Salcedo released Pike and his men. The Spanish escorted them north, releasing them at the Louisiana border on July 1.

Pike was promoted to captain as a result of the southwestern expedition. In 1811, he fought with the 4th Infantry Regiment at the Battle of Tippecanoe. He was promoted to colonel of the 15th Infantry Regiment in July 1812. Pike's military career also included service as deputy quartermaster-general in New Orleans and inspector general during the War of 1812. He continued to rise through the ranks, commanding the advance guard of an American force at the first Battle of Lacolle Mills in November 1812, and he was was promoted to brigadier general in March 1813.

Pike departed from the newly fortified rural military outpost of Sackets Harbor, on the New York side of Lake Ontario, for what became his last military campaign. On this expedition, he commanded combat troops in the successful attack on York (now Toronto) on April 27, 1813. However, during the engagement, Pike was killed, along with numerous other American troops, by flying rocks and other debris when the withdrawing British garrison blew up its ammunition magazine. His body was brought by ship back to Sackets Harbor, where his remains were buried at the military cemetery. He was 34 years old.

Tom Clavin is the bestselling author/co-author of 18 books, including The Last Hill, with Bob Drury. To purchase a copy or to pre-order Follow Me to Hell (to be published on April 4), please go to your local bookstore or to Bookshop.org, Amazon.com, BN.com, or tomclavin.com.