Lewis and the others rushed back to the camp and saddled their horses before a much larger band of Blackfeet could give chase. ‘No time was therefore to be lost,’ wrote Lewis, ‘and we pushed our horses as hard as they would bear.’ They rode until 3:00 in the afternoon, covering 60 miles. The next day they rode hard again, agreeing to’sell our lives as dear as we could’ if attacked. But they knew they were safe when they reached the Missouri River and rejoined several of their fellow explorers.

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After the return to St. Louis, the Field brothers went back to their home in Jefferson County, Kentucky. Joseph died less than a year later at the age of 35. Other than Charles Floyd, who died of apparent appendicitis three months after the journey began, Joseph was the first expedition veteran to die. The exact cause of death is unknown, but in a list of expedition members Clark compiled sometime between 1825 and 1828, he said Joseph had been killed. Historian Jim Holmberg has speculated that he may have been killed on Pryor’s mission to return Sheheke. Joseph left no children. Reubin married Mary Myrtle and farmed in Kentucky for the next 15 years, though little is known of his life. He was about 52 when he died in 1823; he and Mary left no heirs.

Like Joseph Field, John Shields was a valuable member of the company who died not long after the expedition ended. Born in 1769, Shields was the oldest member in the original group of volunteers. He was an expert blacksmith and gunsmith and served his fellows well. ‘The party owes much to the injinuity of this man,’ Clark wrote at one point. Shields’ ingenuity was particularly evident when William Bratton became immobilized because of severe back pains. Suggesting a steam bath, Shields dug a 3-foot by 4-foot hole and then built a fire to heat the ground and exposed rocks. After scooping out the embers, the men helped Bratton into the hole, where he created steam by pouring water on the hot stones and earth. Shields instructed others to hold blanket-draped willows overhead to retain the heat. After a while, the men helped Bratton out, and he plunged into cold water. Then more steam, followed by another cold plunge, followed by 45 additional minutes of steam treatment. Shields also administered large amounts of mint tea. The next day Bratton was cured.

Shields had married Nancy White in the 1790s; the couple had one daughter. After the expedition, he trapped with his kinsman, 75-year-old Daniel Boone, in Missouri and later with Daniel’s brother Squire in Indiana. Shields died at the age of 40, in 1809. He is buried near Corydon, Indiana.

French-Canadian trapper Jean Baptiste Lepage was living among the Mandan when Lewis and Clark arrived in the fall of 1804. The captains hired Lepage to replace John Newman, who had been expelled from the party. Lepage knew the region well and was possibly the first white man to ascend the Little Missouri River, probably going as far as Montana or Wyoming. He told Clark he had spent 45 days descending the virtually unnavigable river.

After the expedition members returned to St. Louis, Lepage signed to trap with Manuel Lisa, and he may have been on a fur-trading venture in the West when Meriwether Lewis arrived in St. Louis in 1808. Lewis owed Lepage $116.33 for his services on the expedition, a debt still unpaid when Lewis died. Lepage apparently never received his salary, for he died a non-violent death within two months. He was 48 and he left a widow (no record of her name has been found), four sons, and one daughter.

Little is known of John B. Thompson, either before or after the expedition. He was one of three men assigned to cook but the only one relieved of that duty, indicating limited skill. He was injured when the group hit heavy rapids in the Snake River. Otherwise, Thompson seems to have performed his duties without drawing unusual praise or criticism. Clark later indicated that Thompson died a violent death but offered no details. In the summer of 1815, a St. Louis newspaper notified anyone owing or having demands of the estate of John B. Thompson, deceased, to present their accounts to Peggy Thompson. No children were mentioned. Thompson was probably around 40 when he died.

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