Lost Chapters
Meriwether Lewis, Captain: Emerald Character
Meriwether Lewis was a U.S. Army captain and President Thomas Jefferson's personal secretary who, with William Clark, led the Corps of Discovery to the Pacific Ocean and back between 1804 and 1806. Afterward he served as governor of the Louisiana Territory, and he died of gunshot wounds in Tennessee in 1809, most likely by his own hand.
- Cost
- 5 crystals
- Type
- Character · Adventurer
- Power / Health
- 4 / 4
- Color
- Emerald (Frontier & Explorers)
- Rarity
- Ultra-Rare (Legacy)
- Set
- Liberty & Lightning (Set 1)
- Keywords
- Explore
Presidential secretary turned explorer whose western odyssey mapped a continent while testing the limits of his sanity.
The real history
Meriwether Lewis was born in 1774 in Albemarle County, Virginia, the first child of William Lewis and Lucy Meriwether. His father died in 1779. His mother remarried and moved the family to Georgia, and when his stepfather also died, a teenage Lewis became head of the household for his mother and siblings.
He enlisted in the U.S. Army in 1794 and served in Kentucky, Pennsylvania, Michigan and Ohio. For a time one of his commanding officers was William Clark, and the two became friends. By 1800 Lewis was a captain. In 1801 the new president, Thomas Jefferson, who knew the Lewis family as Virginia neighbors, made him his personal secretary.
Jefferson then picked Lewis to lead an expedition west, and Lewis prepared like a student. In 1803 he spent about a month in Philadelphia learning from some of the country's leading scientists. He studied medicine with Dr. Benjamin Rush, botany with Dr. Benjamin Smith Barton, anatomy with Dr. Caspar Wistar, astronomy with Andrew Ellicott, and surveying and mathematics with Robert Patterson. With Clark as co-leader, he led the Corps of Discovery from Wood River, Illinois, to the Pacific Ocean between 1804 and 1806.
Back home, Jefferson made Lewis governor of the Louisiana Territory, a job he took up in March 1807. It went badly. He clashed with other officials, faced questions about how government money was spent, drank more heavily, and drifted apart from Jefferson.
On October 11, 1809, Lewis died of two gunshot wounds, one to the head and one to the chest, at Grinder's Stand, an inn on the Natchez Trace in Tennessee. He was 35. Many who knew him believed he took his own life, and the National Park Service says that is generally accepted, though some accounts written from 1848 on suggested murder.
Sources
- Meriwether Lewis, Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail, National Park Service
- Meriwether Lewis, National Park Service
- Meriwether Lewis, Natchez Trace Parkway, National Park Service
In the game's story
In the game's invented story, Lewis and Clark are pulled into Marginalia together from a snowy pass in the Bitterroot Mountains in 1805, along with their journals, their instruments and a very indignant mule. Queen Clarise gives them permission to map her realm, and Lewis fills six journals with Marginalian plants and animals and paddles the Inkwash from source to sea. His one great frustration is the Deckle Wilds, whose trails move, so he marks the shifting parts of his map in red ink.
How the card plays
Meriwether Lewis, Captain costs 5 crystals and is a 4/4 Ultra-Rare Emerald Adventurer with Explore, so only characters with Explore can block him. Every time he charges, you draw a card. A 4/4 that is hard to block and refills your hand each turn he attacks puts steady pressure on your rival.
He is also the key to the expedition cards. William Clark, Lieutenant gets +2/+2 and Explore while you control Lewis, so play Clark after him or keep both on the field together. Sacagawea, River Guide searches your deck for an Adventurer when she arrives if you control Lewis or Clark, so she can find whichever captain is missing. Corps of Discovery searches for an Adventurer too, and can fetch Lewis himself.
- Playable in decks led by Amelia Earhart, and by any Traveler Leader whose colors include Emerald.
- In the Earhart starter deck (1 copy). Deck code:
LC2-Ax8CIAEhASIBIwIkAiUBJgEnASgCKQEqAisBLAEtAS4BLwEwATEBMgEzATQBNQE2ATcBOAE5AToBOwE8AT0BZQJ0Anuc - Works with William Clark, Lieutenant; Sacagawea, River Guide.
- A deck holds up to 3 copies of this card.
Questions about Lewis
How did Meriwether Lewis die?
He died of two gunshot wounds on October 11, 1809, at an inn on the Natchez Trace in Tennessee while traveling east. The recorded circumstances point to suicide, though some later accounts claimed he was murdered.
What did Meriwether Lewis study before the expedition?
In 1803 he trained with leading scientists of the day in medicine, botany, anatomy, astronomy, surveying and mathematics, and learned how to preserve specimens and use navigation instruments.
Related cards
William Clark, Lieutenant4 crystals · Character · Rare
Sacagawea, River Guide3 crystals · Character · Ultra-Rare
Amelia Earhart, Adventurer3 crystals · Character · Legendary
Daniel Boone2 crystals · Character · Rare
Sally Ann Thunder6 crystals · Character · Uncommon
Corps of Discovery3 crystals · Character · Uncommon
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