Private John Newman ( – 1838) was a member of the

Lewis and Clark Expedition The Lewis and Clark Expedition, also known as the Corps of Discovery Expedition, was the United States expedition to cross the newly acquired western portion of the country after the Louisiana Purchase. The Corps of Discovery was a select gro ...

. He was born in

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...

and was a member of captain Daniel Bissell's company of the First Infantry Regiment. During the expedition in October 1804, he ran into disciplinary problems and was confined for "having uttered repeated expressions of a highly criminal and mutinous nature." No records remain of the exact nature of his offense. He received a

court-martial A court-martial or court martial (plural ''courts-martial'' or ''courts martial'', as "martial" is a postpositive adjective) is a military court or a trial conducted in such a court. A court-martial is empowered to determine the guilt of memb ...

, and was sentenced to seventy-five

lashes Flagellation (Latin , 'whip'), flogging or whipping is the act of beating the human body with special implements such as whips, rods, switches, the cat o' nine tails, the sjambok, the knout, etc. Typically, flogging has been imposed on ...

. In addition, he was removed from the expedition; however, since they were en route through the wilderness, he continued to travel with them to

Fort Mandan Fort Mandan was the name of the encampment which the Lewis and Clark Expedition built for wintering over in 1804–1805. The encampment was located on the Missouri River approximately from the site of present-day Washburn, North Dakota, which ...

. He performed hard labor and tried to redeem himself in the eyes of the two captains, but was sent back east with the return party in April 1805. After the expedition Lewis recommended that Congress grant Newman his pay for his period of service up to his expulsion; he received some pay and a land warrant as a member of the expedition. He settled in

Missouri Missouri is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. Ranking List of U.S. states and territories by area, 21st in land area, it is bordered by eight states (tied for the most with Tennessee ...

and was married at least once but appears to have had no children. In the 1830s he did some trapping in the Dakotas; he was killed by the

Yankton Sioux The Dakota (pronounced , Dakota language: ''Dakȟóta/Dakhóta'') are a Native American tribe and First Nations band government in North America. They compose two of the three main subcultures of the Sioux people, and are typically divided into ...

in 1838.

External links

Lewis and Clark journals
{{DEFAULTSORT:Newman, John Lewis and Clark Expedition people 1780s births 1838 deaths