Mistaken for Elk, Merriweather Lewis Shot in Butt

he most serious hunting mishap, and surely the most memorable episode in Lewis's frequently referenced "chapter of accedents," was the moment on 11 August 1806—one day before the captains were finally re-united—when Pierre Cruzatte shot him in the buttocks. The painful details deserve retelling in the victim's own words (here broken into paragraphs for easier reading):
jus opposite to the birnt hills there happened to be a herd of Elk on a thick willow bar and . . . I determined to land and kill some of them accordingly we put too and I went out with Cruzatte only. we fired on the Elk I killed one and he wounded another, we reloaded our guns and took different routs through the thick willows in pursuit of the Elk; I was in the act of firing on the Elk a second time when a ball struck my left thye about an inch below my hip joint, missing the bone it passed through the left thye and cut the thickness of the bullet across the hinder part of te right thye; the stroke was very severe.
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