Danisi investigates a seldom-discussed episode in Meriwether Lewis’s early military career: his 1795 court-martial while serving as an ensign in the U.S. Army. The article draws on military records to reconstruct the circumstances of the charges, which involved an alcohol-fueled confrontation with a fellow officer. Lewis was acquitted, but the incident reveals aspects of his personality — including his temper and sensitivity to perceived slights — that would manifest throughout his later career. Danisi places the court-martial in the context of frontier military life in the 1790s and examines how the experience may have shaped Lewis’s approach to leadership during the expedition. The article contributes to a more nuanced understanding of Lewis as a complex individual rather than the idealized figure often presented in popular accounts.
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