Jefferson National Expansion Memorial - Private Pierre Cruzatte (U.S. National Park Service)

Sketch copyright by Michael Haynes.

P.S. I entertained the men of the expedition with my fiddle playing in the evenings. My skills as a boatman helped everyone, and sometimes I was an interpreter with Indian tribes we met. On the way back from the expedition, I was out hunting with Captain Lewis, and saw a deer just a few yards away. Well, I thought it was a deer, I really did. Anyway, it is hard for a man with eyesight as bad as mine to see the difference between a man and a deer sometimes. Anyway, I accidentally shot poor Captain Lewis, making it very difficult for him to sit down for many weeks. I was so sorry to be the cause of such pain to him. I later served with fur traders, and was killed by Indians before 1828.