Yellowstone expedition
Richard Johnson enjoyed considerable leverage over the expedition's funding as chairman from 1817 to 1819 of the House Committee on Expenditures in the Department of War,[2] and there was warm public interest in the enterprise.
It was the first scientific expedition of U.S. government-funded "Army Engineers" charged with mapping, studying, documenting and exploring the vast area of uncharted land between the Mississippi River and the Rocky Mountains.
To protect the vessel from Indian attack, Long installed a bulletproof pilothouse, mounted a cannon on the bow, placed howitzers along the side, and armed the crew with rifles and sabres.
Its basic design (shallow draft, rear paddlewheel, narrow beam, amidships engine) later became the prototype for western river steam vessels.
[8] A description in the Missouri Gazette of May 26, 1819 stated that "The Western Engineer is well armed and carries an elegant flag representing a white man and an Indian shaking hands, the calumet of peace and the sword.
[8] Five steamboats had been contracted for Atkinson, but two had not reached the Mississippi at all and, of the remainder, a third (the Thomas Jefferson) was soon found incapable of navigating the numerous snags, sandbars and currents.
Johnson and the Expedition) also could not advance through the treacherous obstacles and were stopped just above the mouth of the Kansas River, to winter at Cow Island and return to St. Louis in the spring.
[7] After several days and many miles, Atkinson's troops had to resort back to using keelboats similar to those used by Lewis and Clark a few years earlier, which were powered mainly by men rowing, poling or towing upriver with ropes.
On September 17, the steamboat Western Engineer arrived at Fort Lisa, a trading post belonging to William Clark's Missouri Fur Company.
Congressional economy measures and difficulties in supplying such distant outposts prevented the completion of the expedition and the force was halted there, well downstream of its intended destination at the mouth of the Yellowstone River.
[8] In May 1820, Long returned to "Engineer Cantonment" with his own orders from the Secretary of War to cease work along the Missouri and turn instead to exploring the Platte River and its sources.
Added to this, the costs of the expedition grossly exceeded those anticipated, mostly due to James Johnson's "malfeasance"[2] and his brother Richard's influential pleas for further funding.
The insignificant results of the first season's work, and the scandal growing out of the transportation contract, disgusted Congress with the whole enterprise and that body declined to appropriate any further funds for it.
