Much lesser known then the Lewis and Clarke expedition, was the Red River Expedition led by astronomer Thomas Freeman and naturalist Peter Custis. Unfortunately, the Governor of the Louisiana Territory and Senior Officer of the Army James Wilkinson was secretly undermining the mission by sharing the plans with Spain. Yep, Wilkinson was a spy. With this information, Spain sent troops to stop the expedition from entering Spanish territory, Jefferson had no idea that Wilkinson shared such information, but had to face Congress and tell them that the expedition had failed.
In 1804 President Thomas Jefferson appointed James Wilkinson as Governor of the Louisiana Territory, yet Wilkinson was secretly undermining our nation as a double agent to Spain. In 1806, Wilkinson shared plans with Spain of an expedition to explore the Red River, leading to it's abrupt end by Spanish troops and a political embarrassment to the Jefferson administration. Jefferson had ranked the Red River expedition second in importance only to the Lewis and Clark Expedition. The expedition was the first civilian scientific expedition to explore the Southwestern United States tracing the Red River as a possible trading route to Santa Fe. The goals of the project were to contact Native Americans for trading purposes, to collect data on flora, fauna and topography, to map the country and river, and to assess the land for future settlement. Since Santa Fe and the Southwest was then under Spanish control, the expedition was being done in secret. But, for personal gain James Wilkinson shared the plans with Spain.
The expedition set out on April 19, 1806 with 24 men led by surveyor and astronomer Thomas Freeman and naturalist Peter Custis on two flat-bottomed barges and one pirogue (small fishing sailboat) from Fort Adams near Nachez, Mississippi. Along the route, additional soldiers joined in response to a possible attack by Spanish troops. 615 miles upriver in late July, the men heard gunfire indicating the presence of Spanish troops. Freeman was given directions from Jefferson to avoid any conflict with the Spanish. When Freeman and his men were confronted by Spanish troops, the Spanish commander said they were ordered to fire on any foreign armed troops passing through Spanish territory. Freeman demanded that the Spanish provide their objection to his team's passage in writing from proper authorities, but the Spanish troops highly outnumbered them, and they turned back on the next day. Freemen estimated the Spanish troops to be "upwards of 1,000 in numbers".
While the expedition was a political embarrassment to the Jefferson administration, and failed to achieve all of it's goals. It did provide significant information about the land and it's ability to support a large population. In addition, the group was able to do much valuable work categorizing many of the local plants and animals. And, more importantly diplomatic talks held with the Caddo and Alabama-Coushatta tribes laid the groundwork for increasing American control over the American Indians of the Red River region. In 1806, Thomas Jefferson shared the bad news with Congress, but asked them to nonetheless hold the men in high esteem and approve of their efforts.
"The attempt to explore the Red River, under the direction of Mr. Freeman, though conducted with a zeal and prudence meriting entire approbation, has not been equally successful. After proceeding up it about 600 miles, nearly as far as the French settlements had extended while the country was in their possession, our geographers were obliged to return without completing their work."https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_River_Expedition_%281806%29
https://www.monticello.org/site/research-and-collections/red-river-expedition
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5d/Red_River_Exp_1806_map.png
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