STATUE OF FIRST SERGEANT JOHN ORDWAY
Sergeant John Ordway was from New Hampshire where he received an elementary school education. Most Army soldiers in 1803 had no or very little formal education. Probably, John Ordway came into the Regular Army in 1798-99 with the expansion for the Quasi-war with France. In less than two years, this crisis ended and the Army was reduced in size. Records do reveal that he was a Regular Army sergeant in September 1800 assigned to the company where Captain Lewis would find him at Fort Kaskaskia, Indiana Territory in December 1803.

There were two other sergeants in the Corps of Discovery. Captain Clark had the responsibility to select personnel. He appointed two civilians in their early twenty's from his hometown as sergeants. Neither had been in the Army prior to their appointment. (One died from natural causes during the mission and was replaced by the promotion of a private with prior Army experience.) At Fort Kaskaskia, the last Army post the Captains visited before establishing the winter of 1803-04 training camp, Sergeant Ordway volunteered bringing his Army noncommissioned officer skills to the development, training, and screening of about 50 civilians and Army soldiers who had volunteered for the organization. Captain Clark determined which volunteers qualified for the permanent party. Sergeant Ordway supported Captain Clark by conducting training to include the complicated Army Infantry battle drill of that period. The Corps of Discovery was going into hostile Indian country and had to be battle ready. When both Captains were absent, Sergeant Ordway was in charge of the task force as its third ranking member.

By April the Corps of Discovery task force was ready and departed the winter training camp in May 1804 for the journey up the Missouri River and on through un-mapped wilderness to the Pacific Ocean. As part of his duties as first sergeant, Sergeant Ordway kept the detachment orders and journal of daily activities; managed the guard; and distributed food and supplies. As third in the chain of command, he led the overland transfer of canoes, equipment, and supplies in the very difficult portage of the Great Falls of the Missouri River. Also, he led a separate task force on the return trip to collect and move the canoes and pirogues freeing the Captains to expand their exploration into two additional areas.
Dr. John Patrick Jewell stands beside the completed sculpted clay model for the First Sergeant John Ordway statue. Clay model was then placed in the casting process at The Bronze Works in Tacoma, Washington to manufacture the monumental, sculptured, larger than life, bronze statue.
After a journey of over 8,000 miles, the Corps of Discovery returned to the starting point in September 1806. For over a century, historians have written numerous accounts of the success of the exploration giving rightful credit to the Captains for molding the Corps of Discovery into a tough, hardy, resourceful task force, but little praise is given to the building blocks of the task force. In all Army companies, the first sergeant is the top building block and represents the others. Sergeant John Ordway was the top building block for the Corps of Discovery.

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