Our forebears believed in the Manifest Destiny of the United States.  They were practical and pragmatic. If they could buy the land, as they had the Louisiana Purchase, they would. But not even war would stop them from spreading American dominion and democracy across the breadth of the land. The way was not always simple or free from fear and suffering. What we take for granted now was paid for at high cost in blood and pain by daring men and women of vision. Virtually the entire catalog of American explorers provisioned at St. Louis before heading west.

• First, Lewis and Clark 1804-1806 and later...
  Zebulon Pike-mountain and steamboats celebrate his name. 1806
  Major Stephen Long who labeled thousands of miles of prairie as “desert.” 1819-20
  Henry Schoolcraft who explored the upper Mississippi and inspired legends such as Hiawatha. 1820
  Jim Bridger the first to see the wonders of Yellowstone. 1824-25
  General William Ashley, Jedediah Smith and Thomas Fitzpatrick who blazed the Oregon Trail. 1824
  Benjamin Reeves and Major Sibley who forged the Santa Fe Trail. 1826
  Captain Benjamin Bonneville who popularized the Great Salt Lake. 1832

Not even the American Revolution brought more change, more victory or more tragedy to our country than the years from 1840 to 1880. The populated United States grew to six times its original size.

In the years leading up to the Civil War, St. Louis was the military and civilian capital and the Gateway to the West. From the expeditions of John Charles “Pathfinder” Fremont in the early 1840s, St. Louis blossomed as it outfitted intrepid hordes off to find their share of California gold after the big bonanza at Sutter’s Mill in 1848.

Not only was St. Louis the heart of westward expansion, it was the core of military might. The Arsenal was the fourth largest in the country as well as the third largest arms and munitions manufactury. Nearly every senior military man of renown in the Civil War served at Jefferson Barracks. After the Mexican War, Jefferson Davis himself organized “Jeff Davis’s Pets,” the 2nd U.S. Dragoons.  Commissioned personnel assigned to this elite cavalry were the best in the army. Albert Sidney Johnston served as colonel and Robert E. Lee as lieutenant colonel.