Dear Diary: Orders just gone round that there are to be no lights after dark...

August 11, 1806

Being anxious to overtake Captain Clark, who from the appearance of his camps could be at no great distance before me, we set out early and proceeded with all possible expedition . . . My wounds (accidental gunshot from the day before) felt very stiff and sore this morning but gave me no considerable pain. There was much less inflammation than I had reason to apprehend there would be. I had, last evening, applied a poultice of Peruvian barks. At 1p.m. I overtook Captain Clark and party and had the pleasure of finding them all well. As writing in my present situation is extremely painful to me, I shall desist until I recover, and leave my friend Captain Clark the continuation of our journal.

~Captain Meriwether Lewis, from The Journals of Lewis and Clark

August 12, 1806

At meridian, Captain Lewis in sight with the party which went by way of the Missouri River . . . I was alarmed, on the landing of the canoes, to be informed that Captain Lewis was wounded by an accident. I found him lying in the pirogue. He informed me that his wound was slight and would be well in 20 or 30 days. This information relieved me very much. I examined the wound and found it a very bad flesh wound. The ball had passed through the fleshy part of his left thigh, below the hipbone, and cut the cheek of the right buttock for three inches in length, and the depth of the ball. Captain Lewis informed me the accident happened the day before, by one of the men, Peter Cruzat, mistaking him in the thick bushes to be an elk.

~Captain William Clark, from The Journals of Lewis and Clark

August 18, 1914

Orders just gone round that there are to be no lights after dark, so I am hasting to write this . . . I don't remember anything quite so thrilling as our start off from Ireland. All the 600 khaki men on board, and every one on every other ship, and all the crowds on the quay, and in boats and on lighthouses, waved and yelled. Then we and the officers and the men, severally, had the King's proclamation read out to us about doing our duty for our country, and God blessing us, and how the King is following our every movement.

~Unknown, from Diary of a Nursing Sister on the Western Front, 1914-1915

August 27, 1772

Yesterday I heard an account of a cat of seventeen years old, that has just recovered of the meazels. This same cat it is said had the small pox eight years ago!

~Anna Green Winslow, age 10, from The Diary of Anna Green Winslow, a Boston Girl

POSTED BY:  Audra