Military officer; born in
Lamberton, N. J., Jan. 5, 1779; was appointed a cadet in the regiment of his father (a captain in the army of the Revolution) and brevet lieutenantcolonel United States army when twenty years of age. He was made captain in 1806, and was appointed to lead an expedition in search of the sources of the
Mississippi River, which performed the required duties satisfactorily in eight months and twenty days of most fatiguing explorations.
In 1806-7 he was engaged in a geographical exploration of
Louisiana, when he was seized by the Spaniards, taken to
Santa Fe, and, after a long examination and the seizure of his papers, was escorted to
Natchitoches (July 1, 1807) and dismissed.
The government
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rewarded him with a major's commission (May, 1808). Passing through the various grades, he was commissioned brigadier-general March 12, 1813.
Early in
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Zebulon Montgomery Pike. |
that year he had been appointed adjutant and inspector-general of the army on the northern frontier.
He was killed in an attack upon
York, Upper Canada, April 27, 1813.
