Lewis and Clark whiskey trivia

Filed under: Spirits

Today was one of the first nice Spring days here in St. Louis and I went for a guided hike at Fort Belle Fontaine. The site was important for many reasons which you can read about on the St. Louis County Parks website, but the part that caught my attention was our guide's story about Lewis and Clark and whiskey.

Our guide told us that when Lewis and Clark's men were at the site, they were served whiskey in tin cups (one cup each). After they drank it, they had to stick out their tongues to allow for verfication that they had swallowed all the whiskey. Apparently, some of the men would try to save the whiskey so that they could have a double portion another day and actually get drunk.

I could not find any verification of this story on the Internet. However, I did find a story on PBS that described one of the Lewis and Clark men, Pvt. Hall, who had more than his share of the communal whiskey and received 100 lashes for it!

What do you do to deter your troops from drinking more than their fair share of your alcohol stash?

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