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'Charles Floyd' (1782 – August 20, 1804) was a United States explorer, a non-commissioned officer and quartermaster in the Lewis and Clark Expedition. A native of Kentucky, he was a relative of William Clark and cousin of the politician John Floyd.
While exploring the Louisiana Purchase with Lewis and Clark, he took ill at the end of July 1804. On July 31st, Floyd wrote in his diary, "I am verry sick and has ben for Sometime but have Recovered my helth again." However, this apparent recovery was soon followed by a severe turn for the worse. William Clark described Floyd's death as one "with a great deal of composure" and that before Floyd died he said to Clark: "I am going away. I want you to write me a letter."
A funeral was held and Floyd was buried on a bluff overlooking the Missouri River, which the expedition named Floyd's Bluff in his honor.
Clark diagnosed the condition which led to Floyd's demise as bilious colic, though modern doctors and historians agree Floyd's death was more likely to have been caused by a ruptured appendix. The brief "recovery" Floyd described may have represented the temporary relief afforded by the bursting of the organ, which would have been followed by a fatal peritonitis. If that were the case, because there was no known cure for appendicitis at that time, he would have been no better off had he been with the best physicians of the day.

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Legacy

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Legacy

Floyd's Bluff is currently within the city limits of Sioux City, Iowa.
The nearby Floyd River was also named for him, as was Floyd County, Iowa.
By 1857, erosion had caused much of Floyd's grave—even the original cedar post marker left by the crew of the expedition—to slide into the river and wash away; concerned citizens rescued most of his skeleton, including his skull, and re-buried it 200 meters east of the original burial site. A forensic reconstruction of Sgt. Floyd's probable facial appearance based on a plaster cast of his skull is on display at the Sergeant Floyd Riverboat Museum in Sioux City.
After Floyd's expedition journal was published in 1894, new interest was taken in him and his gravemarker was stolen by thieves. He was re-buried once more on August 20, 1895 with a monument. A marble cornerstone three feet wide and seven feet long was placed in 1900. When the obelisk of white sandstone standing high was completed on May 30, 1901, Floyd's grave was moved for the fourth time to rest nearby, where it remains to this day. In 1960, the monument was recognized by the U.S. Department of Interior as the first National Historic Landmark. The Floyd Monument is now located in a 23 acre park that offers visitors a splendid view of the Missouri River valley.
Floyd's final resting place is located on old U.S. Highway 75, in the southern part of Sioux City, Iowa, in the United States.
The Interstate 129 bridge between Sioux City and South Sioux City, Nebraska is named the Sergeant Floyd Memorial Bridge in his honor.

References

★ ''The Definitive Journals of Lewis and Clark: John Ordway and Charles Floyd'' ISBN 0-8032-8021-1

External links

★ Lewis and Clark Trail: Sioux City

★ Sgt. Floyd Monument NPS

★ George Catlin's 1832 painting of "Floyd's Bluff"

★ Floyd Biography