Meriweather Lewis' Grave

Earlier in the trip at Monticello I bought a biography of Meriweather Lewis, of Lewis and Clark fame. It was an interesting book, chronicling the 1804-06 expedition in detail. Lewis was an exceptional commander and leader, but he appears to have been subject to periods of depression, for which there was little or no treatment in those days. After the expedition he had a series of political and financial reversals, culminating here on the Natchez Trace in 1809. Lewis was attempting to deliver his journals of the expedition to the east for publication...over three years after the end of the expedition...when he apparently suffered one of his bouts of depression, lost it, and killed himself. This is his grave in Tennessee. It was more significant for me since I had recently read his biography.
The Natchez Trace is a National Scenic highway running from Natchez, Ms to Nashville. Based on old Indian trails, it was a major artery of transportation and commerce for the frontier west of the US in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. By the 1830s it was superseded by steamboats, and shortly thereafter, railroads.