John C. Frémont

John C. Frémont
5th Territorial Governor of Arizona
In office October 6, 1878 – October 11, 1881
Appointed by	Rutherford B. Hayes
Preceded by	John Philo Hoyt
Succeeded by	Frederick Augustus Tritle
United States Senator from California
In office September 10, 1850 – March 3, 1851
Preceded by	Seat established
Succeeded by	John B. Weller
Personal details
Born	John Charles Frémont (1813-01-21)January 21, 1813 Savannah, Georgia
Died	July 13, 1890(1890-07-13) (aged 77) New York City, New York
Political party	Republican
Spouse(s)	Jessie Benton Frémont
Relations	Thomas Hart Benton (father-in-law)
Children	John Charles Frémont Jr.
Alma mater	College of Charleston
Profession	Soldier
Religion	Episcopalian
Signature
Military service
Allegiance	United States of America
Service/branch	United States Army Union Army
Years of service	1838–48 1861–64 1890
Rank	Major General
Commands	California Battalion Department of the West

John Charles Frémont or Fremont (January 21, 1813 – July 13, 1890) was an American explorer, politician, and soldier who, in 1856, became the first candidate of the anti-slavery Republican Party for the office of President of the United States. During the 1840s, when he led four expeditions into the American West, that era's penny press and admiring historians accorded Frémont the sobriquet The Pathfinder.^[1]

During the Mexican–American War, Frémont, a major in the U.S. Army, took control of California from the California Republic in 1846. Frémont was convicted in court martial for mutiny and insubordination over a conflict of who was the military Governor of California. After his sentence was commuted and he was reinstated by President Polk, Frémont resigned the Army. Frémont led a private fourth expedition, which cost ten lives, seeking a rail route over the mountains around the 38th parallel in the winter of 1849. Afterwards Frémont settled in California at Monterey while buying cheap land in the Sierra foothills. When gold was found on his Mariposa ranch, Frémont became a wealthy man during the California Gold Rush, but he was soon bogged down with lawsuits over land claims, between the dispossession of various land owners during the Mexican–American War and the explosion of Forty-Niners immigrating during the Rush. These cases were settled by the U.S. Supreme Court allowing Frémont to keep his property. Frémont's fifth and final privately funded expedition between 1853 and 1854, surveyed a route for a transcontinental railroad. Frémont became one of the first two U.S. senators elected from the new state of California in 1850. Frémont was the first presidential candidate of the new Republican Party, carrying most of the North. He lost the 1856 presidential election to Democrat James Buchanan when Know-Nothings split the vote and Democrats warned his election would lead to civil war.

During the American Civil War, he was given command of Department of the West by President Abraham Lincoln. Although Frémont had successes during his brief tenure as Commander of the Western Armies, he ran his department autocratically, and made hasty decisions without consulting Washington D.C. or President Lincoln. After Frémont's emancipation edict that freed slaves in his district, he was relieved of his command by President Lincoln for insubordination. In 1861, Frémont was the first commanding Union general who recognized an "iron will" to fight in Brigadier General Ulysses S. Grant and promoted him commander at the strategic base near Cairo, Illinois. Defeating the Confederates at Springfield, Frémont was the only Union General in the West to have a Union victory for 1861. After a brief service tenor in the Mountain Department in 1862, Frémont resided in New York, retiring from the Army in 1864. The same year Frémont was a presidential candidate for the Radical Democracy Party, but he resigned before the election. After the Civil War, Frémont's wealth declined after investing heavily and purchasing an unsuccessful Pacific Railroad in 1866, and lost much of his wealth during the Panic of 1873. Frémont served as Governor of Arizona from 1878 to 1881 appointed by President Rutherford B. Hayes. Frémont, retired from politics and financially destitute, died in New York City in 1890.

Historians portray Frémont as controversial, impetuous, and contradictory. Some scholars regard him as a military hero of significant accomplishment, while others view him as a failure who repeatedly defeated his own best purposes. The keys to Frémont's character and personality may lie in his being born illegitimately, his ambitious drive for success, self-justification, and passive-aggressive behavior.^[2][3] Frémont's published reports and maps produced from his explorations significantly contributed to massive American emigration overland into the West starting in the 1840s.

Early life, education, and career[edit]

John Charles Frémont was born on January 21, 1813, the son of Charles Frémon, a French-Canadian immigrant school-teacher.^[4][5][a] His mother, Anne Beverley Whiting, was the youngest daughter of socially prominent Virginia planter Col. Thomas Whiting. At age 17, Anne married Major John Pryor, a wealthy Richmond resident in his early 60s. In 1810, Pryor hired Frémon to tutor his young wife Anne. Pryor confronted Anne when he found out she was having an affair with Frémon. Anne and Frémon fled to Williamsburg on July 10, 1811, later settling in Norfolk, Virginia, taking with them household slaves Anne had inherited.^[8][6] The couple later settled in Savannah, Georgia, where she gave birth to their son Frémont out of wedlock.^[4] Pryor published a divorce petition in the Virginia Patriot, and charged that his wife had "for some time past indulged in criminal intercourse." When the Virginia House of Delegates refused Annes's divorce petition, it was impossible for the couple to marry. In Savannah, Anne took in boarders while Frémon taught French and dancing. A household slave called Black Hannah helped raise young John.^[6]

On December 8, 1818, Frémont's father Frémon died in Norfork, Virginia, leaving Anne a widow to take care of John and several young children alone on a limited inherited income.^[4] Anne and her family moved to Charleston, South Carolina. Frémont, knowing his origins and coming from poverty, grew up a proud, reserved, restless loner who although self-disciplined, was ready to prove himself and unwilling to play by the rules.^[9] The young Frémont was considered to be "precious, handsome, and daring," having the ability of obtaining protectors.^[4] A lawyer, John W. Mitchell, provided for Frémont's early education whereupon Frémont in May 1829 entered Charleston College, teaching at intervals in the countryside, but was expelled for irregular attendance in 1831. Frémont, however, had been grounded in mathematics and natural sciences.^[4]

Frémont attracted the attention of eminent South Carolina politician Joel R. Poinsett, an Andrew Jackson supporter, who secured Frémont an appointment as a teacher of mathematics aboard the sloop USS Natchez, sailing the South American seas in 1833.^[10][11] Frémont resigned from the navy and was appointed second lieutenant in the United States Topographical Corps, surveying a route for the Charleston, Louisville, and Cincinnati railroad.^[12] Working in the Carolina mountains, Frémont desired to become an explorer.^[4] Between 1837 and 1838, Frémont's desire for exploration increased while in Georgia on reconnaissance to prepare for the removal of Cherokee Indians .^[4] When Poinsett became Secretary of War, he arranged for Frémont to assist notable French explorer and scientist Joseph Nicollet in exploring the lands between the Mississippi and Missouri rivers.^[13] Frémont become a first rate topographer, trained in astronomy, and geology, describing fauna, flora, soil, and water resources.^[14] Gaining valuable western frontier experience Frémont came in contact with notable men including Henry Sibley, Joseph Renville, J.B. Faribault, Étienne Provost, and the Souix nation.^[15]

Marriage and senatorial patronage[edit]

Frémont's exploration work with Nicollet, brought him in contact with Senator Thomas Hart Benton of Missouri, powerful chairman of Senate Committee on Military Affairs. ^[11] Benton invited Frémont to his Washington home where he met Benton's 16 year old daughter Jessie Benton. ^[11] A romance blossomed between the two, however, Benton was initially against it because Frémont was not considered upper society.^[11] In 1841, Frémont (age 28) and Jesse eloped and were married by a Catholic priest. ^[11][16] Initially Benton was furious at their marriage, but in time, because he loved his daughter, he accepted their marriage and became Frémont's patron. ^[11] Benton, Democratic Party leader for more than 30 years in the Senate, championed the expansionist movement, a political cause that became known as Manifest Destiny.^[11] The expansionists believed that the North American continent, from one end to the other, north and south, east and west, should belong to the citizens of the U.S. They believed it was the nation's destiny to control the continent. This movement became a crusade for politicians such as Benton and his new son-in-law. Benton pushed appropriations through Congress for national surveys of the Oregon Trail, the Oregon Country, the Great Basin, and Sierra Nevada Mountains to California. Through his power and influence, Senator Benton obtained for Frémont the leadership, funding, and patronage of three expeditions.

Frémont's explorations[edit]

The opening of the American West began in 1804 when President Thomas Jefferson, envisioning a Western empire, sent Lewis and Clark to find a passage to the Pacific Ocean and sent the Pike expedition to explore the south west.^[17] British and American fur trappers, including Peter Skene Ogden and Jedediah Smith, explored much of the American West in the 1820s.^{[18][19][20][b]} Frémont, who would later be known as The Pathfinder, carried on this tradition of Western overland exploration, building on and adding to the work of earlier pathfinders to expand knowledge of the American West.^[21] Frémont's talent lay in his documentation, publication, and maps made based on his expeditions, making the American West accessible for many Americans.^[21] Beginning in 1842, Frémont led five western expeditions, however, between the third and fourth expeditions, Frémont's career took a fateful turn because of the Mexican–American War. Frémont's initial explorations, his timely scientific reports, coauthored by his wife Jesse, and their romantic writing style, encouraged Americans to travel West.^[22] A series of seven maps produced from his findings, published by the Senate in 1846, served as a guide for thousands of American emigrants, depicting the entire length of the Oregon Trail.^[22]

First expedition[edit]

When Nicollet was too ill to continue any further explorations, Frémont was chosen to be his successor.^[15] His first important expedition was planned by Benton, Senator Lewis Linn, and other Westerners interested in the acquiring the Oregon Territory.^[15] The scientific expedition started in the summer of 1842 and was to explore the Wind River chain of the Rocky Mountains, examine the Oregon Trail through the South Pass, and report on the rivers, fertility of the lands, find optimal sites for forts, and the nature of the mountains beyond in Wyoming.^[15] By chance meeting, Frémont was able to gain the valuable assistance of mountain man and guide Kit Carson.^[15] Frémont and his party of 25 men, including Carson, embarked from the Kansas River on June 15, 1842, followed the Platte River to the South Pass, and starting from Green River he explored the Wind River mountain range. ^[15] Frémont climbed a 13,745 feet mountain, Frémont's Peak, planted an American flag, claiming the Rocky Mountains and the West for the United States. ^[15] On Frémont's return trip he and his party carelessly rafted the swollen Platte River losing much of his equipment. ^[15] His five month exploration, however, was a success, returning to Washington in October. ^[15] Frémont and his wife Jesse wrote a Report of the Exploring Expedition to the Rocky Mountains (1843), which was printed in newspapers across the country; the public embraced his vision of the west not as a place of danger but wide open and inviting lands to be settled.^[23][15][c]

Second expedition[edit]

Frémont's successful first expedition led quickly to a second, begun in the summer of 1843.^[15] The more ambitious goal this time was to map and describe the second half of the Oregon Trail, find an alternative route to the South Pass, push westward toward the Pacific Ocean on the Columbia River in the Oregon Country.^[15] Frémont and his almost 40 well equipped men, left the Missouri River in May, after he controversially obtained a 12 pound howitzer cannon in St. Louis. ^[15] Frémont invited Carson on the second expedition, due to his proven skills, and he joined Frémont's party on the Arkansas River.^[15] Unable to find a new route through Colorado to the South Pass, Frémont took to the regular Oregon Trail, passing the main body of the great immigration of 1843.^[15] His party stopped to explore the northern part of the Great Salt Lake, then traveling by way Fort Hall and Fort Boise to Marcus Whitman's mission, along the Snake River to the Columbia River and in to Oregon.^[15] Frémont's endurance, energy, resourcefullness over the long journey were remarkable.^[15] Traveling west along the Columbia, they came within sight of the Cascade Range peaks and mapped Mount St. Helens and Mount Hood. Reaching the Dalles on November 5, Frémont left his party and traveled to British Fort Vancouver for supplies.^[15]

Rather then turning around and head back to St. Louis, Frémont resolved to explore the Great Basin between the Rockies and the Sierras and fulfill Benton's dream of acquiring the West for the United States.^[24] Frémont and his party turned south along the eastern flank of the Cascades through the Oregon territory to Pyramid Lake, that he named.^[24] Looping back to the east to stay on the eastern side of the Sierra Nevada mountain range, they turned south again as far as present-day Minden, Nevada, reaching the Carson River on January 18, 1844.^[24] From an area near what later became Virginia City, Frémont daringly, possibly foolhardily, turned west into the cold and snowy Sierra Nevada, becoming some of the first Americans to see Lake Tahoe.^[24] Carson successfully led Frémont's party through a new pass over the high Sierras, which Frémont named Carson Pass in his honor. Frémont and his party then descended the American River valley to Sutter's Fort (Spanish: Nueva Helvetia) at present-day Sacramento, California in early March.^[24] Captain John Sutter, a German-American immigrant and founder of the fort, received Frémont gladly and refitted his expedition party. ^[24] While at Sutter's Fort, Frémont talked to American settlers, who were growing numerous, and found that Mexican authority over California was very weak. ^[24]

Leaving Sutter's Fort, Frémont and his men headed south following Smith's trail on the eastern edge of the San Joaquin Valley until he struck the "Spanish Trail" between Los Angeles and Santa Fe, and headed east through Tehachapi Pass and present-day Las Vegas before regaining Smith's trail north through Utah and back to South Pass. ^[24] Exploring the Great Basin, Frémont verified that all the land (centered on modern-day Nevada between Reno and Salt Lake City) was endorheic, without any outlet rivers flowing towards the sea. The finding contributed greatly to a better understanding of North American geography, and disproved a longstanding legend of a 'Buenaventura River' that flowed out the Great Basin across the Sierra Nevada.After exploring Utah Lake, Frémont traveled by way of the Pueblo until he reached Bent's Fort on the Akansas River. ^[24] In August 1844, Frémont and his party finally arrived back in St. Louis, popularly received the people ending the journey that lasted over one year. ^[24]

Upon his return, Frémont produced a new map in 1845 that included the second expedition, and Frémont's conclusion that the still-unmapped areas of the Great Basin were "...believed to be filled with lakes and rivers which have no communication with the sea...".^[25] Congress published Frémont's "Report and Map"; it guided thousands of overland immigrants to Oregon and California from 1845 to 1849. In 1849 Joseph Ware published his Emigrants' Guide to California (OCLC 2356459),^[26] which was largely drawn from Frémont's report, and was to guide the forty-niners through the California Gold Rush. Frémont's report was more than a travelers' guide – it was a government publication that achieved the expansionist objectives of a nation and provided scientific and economic information concerning the potential of the trans-Mississippi West for pioneer settlement.^[27] For his expeditionary work, he received a brevet promotion to captain in July 1844. One of Frémont's reports from an expedition inspired the Mormons to consider Utah for settlement.^[16]

Third expedition[edit]

After meeting with President James K. Polk, Frémont left Washington, D.C. on May 15, 1845. He raised a group of 62 volunteers in St. Louis.^[28] He arrived at Sutter's Fort on December 10, 1845.^[29]

On June 1, 1845, John Frémont and his well-armed 55 men left St. Louis, with Carson as guide, on the third expedition. The stated goal was to locate the source of the Arkansas River, on the east side of the Rocky Mountains.^[30] It is likely that Frémont was secretly instructed by Polk to stir up sentiment among American settlers in California to revolt against Mexican authority. Upon reaching the Arkansas River, Frémont suddenly made a hasty trail straight to California, without explanation. Arriving in the Sacramento Valley in early 1846, he promptly sought to stir up patriotic enthusiasm among the American settlers there. He promised that if war with Mexico started, his military force would protect the settlers.^[31] He went to Monterey, California, to talk with the American consul, Thomas O. Larkin, and Mexican commandante Jose Castro. Castro told Frémont to leave California.^[32] Frémont and his men withdrew and camped near the summit of what is now named Fremont Peak. After a four day standoff and Castro having superior number of Mexican troops, Frémont and his men went north to Oregon, U.S. – British shared territory, making camp at Klamath Lake.^[33][34]

On May 8, while in the Klamath area, Frémont received a dispatch from Lieutenant Archibald Gillespie who had secret instructions from Washington. The next day Frémont rode 60 miles to Southern Klammath Lake to talk with Gillespie.^[35] Their conversation is relatively unknown, but Frémont was instructed to return to California, and encourage citizens to revolt against Mexican authority.^[35]

On May 9, 1846, while Frémont was conferencing at Gillespie's camp, Indians attacked his expedition party. When Frémont returned, he retaliated by attacking a Klamath Indian fishing village named Dokdokwas the following day, although the people living there might not have been involved in the first action.^[36] The village was at the junction of the Williamson River and Klamath Lake. On May 10, 1846, the Frémont group completely destroyed it.^[37] Frémont believed that the British were responsible for arming and encouraging the Indians to attack his American party.^[38] Afterward, Carson was nearly killed by a Klamath warrior. As Carson's gun misfired, the warrior drew to shoot a poison arrow; however, Frémont, seeing that Carson was in danger, trampled the warrior with his horse. Carson felt that he owed Frémont his life.^[36] Frémont and his men were now soley a military force, no longer under the guise of a surveying party. No formal record of his third mission was made by Frémont, as in his previous expeditions, however, Frémont did help his cartographer Charles Preuss make a map of Upper Oregon and California.^[39] Additionally, hundreds of species of plants in two huge cases from Bent's Fort and San Francisco were sent back east to botanist John Torrey by the USS Erie.^[39]

Mexican–American War[edit]

A few weeks later, Frémont and his armed militia returned to the Sacramento Valley, in Mexican California, where in June 1846, he encouraged settlers to capture Sonoma.^[40] Frémont was the only U.S. Army officer in California and would remain so for the next nine months.^[35] Frémont made his camp on the Bear and Feather rivers, where Californians ready for revolt against Mexican authority, joined his party, as it headed south.^[35] On June 10, Frémont's militia received 200 horses that settlers had stolen to keep from Castro's army.^[35] Four days later, rebel Californians seized Sonoma, the largest settlement in northern California, taking three prisoners.^[35] The following day, rebel Californians, amidst a brandy filled party, hoisted a roughly sewn flag, and formed the Bear Flag Republic.^[35]

In June 1846, at San Rafael mission, John Frémont sent three men, one of whom was Kit Carson, to confront three unarmed men debarking from a boat at Point San Pedro. Kit Carson asked John Frémont whether they should be taken prisoner. Frémont replied, "I have got no room for prisoners."^[41] They advanced on the three and deliberately shot and killed them. One of them was an old and respected Californian, Don José de los Reyes Berreyesa, whose son, the Alcalde of Sonoma, had been recently imprisoned by Frémont. The two others were twin brothers and sons of Don Francisco de Haro of Yerba Buena, who had served two terms as the first and third Alcalde of Yerba Buena (later renamed San Francisco). Berreyesa was coming to Sonoma, hoping to free his son José, whom Frémont held hostage.^[42][d]

Early on July 7, 1846, the frigate USS Savannah and the two sloops, USS Cyane and USS Levant of the United States Navy, captured Monterey, California, and raised the flag of the United States.^[44] Commodore John D. Sloat, commanding the U.S. Navy's Pacific Squadron had his proclamation read in and posted in English and Spanish: "... henceforth California would be a portion of the United States."^[45] Soon to be Commodore Robert F. Stockton was put in charge of land operations on July 23, 1846. Frémont was appointed major in command of the California Battalion, also called U.S. Mounted Rifles, which he had helped form with his survey crew and volunteers from the Bear Flag Republic, now totaling 428 men.^[46][47] Unknown to anyone in California until October 1846, Frémont had been commissioned a lieutenant colonel the previous May by President James K. Polk while organizing a new regiment of mounted riflemen to fight the newly declared Mexican–American War.^[48] In December 1846, U.S. Brigadier General Stephen W. Kearny arrived in California having instructions to establish a military control of California. Kearny, who was undermanned, was attacked at the Battle of San Pasqual, but was reinforced when Stockton sent troops to drive off Pico and the California Lancers, who had revolted. It was at this time a dipute began between Stockton and Kearny who had control over the military, but the two managed to work together to stop an uprising in Los Angeles held under Flores.

In late 1846 Frémont, acting under orders from Commodore Robert F. Stockton, led a military expedition of 300 men to capture Santa Barbara, California, during the Mexican–American War. Frémont led his unit over the Santa Ynez Mountains at San Marcos Pass in a rainstorm on the night of December 24, 1846. In spite of losing many of his horses, mules and cannons, which slid down the muddy slopes during the rainy night, his men regrouped in the foothills (behind what is today Rancho Del Ciervo) the next morning, and captured the presidio and the town without bloodshed. A few days later Frémont led his men southeast toward Los Angeles, accepting the surrender of the leader Andrés Pico and signing the Treaty of Cahuenga on January 13, 1847, which terminated the war in upper California.^[49] It was at this time Kearny ordered Frémont to join his military dragoons, but Frémont refused believing he was under authority of Stockton.

Courtmartial and resignation[edit]

On January 16, 1847, Commodore Stockton appointed Frémont military governor of California following the Treaty of Cahuenga, and then left Los Angeles.^[50] Frémont functioned for a few weeks without controversy, but he had little money to administer his duties as governor.^[50] Previously, unknown to Stockton and Frémont, the Navy Department had sent orders for Sloat and his successors to establish military rule over California.^[50][51] These orders, however, postdated Kearny's orders to establish military control over California, but Kearny did not have the troop strength to enforce the orders, relying on Stockton and Frémont's California Battalion.^[50] Kearny, a veteran of the War of 1812, was a jealous officer, a grim martinet, who despised the rapid advancement and success of Frémont.^[52] On February 13, specific orders were sent from Washington through Commanding General Winfield Scott giving Kearny the authority to be military governor of California.^[50] Kearny, however, did not directly inform Frémont of these orders from Scott.^[50] Kearny ordered that Frémont's California Battalion be enlisted into the U.S. Army and Frémont send his archives to California.^[50]

Frémont delayed these orders hoping Washington would send instructions for Frémont to be military governor.^[50] Also, the California Battalion refused to join the U.S. Army.^[50] Frémont gave orders for the California Battalion not to surrender arms, and rode to Monterey to talk to Kearny, and told Kearny he would obey orders.^[53] Kearny sent Col. Richard B. Mason to Los Angeles, who was to succeed Kearny as military governor of California, to inspect troops and give Frémont further orders.^[53] Frémont and Mason however were at odds with each other and Frémont challenged Mason to a duel.^[53] After an arrangement to postpone the dual, Kearny rode to Los Angeles and refused Frémont's request to join troops in Mexico.^[53] Ordered to march with Kearny's army back east, Frémont was arrested on August 22, 1847 when they arrived at Fort Leavenworth. He was charged with mutiny, disobedience of orders, assumption of powers, along with several other military offenses. Ordered by Kearny to report to the adjutant general in Washington to stand for court-martial, Frémont was convicted of mutiny, disobedience of a superior officer and military misconduct.^[54]

While approving the court's decision, President James K. Polk quickly commuted Frémont's sentence of dishonorable discharge and reinstated him into the Army, due to his war services. Polk felt that Frémont was guilty of disobeying orders and misconduct, but he did not believe Frémont was guilty of mutiny.^[55] Additionally, Polk wished to placate Thomas Hart Benton, a powerful Senator and Frémont's father in law who felt that Frémont was innocent. Frémont, only gaining a partial pardon from Polk, resigned his commission in protest and settled in California.^[56] In 1847, he purchased the Rancho Las Mariposas land grant in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada mountains near Yosemite.

Fourth expedition[edit]

In 1848, Frémont and his father-in-law Sen. Benton developed a plan to advance their vision of Manifest Destiny, as well as restore Frémont's honor after his court martial. With a keen interest in the potential of railroads, Sen. Benton had sought support from the Senate for a railroad connecting St. Louis to San Francisco along the 38th parallel, the latitude which both cities approximately share. After Benton failed to secure federal funding, Frémont secured private funding. In October 1848 he embarked with 35 men up the Missouri, Kansas and Arkansas rivers to explore the terrain. The artists and brothers Edward Kern and Richard Kern, and their brother Benjamin Kern, were part of the expedition.^[57]

On his party's reaching Bent's Fort, he was strongly advised by most of the trappers against continuing the journey. Already a foot of snow was on the ground at Bent's Fort, and the winter in the mountains promised to be especially snowy. Part of Frémont's purpose was to demonstrate that a 38th parallel railroad would be practical year-round. At Bent's Fort he engaged "Uncle Dick" Wootton as guide, and at what is now Pueblo, Colorado, he hired the eccentric Old Bill Williams and moved on.

Had Frémont continued up the Arkansas, he might have succeeded. On November 25 at what is now Florence, Colorado, he turned sharply south. By the time his party crossed the Sangre de Cristo Range via Mosca Pass, they had already experienced days of bitter cold, blinding snow and difficult travel. Some of the party, including the guide Wootton, had already turned back, concluding that further travel would be impossible. Benjamin Kern and "Old Bill" Williams were killed while retracing the expedition trail to look for gear and survivors.

Although the passes through the Sangre de Cristo had proven too steep for a railroad, Frémont pressed on. From this point the party might still have succeeded had they gone up the Rio Grande to its source, or gone by a more northerly route, but the route they took brought them to the very top of Mesa Mountain.^[58] By December 12, on Boot Mountain, it took ninety minutes to progress three hundred yards. Mules began dying and by December 20, only 59 animals remained alive.

It was not until December 22 that Frémont acknowledged that the party needed to regroup and be resupplied. They began to make their way to Taos in the New Mexico Territory. By the time the last surviving member of the expedition made it to Taos on February 12, 1849, 10 of the party had died. Except for the efforts of member Alexis Godey,^[59] another 15 would have been lost.^[60] After recuperating in Taos, Frémont and only a few of the men left for California via an established southern trade route.

Edward and Richard Kern joined J.H. Simpson's military reconnaissance expedition to the Navajos in 1849, and gave the American public some of its earliest authentic graphic images of the people and landscape of Arizona, New Mexico, and southern Colorado; with views of Canyon de Chelly, Chaco Canyon, and El Morro (Inscription Rock).^[61]

In 1850 Frémont was awarded the Founders Medal by the Royal Geographical Society for his various exploratory efforts.^[62]

Mariposa gold estate[edit]

When Frémont entered California in 1849, he was informed by Sonora Mexicans that gold had been discovered.^[63] An American consul to California, Thomas Larkin, had purchased Frémont seventy square miles of land in the Sierra foothills by Mariposa. Frémont hired Mexicans to work the gold fields on his property for a percentage share.^[63] Within weeks their diggings produced enormous sums of gold and Frémont became very wealthy. His wife, Jessie Frémont, said enormous bags of gold weighing one hundred pounds were produced. Having accumulated wealth through gold, Frémont acquired large landholdings in San Francisco. Frémont lived a wealthy lifestyle in Monterey while developing his Mariposa gold estate.^[63]

Fifth expedition[edit]

In the fall of 1853, Frémont embarked on another expedition to identify a viable route for a transcontinental railroad along the 38th parallel. The party journeyed between Missouri and San Francisco, California, over a combination of known trails and unexplored terrain. A primary objective was to pass through the Rocky Mountains and Sierra Nevada Mountains during winter to document the amount of snow and the feasibility of winter rail passage along the route. His photographer (daguerreotypist) was Solomon Nunes Carvalho.

Frémont followed the Santa Fe Trail, passing Bent's Fort before heading west and entering the San Luis Valley of Colorado in December. The party then followed the North Branch of the Old Spanish Trail, crossing the Continental Divide at Cochetopa Pass and continuing west into central Utah. But following the trail was made difficult by snow cover. On occasion, they were able to detect evidence of Captain John Gunnison's expedition, which had followed the North Branch just months before.

Weeks of snow and bitter cold took its toll and slowed progress. Nonessential equipment was abandoned and one man died before the struggling party reached the Mormon settlement of Parowan in southwestern Utah on February 8, 1854. After spending two weeks in Parowan to regain strength, the party continued across the Great Basin and entered the Owens Valley near present-day Big Pine, California. Frémont then journeyed south and crossed the Sierra Nevada Mountains and entered the Kern River drainage, which was followed west to the San Joaquin Valley.

Frémont arrived in San Francisco on April 16, 1854. Having completed a winter passage across the mountainous west, Frémont was optimistic that a railroad along the 38th Parallel was viable and that winter travel along the line would be possible through the Rocky Mountains.^[64]

U.S. Senator from California[edit]

In 1847, before his fourth expedition, Frémont had served briefly as Military Governor of California. Upon the admission of California as a State into the Union in 1850, Frémont was elected as a Democrat to the United States Senate, one of the first two senators from California, serving only 175 days from September 10, 1850, to March 3, 1851. He was a Free Soil Democrat and was defeated for reelection largely because of his strong opposition to slavery.

Presidential candidate Republican Party 1856[edit]

In 1856, Frémont (age 43) was the first presidential candidate of the new Republican Party. The Republicans, whose party had formed in 1854, were united in their opposition to the Pierce Administration and the spread of slavery into the West.^[65] Initially Frémont was asked to be the Democratic candidate by former Virginia Governor John B. Floyd and the powerful Preston family.^[63] Frémont announced that he was for Free Soil Kansas and was against the enforcement of the 1850 Fugitive Slave Law.^[63] Republican leaders Nathaniel P. Banks, Henry Wilson, and John Bigelow were able to get Frémont to join their political party.^[63] Seeking a united front and a fresh face for the party, the Republicans nominated Frémont for President over other candidates, and conservative William L. Dayton of New Jersey, for Vice President, at their June 1856 convention held in Philadelphia.^[66] The Republican campaign used the slogan "Free Soil, Free Men, and Frémont" to crusade for free farms (homesteads) and against the Slave Power.^[66] Frémont, popularly known as The Pathfinder, however, had voter appeal and remained the symbol of the Republican Party.^[66] The Democratic Party nominated James Buchanan.

Frémont's wife Jessie, Bigelow, and Issac Sherman ran Frémont's campaign.^[66] As the daughter of a Senator, Jessie had been raised in Washington, and she understood politics more than Frémont.^[66] Many treated Jessie as an equal political professional, while Frémont was treated as an amateur.^[66] She received popular attention much more than potential First Ladies, and Republicans celebrated her participation in the campaign calling her Our Jessie.^[67] Jessie and the Republican propaganda machine ran a strong campaign, but she was unable to get her powerful father, Senator Benton, to support Frémont.^[66] While praising Frémont, Benton announced his support for Buchanan.^[68]

Frémont, along with the other presidential candidates, did not actively participate in the campaign, and he mostly stayed home at 56 West Street, in New York City.^[66] This practice was typical in presidential campaigns of the 19th century. To win the Presidency, the Republicans concentrated on four swing states, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Indiana, and Illinois.^[66] Republican luminaries were sent out decrying the Democratic Party's attachment to slavery and its support of the repeal of the Missouri Compromise.^[69] The experienced Democrats, knowing the Republican strategy, also targeted these states, running a rough media campaign, while illegally naturalizing thousands of alien immigrants in Pennsylvania.^[70] The campaign was particularly abusive, as the Democrats attacked Frémont's illegitimate birth and alleged Frémont was Catholic.^[63] In a counter-crusade against the Republicans, the Democrats criticized Frémont's military record and warned that a victory by Frémont would bring civil war.^[71]

Frémont's campaign was headquartered near his home (St. George) next to the Clifton ferry landing. Many campaign rallies were held on the lawn, now the corner of Greenfield and Bay Street.^[72] Frémont was defeated, having placed second to James Buchanan in a three-way election; he did not carry the state of California. Frémont received 114 electoral votes to 174 votes received by Buchanan. Millard Fillmore ran as a third party candidate representing the American Party. The popular vote went to Buchanan who received 1,836,072 votes to 1,342,345 votes received by Frémont in November 4, 1856.^[63] Fremont carried 11 states, and Buchanan carried 19. The Democrats were better organized while the Republicans had to operate on limited funding. After the campaign, Frémont returned to California and devoted himself to his mining business on the Mariposa gold estate, estimated by some to be valued ten million dollars.^[63] Frémont's title to Mariposa land had been confirmed by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1855.^[63]

Civil War[edit]

At the start of the Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln wanted to appoint Frémont as the American minister to France, thereby taking advantage of his French ancestry and the popularity in Europe of his anti-slavery positions. However Secretary of State William Henry Seward objected to Frémont's radicalism and the appointment was not made.^[73]

Instead, Frémont was promoted to Union Army Major General on May 15, 1861 and then made Commander of the Department of the West on July 1, 1861. The department included the area west of the Appalachian Mountains to the Mississippi River.^[74] At the time Frémont was forty-eight years old, considered grey haired and handsome.^[74] He brought with him the great reputation as "the Pathfinder of the West", for his eleven years of topographical service, and he was focused on driving the Confederate forces from Missouri.^[75][74] His term as Commander of the Department of the West was controversial, at times successful, and lasted until November 2, 1861, when he was abruptly dismissed by President Lincoln for insubordination and corruption charges in his supply line. In the Hall Carbine Affair, Fremont was accused of overpaying for badly needed but arguably obsolescent rifles.^[76] Frémont replaced William S. Harney, who had negotiated the Harney-Price Truce, which permitted Missouri to remain neutral in the conflict as long as it did not send men or supplies to either side. His main goal as Commander of the Western Armies was to protect Cairo, Illinois at all costs in order for the Union Army to move southward on the Mississippi River.^[77] Both Frémont and his subordinate, General John Pope, believed that Ulysses S. Grant was the fighting general needed to secure Missouri from the Confederates. Frémont had to contend with a hard-driving Union General Nathaniel Lyon, whose irregular war policy disturbed the complex loyalties of Missouri.^[78]

Department of the West (1861)[edit]

Command and duties[edit]

On July 25, 1861, Frémont formally took command of a Department of the West that was in crisis.^[75][79] Earlier in May, a tough, impetuous Regular Army captain, Nathaniel Lyon, exercising irregular authority, led troops who captured a legal contingent of Missouri state militia camped in a Saint Louis suburb; during the capture, civilians were killed.^[75] Missouri had not officially seceded from the Union when Lyon was promoted brigadier general by President Abraham Lincoln and appointed temporary commander of the Department of the West.^[75] Lyon, who believed a show of force would keep Missouri in the Union, effectively declared war on the secession-minded Missouri governor Claiborne Jackson, who was driven by Lyon to the Ozarks. Lyon occupied Jefferson City, the state capital, and installed a pro-Union state government.^[75] However, Lyon became trapped at Springfield with only 6,000 men (including Union Colonel Franz Sigel and his German corps).^[80] Cairo was a Union-occupied city on the Mississippi River, vital to the security of the Union Army's western war effort. It contained too few troops to defend against a Confederate attack.^[79] Compared to the Confederates, Frémont's forces were dispersed and disorganized.^[79] This was the situation when Frémont took command of the Department of the West.^[75]

Frémont's duties upon taking command of the Western Department were broad, his resources were limited, and the secession crisis in Missouri appeared to be uncontrollable.^[78] Frémont was responsible for safeguarding Missouri and all of the Northwest.^[81] Frémont's mission was to organize, equip, and lead the Union Army down the Mississippi River, reopen commerce, and break off the Western part of the Confederacy.^[82] Frémont was given only 23,000 men, whose volunteer 3-month enlistments were about to expire.^[82] Western Governors sent more troops to Frémont, but he did not have any weapons with which to arm them. There were no uniforms or military equipment either, and the soldiers were subject to food rationing, poor transportation, and lack of pay.^[82] Fremont's intelligence was also faulty, leading him to believe the Missouri state militia and the Confederate forces were twice as numerous as they actually were.^[82]

Frémont's arrival brought an aristocratic air that raised eyebrows and general disapproval of the people of St. Louis.^[74] He rented a lavish mansion for $6,000 a year and surrounded himself with Hungarian and Italian guards in brassy uniforms.^[74] Frémont additionally set up a headquarters bodyguard of 300 Kentucky men, chosen for their uniform physical attributes.^[83] Frémont ran his headquarters in St. Louis in a manner which has been described as "like a European autocrat." Perhaps this was due to a sojourn through France prior to his appointment by President Lincoln. A rumor spread in Washington that Frémont was planning to start his own republic or empire in the West.^[84] Frémont's supply line, headed by Major Justice McKinstrey,^[85] also came under scrutiny for graft and profiteering. Frémont surrounded himself with his friends and businessmen from California who helped ensure he got the supplies he needed one way or another.^[85] Frank Blair, a Frémont associate and a member of the powerful Blair family, complained to Union General Lorenzo Thomas, because Frémont had not awarded contracts to Blair's friends.^[85] The imbroglio became a national scandal, and Frémont was unable to keep a handle on supply affairs. A Congressional investigation followed.^[85]

Response to Confederate threat[edit]

Responding the best he could to the Confederate and state militia threat, Frémont raised volunteer troops, purchased open market weapons and equipment, and sent his wife Jessie to Washington D.C., where she lobbied President Lincoln for more reinforcements.^[79] Lyon was ordered to retreat, while Frémont personally sent reinforcement troops to Cairo rather than to Lyon, who had requested more troops. Frémont believed with some accuracy that the Confederates were planning to attack Cairo. Lyon hastily chose to attack Confederate General Sterling Price at the Battle of Wilson's Creek, rather than retreat.^[79] During the battle Lyon was shot through the heart and died instantly. As the Union line broke, similar to the first Battle of Bull Run in the east, the Confederates won the battle. Western Missouri was now open for Confederate advancement.^[86] Frémont was severely criticized for the defeat and for Lyon's death, having sent troops to reinforce Cairo, rather than to help Lyon's depleted forces 10 miles south of Springfield.

While commanding the Department of the West, Frémont was looking for a brigadier general to command a post at Cairo.^[87] At first Frémont was going to appoint John Pope, but upon the recommendation of Major McKinstry, he interviewed unobtrusive Brigadier General Ulysses S. Grant.^[88] Grant had a reputation for being a "drifter and a drunkard" in the Old Army, but Frémont viewed Grant independently using his own judgement.^[89] Frémont concluded that Grant was an "unassuming character not given to self elation, of dogged persistence, of iron will."^[88] Frémont chose Grant and appointed him commander of the Cairo post in October 1861.^[88] Grant was sent to Ironton, with 3,000 untrained troops, to stop a potential Confederate attack led by Confederate General William J. Hardee.^[79] Immediately thereafter, Frémont sent Grant to Jefferson City, to keep it safe from a potential attack by Confederate General Price a week after the Battle of Wilson's Creek.^[90] Grant got the situation in control at Jefferson City, drilling and disciplining troops, increased supply lines, and deploying troops on the outskirts of the city.^[90] The city was kept safe as Price and his troops, badly battered from the Battle of Wilson's Creek, retreated.^[91]

With Price retreating, Frémont become more aggressive and went on the offensive.^[92] Frémont knew the key to victory in the West was capturing control of the Mississippi River for the Union forces. Frémont decided to meet Confederate General Leonidas Polk head-on to control the trunk of the Mississippi.^[92] In a turning point of the Civil War, on August 27, 1861 Frémont gave Ulysses S. Grant field command in charge of a combined Union offensive whose goal was to capture Memphis, Vicksburg, and New Orleans, to keep Missouri and Illinois safe from Confederate attack.^[92] On August 30, Grant assumed charge of the Union Army on the Mississippi.^[93] With Frémont's approval, Grant proceeded to capture Paducah, Kentucky, without firing a shot, after Polk had violated Kentucky neutrality and had captured Columbus. The result was that the Kentucky legislature voted to remain in the Union.^[94]

Desiring to regain the upper hand and make up for Union loss at the Battle of Wilson's Creek, Frémont and 40,000 troops set out to regain Springfield. On October 25, 1861, Frémont's forces won the First Battle of Springfield. This was the first Union victory in the West. On November 1, Frémont ordered Grant to make a demonstration against Belmont, a steamboat landing across the river from Columbus, in an effort to drive Confederate General Price from Missouri.^[95] Grant had early requested to attack Columbus, but Frémont had overruled Grant's initiative.^[96]

Emancipation edict controversy[edit]

On August 30, 1861, Frémont, without notifying President Lincoln, issued a controversial proclamation putting Missouri under martial law.^[97] Frémont made this emancipation proclamation in response to the Confederate tactic of guerrilla warfare and to reduce Confederate sympathies in the stronger slave-holding counties.^[97] The edict stipulated that civilians in arms would be subject to court martial and execution, the property of those who aided secessionists would be confiscated, and the slaves of rebels would be emancipated.^[97] President Abraham Lincoln, fearing that Frémont's emancipation order would tip Missouri (and other slave states in Union control) to the southern cause, asked Frémont to revise the order. Frémont refused to do so, and sent his wife to plead the case. President Lincoln reprimanded her husband and told Jessie that Frémont "should never have dragged the Negro into the war."^[98] Lincoln responded by publicly revoking the proclamation and relieving Frémont of command on November 2, 1861, simultaneous to a War Department report detailing Frémont's iniquities as a major general. Although Lincoln opposed Frémont's method of emancipation, the episode had a significant influence on Lincoln. In January 1863, Lincoln issued his own Emancipation Proclamation.

Mountain Departments (1862)[edit]

In March 1862 Frémont was placed in command of the Mountain Departments of Virginia, Tennessee and Kentucky. Early in June 1862 he pursued the Confederate General Stonewall Jackson for eight days, finally engaging part of Jackson's force, led by Richard S. Ewell, at Battle of Cross Keys, on June 8. The battle ended in Confederate advantage and Frémont slipped away, saving his army.

When the Army of Virginia was created on June 26, to include General Frémont's corps with John Pope in command, Frémont declined to serve on the grounds that he was senior to Pope, and for personal reasons. He went to New York City, where he remained throughout the war, expecting to receive another command, but none was forthcoming.^[99][100] Recognizing that he would not be able to contribute further to the Union Army's efforts, he resigned his commission in June 1864.^[101][102]

Presidential candidate Radical Democracy Party 1864[edit]

In 1860 the Republicans nominated Abraham Lincoln for president, who won the presidency and then ran for re-election in 1864. The Radical Republicans, a group of hard-line abolitionists, were upset with Lincoln's positions on the issues of slavery and post-war reconciliation with the southern states. On May 31, 1864, the short-lived Radical Democracy Party nominated Frémont (age 51) for president. This fissure in the Republican Party divided the party into two factions: the anti-Lincoln Radical Republicans, who nominated Frémont, and the pro-Lincoln Republicans. Frémont withdrew from the election on September 22, 1864.

Later life[edit]

In 1864, the Frémonts purchased an estate in the Hudson Valley near Tarrytown from the newspaper publisher James Watson Webb. They named it Pocaho, an Indian name. For Jessie it was a chance to recapture some of the charm and isolation of living in the countryside, now that John had retired from politics.^[103]

The state of Missouri took possession of the Pacific Railroad in February 1866, when the company defaulted in its interest payment. In June 1866 the state conveyed the company to Frémont in a private sale. He reorganized its assets as the Southwest Pacific Railroad in August, but less than a year later (June 1867), the railroad was repossessed by the state after Frémont was unable to pay the second installment of the purchase price.^[104] The Panic of 1873, caused by over speculation in the railroad industry, and the depression that followed, wiped out much of Frémont's remaining wealth. Their financial straits required the Frémonts to sell Pocaho in 1875, and to move back to New York City.^[105]

Frémont was appointed Governor of the Arizona Territory by President Rutherford B. Hayes and served from 1878 to 1881. He spent little time in Arizona, and was asked to resume his duties in person or resign; Frémont chose resignation.^[106] Destitute, the family depended on the publication earnings of his wife Jessie.

Frémont lived on Staten Island in retirement. In April 1890, he was reappointed as a major general and then added to the Army's retired list, an action taken to ease his financial condition by enabling him to qualify for a pension.^[107]

Death[edit]

On Sunday, July 13, 1890, Frémont (age 77) died of peritonitis at his residence at 49 West Twenty-fifth Street in New York. His death was unexpected and his brief illness was not generally known. On Tuesday, July 8, Frémont had been affected by the heat of a particularly hot summer day. On Wednesday he came down with a chill and was confined to his bedroom. His symptoms progressed to peritonitis (an abdominal infection) which caused his death.^[108] At the time he died, Frémont was popularly known as the "Pathfinder of the Rocky Mountains". He was buried in Rockland Cemetery in Sparkill, New York.

Family[edit]

The Frémonts were the parents of five children:

• Elizabeth Benton "Lily" Frémont, who was born in Washington, DC on November 15, 1842.^[109] She died in Los Angeles on May 28, 1919.^[110]

• Benton Frémont was born in Washington on July 24, 1848; he died in St. Louis before he was a year old.^[111]

• John Charles Frémont Jr., was born in San Francisco on April 19, 1851. He served in the United States Navy from 1868 to 1911, and attained the rank of rear admiral. He served as commander of the monitor USS Florida (1903–05), naval attaché to Paris and St. Petersburg (1906–08), commander of the battleship USS Mississippi (1908–09) and, finally as commandant of the Boston Navy Yard (1909–11). He died in Boston, Massachusetts on March 7, 1911.^[112][113]

• Anne Beverly Fremont was born in France on February 1, 1853, and died five months later.^[111]

• Francis Preston Fremont was born on May 17, 1855.^[111] He died in Cuba in September 1931.^[114]

Historical reputation[edit]

Although Frémont was often caught up in controversy, he played a major role in opening up the American West to settlement by American pioneers.^[21] His reliable accounts, including published maps, narrations, and scientific documentations of his expeditions, guided American emigrants overland into the West starting in the mid 1840s.^[21] Frémont, popularly known as The Pathfinder during his times, was considered an American hero.^[21] Many people believed Frémont's arrest and courtmartial by Kearny during the Mexican-American War was unjustified. During the Civil War, Frémont's victory over the Confederates at Springfield was the only successful Union battle in the Western Department in 1861. Frémont's reputation, however, was damaged after he was relieved of command by Lincoln for insubordination. After leaving the Mountain Department in 1862, Frémont's active service career in the war virtually ended. Frémont's 1861 promotion of Ulysses S. Grant, going against the grain of Army gossip, was fruitful; Grant went on to become the greatest Union general. He invested heavily in the railroad industry, but the Panic of 1873 wiped out Frémont's fortune, and his appearance thereafter looked tired and aging. Frémont is remembered for his planting of the American flag on the Rocky Mountains during his first expedition, symbolically claiming the West for the United States. For his botanical records and information collected on his explorations, many plants are named in honor of Frémont. A large statue/sculpture of Frémont is displayed at Pathfinder Regional Park near Florence, Colorado.^[115]

In his memoirs, Frémont coined the phrase "Golden Gate" for the strait between Marin County and San Francisco County.

Frémont's biographer Allan Nevins said there were two fascinating things about Frémont.^[116] The first was the "unfailing drama of his life; a life wrought out of the fiercest tempests and most radiant bursts of sunshine."^[116] The second was Frémont's dramatic career asking, "How could the man who sometimes succeeded so dazzlingly at other times fail so abysmally?"^[117]

Plant eponyms[edit]

Places and organizations named in commemoration[edit]

Frémont is commemorated by many places and other things named in his honor.

Places[edit]

US counties:

• Fremont County, Colorado
• Fremont County, Idaho
• Fremont County, Iowa
• Fremont County, Wyoming.

Cities and towns:

• Fremont, California (the largest city that bears his name)
• Fremont, Indiana
• Fremont, Michigan
• Fremont, Minnesota
• Fremont, Nebraska
• Fremont, New Hampshire
• Fremont, Steuben County, New York
• Fremont, Sullivan County, New York
• Fremont, Ohio
• Fremont, Utah
• Fremont, Clark County, Wisconsin
• Fremont, Waupaca County, Wisconsin (town)
• Fremont, Wisconsin, (village; also in Waupaca County)

Also:

• Fremont, Seattle, a neighborhood established by migrants from Fremont, Nebraska.

Geographical features:

• Fremont Peak (Wyoming) in the Wind River Mountains
• Fremont Peak (California) in San Benito County, California
• Fremont Peak in the San Francisco Peaks
• Fremont Island in the Great Salt Lake
• Fremont Canyon on the North Platte River in Wyoming
• Pathfinder Reservoir on the North Platte, just upstream from Fremont Canyon
• Fremont River (Utah), a tributary of the Colorado River

Streets, highways, and bridges:

• Fremont Bridge (Portland), Oregon
• Fremont Highway No. 19, which follows Oregon Route 31 and part of U.S. Route 395 in Oregon. The Highway passes by Summer Lake (Oregon), and nearby "Winter Ridge", named by Frémont in December 1843, and the town of Summer Lake, Oregon, named for the lake.^[118]

Other:

• Fremont-Winema National Forest in Oregon
• The Fremont Trail (the path of Fremont's march into Santa Barbara, California in December 1846)
• Fremont Campground in the Los Padres National Forest

Organizations[edit]

Hospitals:

• John C. Fremont Hospital, Mariposa, California (where Frémont and his wife lived during the Gold Rush)
• Fremont Hospital, Yuba City, California

Libraries:

• John C. Fremont Branch Library on Melrose Avenue in Los Angeles.
• John C. Fremont Library in Florence, Colorado

Elementary schools:

• Fremont Elementary School, Santa Ana, California
• John C. Fremont Elementary School, Glendale, California
• John Fremont Elementary School, Modesto, California
• Fremont Elementary School, Long Beach, California
• John C. Fremont Elementary School, Colorado Springs, Colorado
• Fremont Elementary School, Carson City, Nevada
• John C. Fremont Elementary School, Taylorsville, Utah

Junior high schools or middle schools:

• Fremont Junior High School, Mesa, Arizona
• Fremont Middle School, Oxnard, California
• John C. Fremont Middle School, Las Vegas, Nevada
• John C. Frémont Middle School, Roseburg, Oregon

Schools:

• John C. Fremont Senior High School, Los Angeles
• Fremont Senior High School, Oakland, California
• Fremont High School (Sunnyvale, California); its annual yearbook is The Pathfinder
• Fremont Academy, Pomona, California
• Fremont High School, Plain City, Utah
• Fremont-Elizabeth City High School, Elizabeth, South Australia (a sister city of Fremont, California, which also has a Fremont Park)

Other commemorations[edit]

• The prehistoric Fremont culture, first discovered near the Fremont River
• The United States honored Frémont in 1898 with a commemorative stamp as part of the Trans-Mississippi Issue.
  

  1898 Frémont commemorative stamp
• The Fremont Cannon, the "largest and most expensive trophy in college football is a replica of a cannon that accompanied Captain John C. Frémont on his expedition through Oregon, Nevada and California in 1843–44." The annual game between the University of Nevada, Reno and the University of Nevada, Las Vegas is for possession of it.^[119][120]
• The Pathfinder Chorus, a barbershop chorus in Fremont, Nebraska.^[121]
• The Fremont Pathfinders Artillery Battery, an American Civil War reenactment group from Fremont, Nebraska.^[122]
• The U.S. Army's (now inactive) 8th Infantry Division (Mechanized) is called the Pathfinder Division, after Frémont. The gold arrow on the 8th ID crest is called the "Arrow of General Frémont." The 8th Division was based at Camp Fremont in Menlo Park, California during World War I.
• In 2013, the Georgia Historical Society erected a historical marker at the birthplace of John C. Frémont in Savannah, Georgia.

Depictions of Frémont in popular culture[edit]

Fiction[edit]

• Dream West (1983), a biographical novel about Frémont by Western writer David Nevin.^[123][124]

Television[edit]

• Death Valley Days, season 15, episode 8, "Samaritans, Mountain Style" (1966). Frémont's (Dick Simmons) scouts Kit Carson and Frenchy Godey encounter a settler in bad trouble.^[125]
• The Wonderful World of Disney, season 23, episodes 10 and 11, "Kit Carson and the Mountain Men" (1977). Frémont Robert Reed appears as Carson's superior.^[126]
• Dream West, television mini-series adaptation of David Nevin's biographical novel about Frémont (Richard Chamberlain).^[127]

Film[edit]

Kit Carson (1940). Captain Frémont (Dana Andrews) hires Carson as his scout.^[128]

Gallery[edit]

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Genealogy[edit]

Frémont's great-grandfather, Henry Whiting, was a half-brother of Catherine Whiting. She married John Washington, uncle of George Washington.^{[129][130][131]}

See also[edit]

• Frémont Emancipation

Notes[edit]

References[edit]

Sources[edit]

Further reading[edit]

• Brandon, William, The Men and the Mountain (1955) ISBN 0-8371-5873-7. An account of Frémont's failed fourth expedition.
• Chaffin, Tom, Pathfinder: John Charles Frémont and the Course of American Empire, New York: Hill and Wang, 2002 ISBN 978-0-8090-7557-7
• Denton, Sally, Passion and Principle, John and Jessie Fremont, The Couple whose Power, Politics, and Love Shaped Nineteenth-Century America, New York: Bloomsbury, 2007 978-1-59691-019-5
• Eyre, Alice, The Famous Fremonts and Their America, Boston: The Christopher Publishing House, 1948; Library of Congress Card Catalog Number 61-13063
• Gano, Geneva M. "At the Frontier of Precision and Persuasion: The Convergence of Natural Philosophy and National Philosophy in John C. Fremont's '1842, 1843–44 Report and Map,'" ATQ ("The American Transcendental Quarterly"), September 2004, Vol. 18#3 pp 131–154
• Goetzmann, William H. Army Exploration in the American West 1803–1863 (Yale University Press, 1959; University of Nebraska Press, 1979)
• Harvey, Miles, The Island of Lost Maps: A True Story of Cartographic Crime, Random House, 2000, ISBN 0-375-50151-7, ISBN 0-7679-0826-0.
• Herr, Pamela. Jessie Benton Frémont: American Woman of the 19th century (1988), biography of his wife
• Menard, Andrew. Sight Unseen: How Frémont's First Expedition Changed the American Landscape (University of Nebraska Press, 2012) 249 pp.
• Miller, David. "Heroes' of American Empire: John C. Frémont, Kit Carson, and the Culture of Imperialism, 1842–1898," Dissertation Abstracts International, 2008, Vol. 68 Issue 10, p4447
• Roberts, David (2001), A newer world: Kit Carson, John C. Fremont and the claiming of the American west, New York: Touchstone ISBN 0-684-83482-0
• Rolle, Andrew F. (1991). John Charles Fremont: Character As Destiny. University of Oklahoma Press. ISBN 0806131357
• Tompkins, Walker A. Santa Barbara, Past and Present. Tecolote Books, Santa Barbara, CA, 1975.

Primary sources[edit]

• First biography: Dellenbaugh, Frederick S (1914). Fremont and '49. New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons. Retrieved July 24, 2012. 
• Harper's Weekly political cartoon, "That's What's the Trouble with John C."; Fremont's 1864 challenge to Lincoln's re-nomination.
• David H. Miller and Mark J. Stegmaier, James F. Milligan: His Journal of Fremont's Fifth Expedition, 1853–1854; His Adventurous Life on Land and Sea, Arthur H. Clark Co., 1988. 300 pp.

External links[edit]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to John C. Frémont.

• Mr. Lincoln and Freedom: John C. Frémont
• United States Congress. "John C. Frémont (id: F000374)". Biographical Directory of the United States Congress.  Retrieved on 2009-05-01
• The Generals of the American Civil War – Pictures of John Charles Frémont
• Guide to the Frémont Family Papers at The Bancroft Library
• Memoirs of my life : including in the narrative five journeys of western explorations during the years 1842, 1843–4, 1845–6–7, 1848–9, 1853–4 by John c. Fremont
• Address of welcome to General John C. Fremont, governor of Arizona territory, upon the occasion of his reception by his associates of the Association Pioneers of the Territorial Days of California, at their headquarters, Sturtevant House, New York, on ... August 1, 1878
• "Las Mariposas" Photos of Frémont's Mariposa gold estate taken in 1860. PDF
• Birthplace of John C. Frémont historical marker – Georgia Historical Society
• Works by John C. Frémont at Project Gutenberg
• Works by or about John C. Frémont at Internet Archive
• Texts on Wikisource:
  • "Frémont, John Charles". New International Encyclopedia. 1905. 
  • "Frémont, John Charles". Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography. 1900. 
  • Obituary in: "Obituary Notes". Popular Science Monthly. 37. September 1890. 
  • "To John C. Fremont," a poem from In War Time by John Greenleaf Whittier

Political offices
Preceded by John Philo Hoyt	Governor of Arizona Territory 1878–1881	Succeeded by Frederick Augustus Tritle
United States Senate
New title	Senator from California (Class 1) 1850–1851 Served alongside: William M. Gwin	Succeeded by John B. Weller
Party political offices
New political party	Republican nominee for President of the United States 1856	Succeeded by Abraham Lincoln