Born January 21, 1813,
Savannah, Georgia
Died July 13, 1890,
New York, Hew York
John Charles Frémont was an explorer, soldier, politician, and businessman whose talents were uniquely suited to his time, at least at the beginning of his career. He came of age when it was believed the United States was destined to occupy all of North America, and he is largely credited with opening the Far West to American settlement. A man of adventure, he helped to explore, survey, and map vast areas of the frontier. As a result of his father-in-law’s political influence, Frémont’s reports were widely publicized, firing the imagination of Americans eager to move westward. Known as “The Pathfinder” because he charted the best route to Oregon, Frémont experienced both success and failure during his lifetime. Some of his questionable decisions have made him a controversial figure in American history.
Frémont was the illegitimate son of an aristocratic Virginian named Anne Pryor—who had been childless and trapped for years in a loveless marriage—and her lover, a destitute French emigrant. When Pryor’s husband learned of the affair, he was outraged; Pryor and her lover fled to Savannah, Georgia, where John was born on January 21, 1813. Frémont’s father never became financially secure, so the family drifted from town to town. Only five years old when his father died, Frémont was raised by his mother in Charleston, South Carolina.
In 1829 Frémont entered the College of Charleston, where he showed an aptitude for mathematics, but he did not graduate, possibly because of a romantic scandal. He then became an instructor of mathematics on a U.S. Navy ship while it traveled around South America. In the summer of 1836 he worked with a team that surveyed a proposed railway route between Charleston and Cincinnati, Ohio. Frémont liked this work so much he decided upon mapmaking and surveying as a career.
Commissioned in 1838 as a second lieutenant in the U.S. Army’s Topographical Corps, Frémont joined the agency charged with surveying all the unmapped regions of the United States. He was soon assigned to assist a respected French scientist-explorer, Jean Nicholas Nicollet, in a mission to map the region between the upper Mississippi and Missouri rivers. Frémont was in his element; he loved the hardship and rugged beauty of the wilderness.
Upon his return Frémont found himself a frequent guest at the home of Senator Thomas Hart Benton of Missouri. He married Senator Benton’s daughter, Jessie, on October 19, 1841. The Benton family was initially opposed to the marriage, but the senator soon became Frémont’s most important sponsor. Intelligent and ambitious, as well as a talented writer, Jessie became invaluable to Frémont by helping him write the colorful reports that would make him a national hero. She also worked on his memoirs with him; in financially troubled times she even supported their family by submitting articles and sketches to periodicals.
In 1842 Frémont led his first expedition. His party surveyed a route settlers were using in their trek to Oregon, which extended from the Mississippi River to South Pass, Wyoming. Frémont used the famous mountain man Kit Carson as a guide. The two became friends, and Carson accompanied Frémont on many of his expeditions. Frémont also climbed Frémont Peak in the Wind River Range of Wyoming. His enthusiastic report on the mapping of the trail inspired more pioneers to try the journey west.
Frémont’s next expedition, in 1843, had been ordered to push beyond South Pass, Wyoming, to Oregon. His party was heavily armed, carrying with them an unauthorized 12-pound cannon to use against unfriendly Native Americans. The cannon incident was the first of many conflicts Frémont was to have with the army. During this trip he surveyed the northern shores of the Great Salt Lake, and his report on the survey encouraged the Mormons under Brigham Young to settle there four years later. On this expedition Frémont also traveled north to the Snake River and then to the Columbia River, which he followed to its mouth on the Pacific at Fort Vancouver. Although he had been instructed to return by the Oregon Trail, Frémont could not resist the lure of California, which Kit Carson had described to him in vivid detail.
Warned by Native Americans that the Sierra Nevada were impassable in winter, Frémont decided to cross the mountains anyway with the help of a Native American guide. It was a treacherous trip. Suffering from cold and starvation, the party finally arrived at Sutter’s Fort in California in March 1844. They obtained fresh supplies and then traveled east by way of the San Joaquin Valley, the old Spanish Trail, Muddy Pass, and the Arkansas River. After a delay of several months, their return to St. Louis caused a sensation. The expedition had been difficult and dangerous, but Frémont’s reports fueled the expansionist ambitions of many powerful groups that were pushing for Mexico to cede California to the United States.
In 1845 Frémont was sent west again, leading a party of 60 men. This time the route was fairly direct. They crossed the Rocky Mountains, surveyed the southern end of the Great Salt Lake, and continued across the desert to Sutter’s Fort. The Mexican government, suspicious of such a large group of armed Americans, ordered Frémont to leave. Frémont retreated to Oregon, where he received secret orders from Washington. No one has ever known the nature of those orders, but when Frémont returned to California in June 1846, he led a group of American settlers in what is called the “Bear Flag Revolt.” When war was declared between Mexico and the United States on July 19, Frémont renamed his expedition the California Battalion and marched to Monterey. The war was quickly won by the United States.
Frémont’s commander, Commodore Robert F. Stockton, was abruptly replaced by an old enemy of Frémont’s, General Stephen W. Kearny. Stockton had made Frémont a lieutenant colonel and appointed him governor of California. When Frémont defied General Kearny’s orders to give up his post, he was accused of disobedience and mutiny. Furious about being convicted and court-martialed, he resigned his commission in 1848.
After leaving the army Frémont secured private backing and, in 1848, made another trip to survey a possible railroad route in which he and Senator Benton shared an interest. Unwisely, Frémont tried to lead his expedition across the Sangre de Cristo Mountains in Colorado in mid-December. The trip was a disaster; 11 men died, and Frémont was forced to retreat. Heading south, he finally arrived at Sutter’s Fort to find that gold had been discovered. Since Frémont owned land in one of the goldfields at the foot of the Sierra Nevada, he suddenly found himself a rich man. With wealth came power, and in 1850 California elected him to the U.S. Senate.
In 1853 he led another private expedition in search of a southern railway route to the Pacific Ocean. By 1856 his exploits had made him a national hero, and he ran for president against James Buchanan as the first candidate of the newly formed Republican party. After his defeat he returned to California, making heavy investments in unprofitable mills and mining equipment.
When the Civil War broke out in 1861, Frémont was made commander of the Department of the West. His ardent antislavery views brought him into conflict with authority once again. He arbitrarily declared martial law and issued an order freeing the slaves in Missouri. These actions were premature and embarrassing to President Abraham Lincoln, who relieved Frémont of his command.
He was given another command in Kentucky but found an able adversary in the southern general Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson. Frémont made several tactical errors, and Lincoln began to have second thoughts about Frémont’s abilities. When the area was consolidated under another commander, a bitter Frémont again resigned from the army.
After the Civil War Frémont lost his remaining fortune in failed railroad-building projects. Turning cynical, he engaged in dishonest business deals. In 1878 Frémont was made governor of the Arizona Territory, a post he saw as an opportunity to revive his fortune. He consequently paid more attention to his business interests than to governing. He was asked to resign after serving five years because he used state money for personal expenses.
Frémont spent the last years of his life in New York, Washington, D.C., and Los Angeles. Jessie, who had always supported him and, it was rumored, even managed his military career, continued her writing. She was their only source of income. Just before his death on July 13, 1890, Frémont was awarded a pension by Congress. Although Frémont died a broken man, his reputation in shreds, he will always be remembered for his courage and determination in opening up the American West for settlement.
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