John C. Frémont

American explorer and military commander

• Born: January 21, 1813
• Birthplace: Savannah, Georgia
• Died: July 13, 1890
• Place of death: New York, New York

Frémont’s exploits as an explorer helped to propel the American nation westward toward Oregon and California. When the continental nation he helped to create was faced with civil war, he fought to maintain the Union and end slavery.

Early Life

When John Charles Frémont (free-mahnt) was born, his parents were not married. In 1811, Ann Beverly Whiting had left her elderly husband John Pryor to run away with Charles Frémon, a young French emigrant who taught dancing and French. For several years the struggling Frémon family traveled the South, but after the father died they settled in Charleston, South Carolina, where John Charles grew to maturity.

At the age of fourteen, Frémont clerked in the law office of John W. Mitchell, who soon sent the young man to Dr. John Roberton’s academy. In 1829, Frémont entered the junior class of the College of Charleston. Showing promise, he nevertheless fell behind in his studies from a lack of diligence as well as the distraction of a young love. In 1831, the faculty reluctantly dismissed him for “incorrigible negligence,” three months short of his graduation.

In 1833, saved from obscurity by Joel Poinsett, former minister to Mexico, Frémont taught mathematics on the USS Natchez on a South American cruise and then earned an appointment in 1835 as professor of mathematics in the navy. He nevertheless declined this position to join Captain William G. Williams in surveying part of a proposed railroad route from Charleston to Cincinnati. This first assignment earned for him a second as Williams’s assistant in 1836-1837, surveying the lands of the Cherokee Indians in Georgia. Frémont showed little concern for the forced removal of the Cherokees across the Mississippi, but he did discover a longing to pursue a life in unexplored lands.

With the help of Secretary of War Poinsett, Frémont was assigned in 1838 to assist Joseph Nicolas Nicollet, a respected French scientist mapping the region between the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers. He was commissioned a second lieutenant in the United States Topographical Corps and from Nicollet received valuable experience in frontier survival, as well as rigorous training in mapmaking and scientific observation. As Nicollet’s protégé, Frémont stood ready to replace the gravely ill scientist on future missions.

Bright and inquisitive, Frémont already possessed the knowledge of surveying, mathematics, and natural sciences, as well as the impulsiveness, that would shape his later career. Bearded and slightly but sturdily built, he was able to endure great physical and personal hardships. His dark hair, olive skin, and piercing blue eyes attracted the friendship and affection of men and women alike. In 1841, he won the lifelong admiration and love of the young and talented Jessie Benton, acquiring not only a bride but also another powerful benefactor in her father, Senator Thomas Hart Benton of Missouri.

Life’s Work

Frémont received his first independent assignment in 1841 to survey the Des Moines River region. On his return, he secretly married Jessie, soon benefiting from his family connection with Senator Benton: Advocates of American expansion, led by Benton, were eager to encourage emigration to the Oregon country, and Frémont was thus given command of his first western expedition, assigned to examine part of the trail to Oregon while gathering information useful to emigrants and the government.

In Missouri, Frémont enlisted Kit Carson as his guide and set off from the Kansas River in June, 1842. Following the Platte to the Sweetwater River, he went on to cross the Rocky Mountains at South Pass in Wyoming, later describing the route as no more difficult than the ascent up Capitol Hill. He then explored the headwaters of the Green River in the Wind River Range, unfurling an American flag atop one of its loftiest peaks. Returning, Frémont led six men in a collapsible boat down the Platte. When the current became swift and dangerous, he rashly decided to run the rapids, resulting in an accident that destroyed much of his equipment and part of the expedition’s records.

Frémont’s second expedition of 1843-1844 was more ambitious. With a large, well-equipped party (including an unauthorized howitzer cannon), he was to complete his survey of the overland trail all the way to Oregon. Setting off in May, the explorer first sought a new pass through the Coloradomountains but soon rejoined the Oregon Trail. Crossing at South Pass, he pushed on to the British forts in the Oregon country, finally reaching Fort Vancouver on the Columbia. On this expedition, Frémont made the first scientific investigation of the Great Salt Lake; his reports inspired Brigham Young to lead his Mormon followers to settle there and make the region bloom, as Frémont had predicted.

From Oregon, Frémont embarked on a perilous journey southward, exploring and naming the Great Basin and then attempting a risky winter crossing of the Sierra Nevada into California , successfully leading his men to Sutter’s Fort in the Sacramento Valley. Inspired in part by American interest in the Mexican province of California, Frémont’s adventures intensified American passions to possess this valuable Pacific prize. Returning via the old Spanish Trail, Utah Lake, and Bent’s Fort on the Arkansas River, Frémont emerged in August, 1844, a national celebrity.

With Jessie’s valuable help, Frémont prepared reports of his first and second expeditions that captured the excitement and promise of the new land. Congress ordered the reports published for public distribution, providing emigrants a guide for western travel. The popular reports helped to dispel the notion that the Plains region was an arid wasteland, showed the Oregon Trail passable, and praised the fertile valleys of Oregon and California.

With a well-armed party of sixty men, the brevet captain’s third expedition would place him in California just as relations with Mexico worsened. Starting in June, 1845, the party followed the Arkansas and then crossed the central Colorado Rockies. Frémont paused to examine further the Great Salt Lake, then led his party across the desert to the west. While the main party followed a safer route, Frémont led a smaller group directly across the Great Basin and then attempted another winter crossing of the Sierras. Encountering less difficulty than on the previous trip, he arrived once again at Sutter’s Fort, eager to play a role in California’s future.

Frémont’s formidable force earned the suspicion of Mexican officials, who ordered the party to leave the province. Although war with Mexico was months away, Frémont defied the order, raised the American flag, and prepared for a confrontation. When none developed, he slowly moved toward Oregon but retraced his steps after the arrival of a messenger from Washington. Marine Lieutenant Archibald Gillespie had carried important dispatches to Consul Thomas O. Larkin at Monterey, directing him to conciliate the native Californians to accept American rule. Gillespie repeated these instructions to Frémont and relayed news of trouble with Mexico. Frémont misinterpreted the government’s instructions to mean that he should return to California and act to protect American interests there. After a bloody clash with Indians, he returned to the Sacramento Valley, assuming command of the “Bear Flag” revolt of American settlers in June, 1846.

Frémont’s actions secured northern California for the United States but were contrary to the government’s wishes to win the province peacefully with the aid of its citizens. Once hostilities with Mexico began, American naval forces seized the ports of Monterey and San Francisco in July, 1846. Frémont’s frontiersmen and settlers then formed the “California Battalion” to assist Commodore Robert F. Stockton in securing southern California. San Diego and Los Angeles were quickly occupied, but a revolt by Californians forced the Americans to retake the south. Assembling a large force in the north, Frémont arrived too late to join in the battle for Los Angeles, but he did accept (without authority) the Californians’ surrender at Cahuenga.

In January, 1847, Stockton appointed Frémont governor of California. This position embroiled the current lieutenant colonel in a bitter dispute over proper authority between the commodore and General Stephen Watts Kearny, who had arrived from Santa Fe only to be bloodied by Californians at San Pasqual. As governor in Los Angeles, Frémont recognized Commodore Stockton’s authority while unwisely resisting General Kearny’s commands, resulting in his arrest and return east virtually a prisoner. In a celebrated court-martial defense, he won public sympathy, but in January, 1848, was found guilty of mutiny, disobedience, and conduct prejudicial to military order. He was sentenced to dismissal from the service. President James K. Polk disallowed the mutiny conviction but upheld the lesser charges while suspending the punishment. Frémont spurned Polk’s gesture and resigned his commission instead, ending his career as an explorer for the United States Army.

To regain his injured honor, Frémont organized a privately funded fourth expedition in late 1848. Intended to locate suitable passes for a central railroad route to the Pacific, the expedition attempted a midwinter passage of the severe San Juan Mountains in southern Colorado. Disregarding the advice of mountain men and perhaps misled by his guide “Old Bill” Williams, Frémont plunged into the snowy mountains, only to find disaster. Cold and starvation eventually took the lives of ten of his thirty-three men, while a few survivors may have resorted to cannibalism. Frémont withdrew to Taos, New Mexico, sending a relief party to his surviving men. With a smaller party, he pushed on to California by the Gila River route, arriving in early 1849.

Frémont’s fortunes revived once more as gold had just been discovered in California. In 1847, he had directed Consul Larkin to buy a tract of land near San Francisco; instead Larkin had secured a large grant in the interior. At first apparently worthless, the Mariposa grant yielded immense wealth in gold and became the Frémonts’ California home. Then in December, 1849, Frémont was selected one of California’s first United States senators, serving a short term from 1850 to 1851 as an antislavery Democrat.

Not chosen to lead one of the five government parties surveying the best route for a Pacific railroad, Frémont in late 1853 undertook his fifth and final expedition to prove the superiority of a central route. On this venture, Frémont found less hardship in attempting another winter crossing of the Colorado mountains. Crossing into Utah, however, his men were again on the brink of starvation, whereupon he swore them not to resort to cannibalism. The party was finally saved in February, 1854, when it arrived at a Mormon settlement in Parowan. The route was not adopted for the Pacific railroad.

As tension grew between North and South, Frémont emerged as a candidate for president in 1856, first for the Democratic Party and then for the newly organized Republican Party. Hostile to slavery, he favored the Republican position, opposing slavery’s westward expansion, and in June, 1856, accepted the first presidential nomination of the young party. In the general election, he faced both Democrat James Buchanan and the candidate of the Know-Nothing Party, Millard Fillmore . The “Pathfinder” made few campaign utterances, but his illegitimate origins and false campaign charges that he was a Catholic virtually overshadowed his opposition to the spread of slavery to Kansas. While he carried eleven free states, lack of campaign organization and money in politically critical states such as Pennsylvania and Indiana probably cost him the election. Perhaps Frémont was not the best man to lead his nation in time of crisis, but his popularity helped to establish the Republican Party and thus contributed to the election of Abraham Lincoln four years later.

After his disappointing defeat, Frémont temporarily retired to private life, absorbed in developing the Mariposa, by now encumbered with debt. When the Civil War erupted in April, 1861, he was in Europe on business. Born a southerner, he did not hesitate to support the Union in its greatest crisis. On his own authority he purchased arms and ammunition for the Union in England and France, then returned home to accept an appointment as a major general commanding the Western Department based in St. Louis.

Beginning in July, 1861, Frémont’s challenging task was to pacify the divided state of Missouri while raising an army to undertake an offensive down the Mississippi. He received little support from Washington, and his duties were overwhelming. Although he reinforced the strategic Illinois town of Cairo, he did not act quickly enough to aid Nathaniel Lyon, who was defeated and killed at Wilson’s Creek on August 10. Charges of favoritism and corruption in government contracts haunted Frémont’s command, but most controversial was his sudden order of August 30 declaring martial law in Missouri, threatening to shoot captured guerrillas, and freeing the slaves of rebel masters.

While antislavery advocates praised Frémont’s emancipation edict, Lincoln feared its effect on the border states and directed him to modify the order. The general stubbornly refused to heed Lincoln, forcing the president to reverse the measure publicly. With Frémont’s command assaulted by powerful political enemies, his wife went east to present his case, but her stormy interview with Lincoln did more harm than good. As Frémont sought to lead his troops to victory in southwestern Missouri, Lincoln removed him from command of the Western Department in November, 1861.

Outcry over Frémont’s removal induced Lincoln to appoint him in March, 1862, to command the newly formed Mountain Department, designed to capture an important railroad at Knoxville, Tennessee. Abandoning this effort, Frémont was also outmarched by Stonewall Jackson in the Virginia Valley Campaign of 1862. At the Battle of Cross Keys on June 8, Frémont proved ineffective against Confederate troops, and when Lincoln added Frémont’s force to the command of John Pope, Frémont asked to be relieved. In 1864, Frémont was nominated to the presidency by some Democrats and radical Republicans dissatisfied with Lincoln. At first accepting the nomination, he soon feared a Democratic victory and withdrew from the race, helping to ensure Lincoln’s reelection.

As the war came to an end, Frémont lost much of his wealth as well as control of his beloved Mariposa. His ambitions turned to railroad finance, as he still hoped to realize his dream of a Pacific railroad. He became involved with unscrupulous business associates, however, squandering the remainder of his fortune and a good portion of his reputation when the Southwest Pacific failed in 1867 and the Memphis & El Paso did so in 1870.

From 1878 to 1883, Frémont served as governor of Arizona Territory. With Jessie’s help he wrote his memoirs, published in 1887. Belated gratitude from his nation came in April, 1890, when he was restored to his rank as major general and placed on the retired list with pay. Death came in New York in July, 1890, from a sudden attack of peritonitis.

Significance

Frémont’s exploits as an explorer exemplified the restless energy and unbounded ambition of mid-nineteenth century America. Proud and self-reliant, Americans resented restraints and the rulings of authority. Frémont’s career also reflected the lack of discipline and wisdom born of experience that led the young and sometimes careless American people into such tragedies as the brutal treatment of American Indians, the war on Mexico, and the spilling of brothers’ blood in the Civil War. Like his nation, Frémont climbed heights of adventure and opportunity, but also found failure, conflict, and injustice.

Frémont never claimed to be a “Pathfinder”; his mapping expeditions usually followed paths already worn by fur traders and early emigrants. Nevertheless, his romantic journeys spurred American expansion to the Pacific, his reports encouraging western emigration while providing travelers with useful information. Frémont’s mapping and scientific work rivaled that of earlier explorers, improving knowledge of the vast interior region from the Rockies to the Sierra Nevada, while helping to clarify the true natures of the Continental Divide and the Great Basin.

As politician, soldier, and financier, Frémont found less glory. His unauthorized actions in the California revolt remain controversial, while his service during the Civil War provoked charges of political opportunism and military ineffectiveness. His mining and railroad schemes typified the boom period of American industrial expansion but left him almost destitute. His death in 1890 coincided with the end of the romantic age of the American West, where he left his name and his mark.

Bibliography

Chaffin, Tom. Pathfinder: John Charles Frémont and the Course of American Empire. New York: Hill & Wang, 2002. Well-written, comprehensive, and balanced biography, describing Frémont’s varied life and career. Includes information on his expeditions, relationships with allies and adversaries, and marriage to Jessie Benton Frémont.

Egan, Ferol. Frémont: Explorer for a Restless Nation. Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1977. By focusing on Frémont’s career to 1854, this work praises his accomplishments more than most.

Frémont, Jessie Benton. The Letters of Jessie Benton Frémont. Edited by Pamela Herr and Mary Lee Spence. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1993. Collection of 271 of Jessie Frémont’s letters, fully annotated by the editors. The letters reveal her relationship with her difficult husband and her outspokenness on abolition and other issues.

Frémont, John Charles. Memoirs of My Life. Chicago: Belford, Clarke, 1887. Frémont’s memoirs are the only source for much of the available information on his personal life as well as his career. An intended second volume was not published.

Goodwin, Cardinal L. John Charles Frémont: An Explanation of His Career. Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press, 1930. This is perhaps the most critical account of Frémont’s life. It views the explorer as a “drifter” who entered into corrupt financial dealings.

Harlow, Neal. California Conquered: War and Peace on the Pacific, 1846-1850. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1982. Much of this work examines Frémont’s controversial role in the California conquest. It also discusses his dispute with Kearny and subsequent arrest.

Jackson, Donald, and Mary Lee Spence, eds. The Expeditions of John Charles Frémont. 3 vols. Champaign: University of Illinois Press, 1970-1984. This multivolume collection of documents is an invaluable source of information for Frémont’s expeditions. It includes his reports, important correspondence, and the record of his court-martial.

Nevins, Allan. Frémont: Pathmarker of the West. 2 vols. New York: Frederick Ungar, 1961. Perhaps the best study of Frémont, this work by a famous American historian portrays the explorer as a flawed hero of American expansion.

Roberts, David. A Newer World: Kit Carson, John C. Frémont, and the Claiming of the American West. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2000. An account of Frémont’s expeditions in the western United States from the early 1840’s until the beginning of the Civil War. Describes Carson’s role in the expeditions and the relationship of the two men.

Rolle, Andrew. John Charles Frémont: Character as Destiny. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1991. A psychological examination of Frémont’s character, resulting in a generally unflattering biography.