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Oxford Companion to US Military History:
John C. Frémont |
Born in Georgia, Frémont briefly attended the College of Charleston. He began his military career in 1833, teaching mathematics to shipborne cadets aboard the sloop‐of‐war Natchez. Five years later, he was appointed a second lieutenant in the army's Topographical Engineers.
In 1846, on the eve of the Mexican War, Frémont, sometimes called “the Pathfinder,” was leading his third exploring expedition in the Far West. Although he led only part of the U.S. conquest of California, Frémont denied that his scientific expedition there was a mere pretext—one in fact encouraged by his powerful father‐in‐law, Senator Thomas Hart Benton, and by President James K. Polk.
Before the Mexican War began, Frémont encouraged a band of disgruntled U.S. settlers near Sonoma, California, to oppose Mexican soldiers and form an independent “Bear Flag Republic.” After war broke out, he reorganized his Topographical Engineers into the “California Battalion.” Appointed by Commodore Robert F. Stockton as naval commander of U.S. forces in California, Frémont was later court‐martialed for insubordination. Although President Polk commuted the sentence, Frémont resigned his commission and returned to civilian life.
Failing in his Republican presidential bid in 1856, Frémont reentered the army upon the outbreak of the Civil War as a major general. Commander of the Department of the West, he made the mistake of issuing an emancipation proclamation without presidential authorization. Consequently, he was transferred to the Shenandoah Valley, where he encountered the Confederate forces of Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson. Frémont's controversial military career came to an ignominious end when his defeat at Cross Keys caused Lincoln to relieve him from command. On 12 August 1863, Frémont once again resigned his commission, his military career over.
Bibliography
Oxford Dictionary of the US Military:
John C. Frémont |
Frémont, John C.
See the Introduction, Abbreviations and Pronunciation for further details.
Gale Encyclopedia of Biography:
John Charles Frémont |
John Charles Frémont (1813-1890) was an American explorer, politician, and soldier. Through his explorations in the West he stimulated the American desire to own that region. He was the first presidential candidate of the Republican party.
Born on Jan. 21, 1813, in Savannah, Ga., John C. Frémont was the illegitimate son of a French émigré, John Charles Frémon (sic), and Mrs. Anne Whiting Pryor. He was raised in Charleston, S. C. Frémont proved precocious, especially in mathematics and the natural sciences, as well as handsome. He attended Charleston College (1829-1831) but was expelled for irregular attendance.
Through the influence of Joel R. Poinsett, Frémont obtained a post as teacher of mathematics on the sloop Natchez and visited South American waters in 1833. In 1836 he helped survey a railroad route between Charleston and Cincinnati, and in 1836-1837 he worked on a survey of Cherokee lands in Georgia.
His Explorations
In 1838, through the influence of Poinsett, Frémont obtained a commission as second lieutenant in the Corps of Topographical Engineers of the U.S. Army. Assigned to the expedition of J. N. Nicollet which explored in Minnesota and the Dakotas, he gained knowledge of natural science and topographical engineering, as well as experience on the frontier. Also through Nicollet, he met the powerful senator from Missouri Thomas Hart Benton - and fell in love with Benton's daughter Jessie.
Benton secured an appointment for Frémont to explore the Des Moines River, which was accomplished in 1841. That fall he married Jessie Benton, gaining her father as protector. In 1842 Frémont was sent to explore the Wind River chain of the Rockies and to make a scientific exploration of the Oregon Trail. Employing Kit Carson as guide, he followed the trail through South Pass. His report was filled with tales of adventure and contained an excellent map. Frémont was on his way to becoming a popular hero with a reputation as the "Great Pathfinder," but, in reality, he had been following the trails of mountain men.
In 1843 Frémont headed an expedition that explored South Pass, the Columbia River, and the Oregon country, returning by way of Sutter's Fort in Mexican California. His report was printed just as James K. Polk became president, a time when expansionist feeling was high; the 10,000 copies of this report increased Frémont's heroic stature.
Mexican War
In 1845 Polk sent Frémont and soldiers (with Kit Carson as guide) to California. Expelled from California by its governor, Frémont wintered in Oregon. Polk's orders arrived in May. Frémont then marched to Sutter's Fort and there on June 14, 1846, assumed command of the American settlers' Bear Flag Revolt. Aided by commodores J. D. Sloat and Robert F. Stockton, his forces were victorious, and he received the surrender of California at Cahuenga on Jan. 13, 1847.
Immediately Frémont became embroiled in a fight for the governorship of California with Gen. Stephen W. Kearny, who had marched overland from Missouri. Frémont was arrested, taken to Washington, D.C., and tried for mutiny, insubordination, and conduct prejudicial to good order. Found guilty, he was ordered dismissed from the Army. Polk remitted the penalty, but Frémont, in anger, resigned.
Political Career
Frémont moved to California, on the way conducting a private survey for a railroad route. In California he acquired land in the Sierra foothills, the Mariposa estate, and grew wealthy from mining. He bought real estate in San Francisco and lived lavishly, winning election as U.S. senator from California. He drew the short term and served only from Sept. 9, 1850, to March 4, 1851. Afterward he visited Paris and London, where he raised funds for ambitious schemes on the Mariposa. In 1853-1854 he conducted another private expedition surveying a railroad route, along the 37th-38th parallels.
In 1856 the newly formed Republican party named Frémont its first presidential candidate because of his strong stand on free soil in Kansas and his attitude against enforcement of the Fugitive Slave Law. His campaign suffered from a shortage of funds, and he lost, but he was at the peak of his career.
Subsequent Career
Frémont's overspeculation at the Mariposa led to his loss of this property. Then in 1861, at the outbreak of the Civil War, he performed disastrously as a major general at St. Louis and in western Virginia. In 1864 Radical Republicans approached Frémont about running for president in opposition to Abraham Lincoln; Frémont first accepted, then declined ungraciously.
After the war he was involved in promoting the Kansas and Pacific and the Memphis and Little Rock railroads. Both lines went bankrupt in 1870, leaving Frémont almost penniless. In 1878 his claim that the Republican party owed him a debt netted him appointment as governor of Arizona. He held the position until 1881, when angry protests from that territory led to his removal.
Frémont's old age was filled with frustrating schemes to recoup his fortune - while he was supported by his wife's authorship. In 1890 he was pensioned at $6,000 per year as a major general; he died 3 months later (July 13, 1890) in New York.
Further Reading
Only one volume of Frémont's autobiographical Memoirs of My Life (1887) was published. Jesse Benton Frémont wrote several works that give information about her husband's career, the best of which are Souvenirs of My Time (1887) and Far-West Sketches (1890). Good biographies include Frederick S. Dellenbaugh, Frémont and '49 (1914), which has excellent sketches of his expeditions; Cardinal Goodwin's critical John Charles Frémont: An Explanation of His Career (1930); and Allan Nevins's laudatory Frémont: The West's Greatest Adventurer (2 vols., 1928) and his more balanced, one volume edition, Frémont: Pathmaker of the West (1939).
Columbia Encyclopedia:
John Charles Frémont |
The next year (1842) Frémont headed an expedition to the Rocky Mts. with Kit Carson as guide, and in 1843-44, with first Thomas Fitzpatrick and then Carson as guide, he went to Oregon. He explored the Nevada country, crossed the Sierra Nevada to California, and returned home by a more southerly route. His enthusiastic reports created wide interest in Western scenery and Western concerns.
In 1845 he again went to California. Under his influence American settlers there raised the standard of revolt against the Mexican authorities and set up (1846) the Bear Flag republic at Sonoma. The arrival of Stephen W. Kearny and Commodore Robert Stockton resulted in a quarrel, as both had orders placing them in command. Frémont sided with Stockton and accepted from him an appointment as civil governor. When Kearny received orders indicating that Stockton was not his superior, Frémont was arrested, court-martialed, and found guilty. The penalty was remitted by President Polk, but Frémont, proud and injured, resigned from government service.
In 1848 he led an ill-judged and disastrous effort to locate passes for a transcontinental railroad. His fortunes climbed after gold was discovered on his California estate, although he was deprived of some of his wealth by the sharp practice of others. He served briefly (1850-51) as one of the first U.S. senators from California, and the Republicans chose him as their presidential candidate in 1856. In the Civil War he was given command of the Western Dept., but his radical policy toward slavery and slaveholders, both of which he abhorred, led to his removal. He was given a new command, but, when placed under the orders of John Pope, he resigned. Unsuccessful attempts (1870) to build a railroad to the Pacific-accompanied by actions of his agents that roused sharp criticism-cost him his fortune.
Beggared, he struggled on, supported by his wife's earnings from writing and by his appointment as governor of Arizona Territory (1878-1883). In 1890 he was belatedly given a pension but did not live long to enjoy it. The Pathfinder, as he is sometimes called, is one of the most controversial figures of Western history. His critics call him braggart and charlatan; his supporters point to his courage, his handling of men, and his determination to open the West.
Bibliography
Frémont's early reports were combined as Report of the Exploring Expedition to the Rocky Mountains in the Year 1842, and to Oregon and North California in the Years 1843-44 (1845). His memoirs (1887) are disappointing and incomplete.
See also biography by A. Nevins (rev. ed. 1955); R. J. Bartlett, John C. Frémont and the Republican Party (1930, repr. 1970); W. Brandon, The Men and the Mountain (1955); L. and A. W. Hafen, ed., Frémont's Fourth Expedition (1960); D. Roberts, Kit Carson, John C. Frémont and the Claiming of the American West (2000); S. Denton, Passion and Principle: John and Jessie Frémont (2007).
Wikipedia on Answers.com:
John C. Frémont |
| John Charles Frémont | |
|---|---|
| John C. Frémont, 1852 portrait, by William S. Jewett | |
| 5th Territorial Governor of Arizona | |
| In office October 6, 1878 – October 11, 1881 |
|
| Preceded by | John Philo Hoyt |
| Succeeded by | Frederick Augustus Tritle |
| United States Senator from California |
|
| In office September 9, 1850 – March 3, 1851 |
|
| Preceded by | None (Statehood) |
| Succeeded by | John B. Weller |
| 3rd Military Governor of California | |
| In office January 14, 1847 – March 1, 1847[1] |
|
| Preceded by | Robert F. Stockton |
| Succeeded by | Stephen W. Kearny |
| Personal details | |
| Born | January 21, 1813 Savannah, Georgia, U.S. |
| Died | July 13, 1890 (aged 77) New York City, New York, U.S. |
| Political party | Republican |
| Spouse(s) | Jessie Benton Frémont father-in-law Thomas Hart Benton |
| Alma mater | College of Charleston |
| Profession | Soldier |
| Religion | Episcopalian |
| Signature | |
| Military service | |
| Service/branch | United States Army |
| Years of service | 1838–1848 1861–1864 |
| Rank | Major General |
| Commands | California Battalion Department of the West |
John Charles Frémont (January 21, 1813 – July 13, 1890), was an American military officer, explorer, and the first candidate of the anti-slavery Republican Party for the office of President of the United States. During the 1840s, that era's penny press accorded Frémont the sobriquet The Pathfinder. He is sometimes called The Great Pathfinder.[2][3] He retired from the military and moved to the new territory California, after leading a fourth expedition which cost ten lives seeking a rail route over the mountains around the 38th parallel in the winter of 1849.
He became one of the first two U.S. Senators elected from the new state in 1850. He was soon bogged down with lawsuits over land claims between the dispossessions of various land owners during the Mexican-American War, and the explosion of Forty-Niners immigrating during the California Gold Rush. He lost the 1856 presidential election to Democrats James Buchanan and John C. Breckenridge when Democrats warned his election would lead to civil war.
During the American Civil War he was given command of the armies in the west but made hasty decisions (such as trying to abolish slavery without consulting the federal government), and was consequently relieved of his command (fired, then court martialed – receiving a presidential pardon).
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 illegitimate birth, ambitious drive for success, self-justification, and passive-aggressive behavior.[4][5]
Frémont's mother, Anne Beverley Whiting, was the youngest daughter of socially prominent Virginia planter Col. Thomas Whiting. The colonel died when Anne was less than a year old. Her mother married Samuel Cary, who soon exhausted most of the Whiting estate. At age 17 Anne married Major John Pryor, a wealthy Richmond resident in his early 60s. In 1810 Pryor hired Charles Fremon, a French immigrant who had fought with the Royalists during the French Revolution, to tutor his wife. In July 1811 Pryor learned that Whiting and Fremon were having an affair. Confronted by Pryor, the couple left Richmond together on July 10, 1811, creating a scandal that shook city society.[6] Pryor published a divorce petition in the Virginia Patriot, in which he charged that his wife had "for some time past indulged in criminal intercourse". Whiting and Fremon moved first to Norfolk, Virginia and later settled in Savannah, Georgia. Whiting financed the trip and purchase of a house in Savannah by selling recently inherited slaves valued at $1,900. When the Virginia House of Delegates refused Pryor’s divorce petition, it was impossible for the couple to marry. In Savannah, Whiting took in boarders while Fremon taught French and dancing. On January 21, 1813, their first child, John Charles Fremont, was born.[7] Their son was born out of wedlock, a social handicap which he overcame later with his marriage to the daughter of a powerful U.S. senator.[citation needed]
In Andrew Jackson, His Life and Times, H. W. Brands wrote that Frémont added the accented "e" and the "t" to his name later in life.[8] But in John Charles Frémont: Character as Destiny, Andre Rolle wrote that Charles Fremon was originally named Louis-René Frémont and had changed his name to Charles Fremon or Frémon upon emigrating to Virginia. Thus, John was reclaiming his father's (and family's) true French name.[9]
In 1841 John C. Frémont married Jessie Benton, daughter of Sen. Thomas Hart Benton from Missouri.[10] 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. 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 (1842), the Oregon Territory (1844), the Great Basin, and Sierra Mountains to California (1845). Through his power and influence, Benton obtained for Frémont the position of leading each expedition.
After attending the College of Charleston from 1829 to 1831,[11] Frémont was appointed a teacher of mathematics aboard the sloop USS Natchez. In July 1838 he was appointed a second lieutenant in the Corps of Topographical Engineers and assisted and led multiple surveying expeditions through the western territory of the United States and beyond. In 1838 and 1839 he assisted Joseph Nicollet in exploring the lands between the Mississippi and Missouri rivers. In 1841 with training from Nicollet, Frémont mapped portions of the Des Moines River.
Frémont first met frontiersman Kit Carson on a Missouri River steamboat in St. Louis during the summer of 1842. Frémont was preparing to lead his first expedition and was looking for a guide to take him to South Pass. Carson offered his services, as he had spent much time in the area. The five-month journey, made with 25 men, was a success.
From 1842 to 1846 Frémont and his guide Carson led expedition parties on the Oregon Trail and into the Sierra Nevada. During his expeditions in the Sierra Nevada, Frémont became the first American to see Lake Tahoe. He is also credited with determining the Great Basin as endorheic, that is, having no outlet to the sea or a river. One of Frémont's reports from an expedition inspired the Mormons to consider Utah for settlement.[10] He also mapped volcanoes such as Mount St. Helens.
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), 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.[12]
On June 1, 1845, John Frémont and 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.[13] Upon reaching the Arkansas, however, 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.[14] Frémont nearly provoked a battle with Gen. José Castro near Monterey, camped at the summit of what is now named Fremont Peak. A conflict would likely have resulted in the annihilation of Frémont's group, as Gen. Castro had the ability to organize thousands of troops.[15] Frémont then fled Mexican-controlled California, and went north to Oregon, making camp at Klamath Lake.[16]
After a May 9, 1846 Indian attack on his expedition party, Frémont 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.[17] The village was at the junction of the Williamson River and Klamath Lake. On May 10, 1846, the Frémont group completely destroyed it.[18] 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.[17]
After meeting with President James K. Polk, he left Washington, D.C. on May 15, 1845. He raised a group of 62 volunteers in Saint Louis.[19] He arrived at Sutter's Fort in California on December 10, 1845.[20] He went to Monterrey, California, to talk with the American consul, Thomas Larkin, and Mexican major-domo Jose Castro.[21]
In 1846, with the arrival of USS Congress, Frémont was appointed lieutenant colonel 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.[22]
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." They then advanced on the three and deliberately shot and killed them. One of them was an old and respected Californian, Don Jose R. Berreyesa, whose son was the Alcalde of Sonoma who 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 named San Francisco).
These murders were observed by Jasper O’Farrell, a famous architect and designer of San Francisco, who wrote a letter detailing it to the Los Angeles Star published on September 27, 1856. This eyewitness account, together with others, were widely published during the presidential election of 1856, which featured John Frémont as the first anti-slavery Republican nominee versus Democrat James Buchanan. It is widely speculated that this incident, together with other military blunders, sank Frémont’s political aspirations.[23]
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 the next morning, and captured the presidio without bloodshed, thereby capturing the town. A few days later Frémont led his men southeast toward Los Angeles, accepting the surrender of the leader Andres Pico and signing the Treaty of Cahuenga on January 13, 1847, which terminated the war in upper California.[24]
On January 16, 1847, Commodore Stockton appointed Frémont military governor of California following the Treaty of Cahuenga. However, U.S. Army Brig. Gen. Stephen Watts Kearny, who outranked both Stockton and Frémont, had orders from President Polk and secretary of war William L. Marcy to serve as military governor.[25] He asked Frémont to give up the governorship, which the latter stubbornly refused to do before finally relenting. 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.[26]
While approving the court's decision, Pres. James K. Polk quickly commuted his sentence of dishonorable discharge due to his services. Frémont resigned his commission and settled in California.[27] In 1847 he purchased the Rancho Las Mariposas land grant in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada mountains near Yosemite.
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.
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 secured "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 further travel would be impossible. 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.[28] By December 12, on Boot Mountain it took ninety minutes to progress three hundred yards. Mules began dying and by 20 December only 59 animals remained alive. It was not until December 22 that Frémont acknowledged the party needed to regroup and be resupplied. They began to make their way to Taos, New Mexico. By the time the last surviving member of the expedition made it to Taos on February 12, 1849, 10 of the party were dead. Except for the efforts of member Alexis Godey, another 15 would have been lost.[29] After recuperating in Taos, Frémont and only a few of the men left for California via an established southern trade route.
Frémont was one of the first two senators from California, serving only a few months, from 1850 to 1851. He had previously served as Military Governor of California in 1847.[30]
Frémont was the first presidential candidate of the new Republican Party in 1856. It used the slogan "Free Soil, Free Men, and Frémont" to crusade for free farms (homesteads) and against the Slave Power. As was typical in presidential campaigns, the candidates stayed at home and said little. The Democrats meanwhile counter-crusaded against the Republicans, warning that a victory by Frémont would bring civil war. They also raised a host of issues, alleging Frémont was a Catholic and had a poor military record. Frémont's powerful father-in-law, Senator Benton, praised Frémont but announced his support for the Democratic candidate James Buchanan.[31]
At the time of his campaign he lived in Staten Island, New York. The campaign was headquartered near his home in St. George.[32] He placed second to James Buchanan in a three-way election; he did not carry the state of California.
He later served as Governor of the Arizona Territory for several years, though he spent little time in the territory; he was asked to resume his duties or resign, and chose resignation.[33]
Frémont later served as a major general in the American Civil War, including a controversial term as commander of the Army's Department of the West from May to November 1861. 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.
Frémont ordered his Gen. Nathaniel Lyon to formally bring Missouri into the Union cause. Lyon had been named the temporary commander of the Department of the West, before Frémont ultimately replaced Lyon. Lyon, in a series of battles, evicted Gov. Claiborne Jackson and installed a pro-Union government. After Lyon was killed in the Battle of Wilson's Creek in August, Frémont imposed martial law in the state, confiscating secessionists' private property and emancipating slaves. On October 25, 1861, Frémont's forces won the First Battle of Springfield.
Pres. 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. 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. In March 1862 he was placed in command of the Mountain Department of Virginia, Tennessee and Kentucky.
Early in June 1862 Frémont pursued the Confederate Gen. Stonewall Jackson for eight days, finally engaging him at Battle of Cross Keys on June 8. Jackson slipped away after the battle, saving his army.
When the Army of Virginia was created June 26, to include Gen. 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 then went to New York where he remained throughout the war, expecting a command, but none was given to him.[34]
In 1860 the Republicans nominated Abraham Lincoln for president, who won the presidency and then ran for reelection 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, they nominated Frémont 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 abandoned his political campaign in September 1864, after he brokered a political deal in which Lincoln removed Postmaster General Montgomery Blair from office.
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, at private sale, sold the road to Frémont. Frémont reorganized the assets of the Pacific Railroad as the Southwest Pacific Railroad in August 1866. In less than a year (June 1867), the railroad was repossessed by the state of Missouri after Frémont was unable to pay the second installment on his purchase.[35]
From 1878 to 1881 Frémont was governor of the Arizona Territory. Destitute, the family depended on the publication earnings of his wife Jessie.
Frémont lived on Staten Island in retirement. He died in New York City in 1890 of peritonitis and was buried in Rockland Cemetery, Sparkill, New York.[36][37]
Frémont collected a number of plants on his expeditions, including the first recorded discovery of the Single-leaf Pinyon by a European American. The genus of the California Flannelbush (Fremontodendron californicum) is named for him, as are the species names of many other plants, including the chaff bush eytelia[38][39] (Amphipappus fremontii), Western rosinweed (Calycadenia fremontii), pincushion flower (Chaenactis fremontii), goosefoot (Chenopodium fremontii), silk tassel (Garrya fremontii), moss gentian (Gentiana fremontii), vernal pool goldfields (Lasthenia fremontii), tidytips (Layia fremontii), desert pepperweed (Lepidium fremontii), desert boxthorn (Lycium fremontii), barberry (Mahonia fremontii), bush mallow (Malacothamnus fremontii), monkeyflower (Mimulus fremontii), phacelia (Phacelia fremontii), desert combleaf (Polyctenium fremontii), cottonwood tree (Populus fremontii), desert apricot (Prunus fremontii), indigo bush (Psorothamnus fremontii), mountain ragwort (Senecio fremontii), yellowray gold (Syntrichopappus fremontii), and chaparral death camas (Toxicoscordion fremontii).
The city of Elizabeth, South Australia (now a part of the city of Playford) named a local park and high school Fremont in recognition of the sister city relationship it had with Fremont, California. The high school has since merged with Elizabeth High School, so the Pathfinder's legacy is carried by Fremont-Elizabeth City High School.
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 the Fremont Cannon.[41][42]
A barbershop chorus in Fremont, Nebraska, is named The Fremont Pathfinders.[43] The Fremont Pathfinders Artillery Battery[44] is an American Civil War reenactment group from the same community.
Fremont Street in Las Vegas, Nevada, is named in his honor, as are streets in Minneapolis, Minnesota; Kiel, Wisconsin; Manhattan, Kansas; Portland, Oregon; Grant City, Staten Island, New York; Tempe, Arizona; and Tucson, Arizona, as well as several cities in California: Fremont, Monterey, Seaside, Stockton, San Mateo, San Francisco, and Santa Clara.
Portland, Oregon also has several other locations named after Frémont, such as Fremont Bridge. Other places named for him include John C. Fremont Senior High School in Los Angeles, Fremont High School in Plain City, Utah, and Fremont Senior High School in Oakland, and the John C. Fremont Branch Library located on Melrose Avenue in Los Angeles. Elementary schools in Glendale, California; Modesto, California; Long Beach, California; and Carson City, Nevada bear his name, as do junior high or middle schools in Mesa, Arizona; Pomona, California; Las Vegas, Nevada; Roseburg, Oregon; and Oxnard, California. Fremont High School in Sunnyvale, California, is named for the explorer and its annual yearbook is called The Pathfinder. In addition, the Fremont Hospital in Yuba City, California,and the John C. Fremont Hospital, in Mariposa, California, (where Frémont and his wife lived and prospered during the Gold Rush) are named for him. There is also a John C. Fremont Library in Florence, Colorado.
Frémont's great-grandfather, Henry Whiting, was a half-brother of Catherine Whiting. She married John Washington, uncle of George Washington.[45][46][47]
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| 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 Party presidential candidate 1856 |
Succeeded by Abraham Lincoln |
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