Life, explorations and public services of John Charles Fremont

Preface

The second and third chapters of this work, embracing the period covered by the first two expeditions, have substantially the value and authority of an autobiography. Fremont tells his own story, in passages extracted from his Eeports. This part of the volume gives, with the accompanying illustrations, a perfectly authentic account — as good as can be found — of the interior of the North American continent, its great features, and the races that occupy it. The Kocky Mountains, the parallel range of the Sierra Nevada, with the Basin — so full of strange interest, and not yet wholly made known to geography — between them ; and the Pacific regions, are here described, in his own fresh and effective style, by their explorer.

The topics of the work, generally, are regarded by the writer as having an interest and dignity entirely independent of any of the excitements and political operations of the day ; and it has been prepared with

1*

VI PREFACE.

no other feeling than to present what men of all parties and sections will hereafter, at all times, recognize as a true picture of a character and a life that have justly attracted attention, and will occupy a permanent place in our annals.

The facts have been, in part, gathered from public records, and sources open to all. Many of the details and dates, with some very interesting documents, were obtained from Col. Fremont. But for all the sentiments and opinions advanced in the work, the writer is wholly and exclusively responsible.

CHAPTER I. Parentage — Education — Early History 9

CHAPTER H.

First Expedition — Prairies — Fort Laramie — South Pass — Rocky Mountains — Platte or Nebraska River 23

CHAPTER HI.

Second Expedition — Kansas — Salt Lake — Columbia River — Central Basin — Sierra Nevada — California — Kit Carson — Wahsatch Mountains — Three Parks. ... 107

CHAPTER IV.

Third Expedition — Arkansas — Great Basin — Hawks Peak on the Sierra — Tlamath Lake 208

CHAPTER V.

North California — Bear War — Conquest of California — Wah-lah-wah-lah Indians — Insurrection — California Battalion — Insurgents surrender to Fremont — Capitulation of Cowenga 226

VIII CONTENTS.

CHAPTER VI.

Arrival of General Kearney — Difficulties between Stockton and Kearney — Fremont's Arrest — Court-Martial . 252

CHAPTER YH.

Fourth Expedition — Great Sufferings — Mariposa Purchase — Constitution of California 273

CHAPTER VHL Fremont a Senator of the United States 301

CHAPTER IX.

Engages in Cattle Business in California — Gold discovery — Visit to England and France — Imprisonment in London — Fifth Expedition — Pacific Railroad — Mariposa Title finally confirmed by Supreme Court of the United States 321

CHAPTER X.

General Remarks 336

LIFE OF FREMONT.

CHAPTER L

PARENTAGE EDUCATION EARLY HISTORY.

John Charles Fremont was born on the 21st of January, 1813. The usual residence of his family was in the city of Charleston, South Carolina. His father, who bore the same name, was deeply interested in studying the character and condition of the North American Indians, and spent the last years of his life in visiting many of their tribes. On these excursions he took his family with him, and moved slowly, stopping leisurely at the larger towns and points of chief interest. It was on one of these tours that the subject of this memoir was born, in the city of Savannah. The father, following his favorite pursuit, subsequently visited with his family, and remained, for greater or less periods of time, in various parts of Georgia, Tennessee, the Carolinas, and Virginia. The mother, celebrated for her beauty and worth, was Ann Beverly Whiting, a native of Gloucester County, Virginia. Her family was connected with many distinguished names, including that of Washington, to whom she was nearly related.

The father died in 1818, leaving a widow and three children, two sons and a daughter. Col. Fremont is the sole survivor of his family, with the exception of an orphan niece, the daughter of his brother, who since nine years of age has been a member of his family. The mother died in 1847, at Aiken, South Carolina ; the brother and sister some years before.

After the death of her husband, Mrs. Fremont remained some time in Virginia, where John Charles received the rudiments of his education, at Dinwiddie Court House. She then removed back to Charleston, where she fixed her residence, and the education of her children was continued. Although born and reared in affluence, and accustomed to the free and liberal expenditures of the hospitable and generous class to which her Virginia relatives belonged, she was left, with her young charge, in very limited circumstances, but, fortunately in a community which appreciated her claims to respect, sympathy, and all kind offices. She is still remembered by many faithful friends in Charleston, as a lady of great piety and worth.

EDUCATION. 11

When John Charles was about thirteen years of age, John W. Mitchell, Esq., a lawyer in Charleston, a gentleman of great respectability, in no way connected with the family, but actuated only by benevolent impulses, although perceiving, it is not unlikely, the bright promise of the lad, took him into his office for the purpose of making a lawyer of him. At a subsequent period, it became a favorite object of Mr. Mitchell, to have him prepare himself for the ministry of the church.

Mr. Mitchell placed him under the tuition of Dr. Roberton, a learned instructor at that time in Charleston, and now engaged in the same employment in Philadelphia. Dr. Roberton published an edition of Xenophon's Anabasis, in 1850. In the preface he gives the following account of the youth whom Mr. Mitchell placed in his hands. It is a most interesting document, and shows how the character, which Col. Fremont has ever exhibited, was formed, and illustrates the early development of the energy and talent that have borne him on through life : —

" For your further encouragement, I will here relate a very remarkable instance of patient diligence and indomitable perseverance.

" In the year 1827, after I had returned to Charleston from Scotland, and my classes were g6ing on, a very respectable lawyer came to my school, I think some time in the month of October, with' a youth, apparently about sixteen, or perhaps not so much, (fourteen,) of middle size, graceful in manners, rather slender, but well formed, and, upon the whole, what I should call handsome ; of a keen, piercing eye, and a noble forehead, seemingly the very seat of genius. The gentleman stated that he found him given to study, that he had been about three weeks learning the Latin rudiments, and (hoping, I suppose, to turn the youth's attention from the law to the ministry,) had resolved to place him under my care for the purpose of learning Greek, Latin, and Mathematics, sufficient to enter Charleston College. I very gladly received him, for I immediately perceived he was no common youth, as intelligence beamed in his dark eye, and shone brightly on his countenance, indicating great ability, and an assurance of his future progress. I at once put him in the highest class, just beginning to read Caesar's Commentaries, and, although at first inferior, his prodigious memory and enthusiastic application soon enabled him to surpass the best. He began Greek at the same time, and read with some who had been long at it, in which he also soon excelled. In short, in the space of one year he had with the class, and at odd hours with myself, read four books of Caesar, Cornelius Nepos, Sallust, six books of Virgil, nearly all Horace, and two books of Livy ; and in Greek, all Grse-

EDUCATION. 13

ca Minora, about the half of the first volume of Graeca Majora, and four books of Homer's Iliad. And whatever he read, he retained. It seemed to me, in fact, as if he learned by mere intuition. I was myself utterly astonished, and at the same time delighted with his progress. I have hinted that he was designed for the Church, but when I contemplated his bold, fearless disposition, his powerful inventive genius, his admiration of warlike exploits, and his love of heroic and adventurous deeds, I did not think it likely he would be a minister of the Gospel. He had not, however, the least appearance of any vice whatever. On the contrary, he was always the very pattern of virtue and modesty. I could not help loving him, so much did he captivate me by his gentlemanly conduct and extraordinary progress. It was easy to see that he would one day raise himself to eminence. Whilst under my instruction, I discovered his early genius for poetic composition in the following manner. When the Greek class read the account that Herodotus gives of the battle of Marathon, the bravery of Miltiades and his ten thousand Greeks raised his patriotic feelings to enthusiasm, and drew from him expressions which I thought were embodied, a few days afterward, in some well-written verses in a Charleston paper, on that far-famed unequal but successful conflict against tyranny and oppression; and suspecting my talented scholar to be the author, I went to his desk and asked him if he did not write them ; and hesitating at first, rather biushingly, he confessed he did. I then said : i I knew you could do such things, and suppose you have some such pieces by you, which I should like to see. Do bring them to me.' He consented, and in a day or two brought me a number, which I read with pleasure and admiration at the strong marks of genius stamped on all, but here and there requiring, as I thought, a very slight amendment.

"I had hired a mathematician to teach both him and myself, (for I could not then teach that science,) and in this he also made such wonderful progress, that at the end of one year he entered the Junior Class in Charleston College triumphantly, while others who had been studying four years and more, were obliged to take the Sophomore Class. About the end of the year 1828, I left Charleston. After that he taught Mathematics for some time. His career afterwards has been one of heroic adventure, of hair-breadth escapes by flood and field, and of scientific explorations, which have made him world-wide renowned. In a letter I received from him very lately, he expresses his gratitude to me in the following words : ' I am very far from either forgetting you or neglecting you, or in any way losing the old regard I had for you. There is no time to which I go back with more pleasure

EDUCATION — EARLY HISTORY. 15

than that spent with you, for there was no time so thoroughly well spent ; and of any thing I may have learned, I remember nothing so well, and so distinctly, as what I acquired with you.' Here I cannot help saying that the merit was almost all his own. It is true that I encouraged and cheered him on, but if the soil into which I put the seeds of learning had not been of the richest quality, they would never have sprung up to a hundred-fold in the full ear. Such, my young friends, is but an imperfect sketch of my once beloved and favorite pupil, now a senator, and who may yet rise to be at the head of this great and growing Republic. My prayer is that he may ever be opposed to war, injustice, and oppression of every kind, a blessing to his country and an example of every noble virtue to the whole world."

He was confirmed, in his seventeenth year, as a member of the Protestant Episcopal Church, in which communion he was brought up, and continues to this day. Immediately after leaving college, which was before the close of the academic term, he opened a school in Charleston. At such hours as he could command, he attended in other schools to instruct classes in mathematics; and, in addition to all these labors, took charge, for a considerable period, of an evening school. Persons who have been engaged in similar pursuits can appreciate how exhausting such continuous labors must have been, So early did he develop the indefatigable energy and power of endurance that have marked his whole subsequent life. While engaged in these humble and persevering toils, for the support of his widowed mother and her family, his merits were brought into particular notice by the following circumstance : —

It became necessary, in the prosecution of a lawsuit, in which a certain rice-field in the neighborhood of Charleston was involved, to have it carefully and accurately surveyed. It was at the height of the sickly season, and the locality was so particularly dangerous from that cause, that difficulty was experienced in inducing surveyors to go upon it. The mathematical attainments of young Fremont happened to be brought to the knowledge of the party concerned. He promptly agreed to perform the service. The courage with which he engaged in the enterprise, and the scientific skill and clerical neatness with which he executed it, attracted the attention and admiration of so many persons of influence, that he was at once secure of employment and patronage.

Soon after this, he was engaged in the survey of the railroad leading from Charleston to Hamburg. About the beginning of the year 1833, the sloop of war Natchez arrived in Charleston, to enforce the proclamation of President Jack-

EARLY HISTORY. 17

son. By the influence of Mr. Poinsett, afterwards Secretary of War, and others friendly to his family, young Fremont obtained the situation of teacher of mathematics and instructor of the midshipmen on board the Natchez, and sailed in her, in that capacity, to the Brazilian station. At the termination of her cruise, she returned to New York. After appearing before a board of examiners, in Baltimore, Mr. Fremont was regularly commissioned as a professor of mathematics in the navy, and assigned to the Frigate Independence. The distinguished manner in which he passed the examination coming to the ears of the Faculty of the College in Charleston, they instantly conferred upon him both the academic degrees, of Bachelor and Master of Arts.

An Act of Congress, passed on the 30th of April, 1824, authorized the President of the United States " to employ two or more skilful civil engineers, and such officers of the corps of engineers, or who may be detailed to do duty with that corps, as he may think proper, to cause the necessary surveys, plans, and estimates to be made of the routes of such roads and canals as he may deem of national importance, in a commercial or military point of view, or for the transportation of the public mail." Under this act, Mr. Fremont received his first appointment in that branch of the public service, where 2* so signal distinction and wide renown were in reserve for him. President Jackson selected him to be associated as a civil engineer with Captain Williams of the topographical corps of engineers, — an officer of distinguished merit, and who will ever be remembered as one of the heroes that fell at Monterey, — in making a survey, plans, and estimates of the route of the Charleston and Cincinnati Railroad. Resigning his commission in the navy, he repaired with alacrity to his chosen work. The portion of the route assigned him was the mountain regions of the Carolinas and Tennessee, and he there commenced those observations and explorations which have since extended over such immense regions. The winter of 1837 and 1838 was spent also under Captain Williams, in a survey of the Cherokee country, in conducting the field-work, and participating in preparing the military map which was the result of the expedition.

During the administration of Mr. Van Buren, an act was passed and approved by him on the 5th of July, 1838, to increase the military establishment. The fourth section required that the corps of topographical engineers should be organized and increased, by regular promotion in the same, so that the said corps should consist of one colonel, one lieutenant-colonel, four majors, ten captains, ten first lieutenants, and ten

EARLY HISTORY. 19

second lieutenants; and the fifth section ordained that the vacancies created by said organization, over and above those which could be filled by the corps itself, should be taken from the army, and from such as it may be deemed advisable of the civil engineers employed under the act of the 30th of April, 1824.

This latter clause let in Mr. Fremont. It was probably designed to do so, as his friend and patron, Mr. Poinsett, was then Secretary of War. He was accordingly commissioned, two days afterwards, on the 7th of July, 1838, as a second lieutenant of the topographical engineers. About this time, he had been transferred to the theatre of his fame, the field where his great work in life was to be done.

A thorough exploration and survey of the vast region north of the Missouri, and west of the Mississippi, was deemed by the administration to have become necessary, and arrangements were made to accomplish it. Mr. Nicholet, a learned and distinguished astronomer, and man of science, a member of the French Academy, and a gentleman of great general accomplishments and worth, then residing in St. Louis, was appointed to conduct the service. He requested to have associated with him a younger person, to act as his assistant, with the requisite qualities of science, energy, courage, and enterprise. Mr. Poinsett offered the situation to

Lieutenant Fremont, who promptly and gladly accepted it. The years 1838 and 1839 were spent in this field, and the whole country was explored up to the British line. Mr. Fremont participated zealously in the work, and in making the map of that region, which was presented to the government by Mr. Nicholet. In the course of these surveys there were seventy thousand meteorological observations, and the topography was minutely determined by the proper calculations at innumerable points. The map thus constructed has been the source from which all subsequent ones relating to that region have been derived.

In the spring of 1841, Lieutenant Fremont went in command of a small party to survey the Desmoines River.

On the 19th of October, 1841, he was married* in the city of Washington, to Jessie, daughter of the Hon. Thomas H. Benton, a Senator in Congress from the State of Missouri. It is not at all strange that objections were made to the match. A second lieutenant, — in a corps where promotion is very slow, and having no other means of support than the unreasonably small pay allowed to subordinate officers in our army, « — surely had nothing to recommend him, in the way of worldly goods or prospects. He had not then commenced his great career, — no world-wide lustre had begun to emblazon his

EARLY HISTORY. 21

name, — no perilous adventures, on a broad theatre, had drawn out, to general view, his heroic qualities. But the instincts of a pure heart are often the truest wisdom ; and he was preferred before all that fashion, wealth, and great station could offer.

All know the pride and fidelity with which Colonel Benton has, ever since that time, cherished the character of his son-in-law. Bereft of his own sons by early death, his heart has gathered its affections around Fremont. He has four daughters, all living, and all married. Mrs. Fremont is the second daughter, and was born in Virginia, at the family seat of her grandfather, Colonel McDowell, on the 31st May, 1824. All that it would be proper to say of her in this work, is all that could be said of any woman, — she is worthy of her origin, and of her lot.

We have now reached the point at which Mr. Fremont arrested that universal attention which has followed him ever since. His two first expeditions, on a large scale, will be related mostly in his own language, in consecutive extracts from his Reports published by Congress. The first Report was republished, together with the second, by an order of the Senate of the United States, passed March 3, 1845. These Reports at once established his reputation, as a scientific explorer and heroic adventurer, through- Out the worid. Large editions of them have been reprinted by booksellers in this country, and also in England, and they have been noticed with the highest commendation in the various literary and scientific journals, at home and abroad. The Smithsonian Institution inserted among its publications a description of the plants collected by him, in California, prepared by John Torrey, F. L. S., with illustrative plates, entitled " Planted Fremontiance." Nothing has contributed more to the honor of our country than the manner in which its gallant and enlightened officers have conducted various exploring expeditions, and prepared reports of them. A rich and interesting body of national literature has thus been accumulated. Fremont's Reports of his first and second expeditions, at once gave him an European reputation, which has not yet been rivalled. When the Reports of the last three expeditions are given to the world, it will be found that his explorations cover more ground, and bring a larger contribution to geographical and other science, than can be claimed for any othernameinour annals.

Of the literary style of these Reports, the reader will be able to judge from the following chapters.

Chapter II. First Expedition Prairies Fort Laramie

SOUTH PASS ROCKY -MOUNTAINS PLATTE OR

NEBRASKA RIVER.

The first expedition of Lieutenant Fremont, in command of an exploring party on a large scale, occupied the summer of 1842, and embraced the country between the Missouri River and the Rocky Mountains, along the line of the Kansas, and the Great Platte, or Nebraska, river. Having received his instructions from Colonel J. J. Abert, chief of the corps of topographical engineers, he left Washington City on the 2d of May, and arrived at St. Louis, by way of New York, on the 22d of that month, where he made the principal preparations for the service. Having ascended the Missouri in a steamboat, he proceeded to Choteau's Landing, on the right bank of the Kansas, about ten miles from its mouth, and six miles beyond the western boundary of Missouri. Here the final arrangements were completed, every requisite point provided for, and the expedition organized into working order and shape.

The party, which had been collected in St. Louis, consisted principally of Creole and Canadian voyageurs, who had been trained to prairie life and wilderness adventures in the employ of fur companies in the Indian country, and consisted of twenty-two men. Besides them, there was Mr. Charles Preuss, a native of Germany, who had been thoroughly educated to sketch the topographical features of a country, and to whose extraordinary skill and enthusiasm, in the prosecution of the service assigned him, Col. Fremont has always borne the most affectionate and grateful testimony. Mr. L. Maxwell was engaged as a hunter, and Christopher Carson, celebrated the world over for his genius and exploits as a mountaineer, and everywhere known as Kit Carson, was the guide of the expedition. Henry Brant, a son of Col. J. H. Brant, of St. Louis, nineteen years of age, and Randolph, a son of Col. Benton, twelve years of age, also accompanied it. The latter, of course, was especially under the charge of Mr. Fremont. Such an experience, it was thought, would be favorable to his physical and mental development; and it was justly supposed that an interesting lad of that age would be a source of amusement and an object of attachment to men, whose mode of life had given them but little opportunity to enjoy the society

FIRST EXPEDITION. 25

of such a companion. Randolph was undoubtedly the pet and the pride of the party. Eight men conducted as many carts, which contained stores, baggage, and instruments, and were each drawn by two mules. All the rest were well armed and mounted. A few extra horses, and four oxen, as an addition to the stock of provisions, completed the train. It started on the morning of Friday, the 10th of June. Mr. Choteau accompanied the party until they met an Indian, whom he had engaged to conduct them some forty miles, thus giving them a fair start.

It will be well, before entering upon a detail of the adventures of the expedition in its route, to describe the general regulations and ordinary arrangements, in travel and in camp, from day to day.

" During our journey, it was the customary practice to encamp an hour or two before sunset, when the carts were disposed so as to form a sort of barricade around a circle some eighty yards in diameter. The tents were pitched, and the horses hobbled and turned loose to graze ; and but a few minutes elapsed before the cooks of the messes, of which there were four, were busily engaged in preparing the evening meal. At nightfall the horses, mules, and oxen were driven in, and picketed — that is, secured by a halter, of which one end was tied to a small steel-shod picket, and driven into the ground; the halter being twenty or thirty feet long, which enabled them to obtain a little food during the night. When we had reached a part of the country where such a precaution became necessary, the carts being regularly arranged for defending the camp, guard was mounted at eight o'clock, consisting of three men, who were relieved every two hours ; the morning watch being horse guard for the day. At daybreak the camp was roused, the animals turned loose to graze, and breakfast generally over between six and seven o'clock, when we resumed our march, making regularly a halt at noon for one or two hours. Such was usually the order of the day, except when accident of country forced a variation ; which, however, happened but rarely."

The party was now fairly afloat on the boundless ocean of prairie, the Indian guide had left, and the excitements and perils of the service began.

" We reached the ford of the Kansas late in the afternoon of the 14th, where the river was two hundred and thirty yards wide, and commenced immediately preparations for crossing. I had expected to find the river fordable ; but it had been swollen by the late rains, and was sweeping by with an angry current, yellow and turbid as the Missouri. Up to this point, the road we had travelled was a remarkably fine one, well beaten, and level— the usual road of a

FIRST EXPEDITION. 27

prairie country. By our route, the ford was one hundred miles from the mouth of the Kansas River. Several mounted men led the way into the stream, to swim across. The animals were driven in after them, and in a few minutes all had reached the opposite bank in safety, with the exception of the oxen, which swam some distance down the river, and, returning to the right bank, were not got over until the next morning. In the mean time, the carts had been unloaded and dismantled, and an India-rubber boat, which I had brought with me for the survey of the Platte River, placed in the water. The boat was twenty feet long, and five broad, and on it were placed the body and wheels of a cart, with the load belonging to it, and three men with paddles.

" The velocity of the current, and the inconvenient freight, rendering it difficult to be managed, Basil Lajeunesse, one of our best swimmers, took in his teeth a line attached to the boat, and swam ahead in order to reach a footing as soon as possible, and assist in drawing her over. In this manner, six passages had been successfully made, and as many carts with their contents, and a greater portion of the party deposited on the left bank ; but night was drawing near, and, in our anxiety to have all over before the darkness closed in, I put upon the boat the remaining two carts, with their accompanying load. The man at the helm was timid on water, and, in his alarm ?

capsized the boat. Carts, barrels, boxes, and bales, were in a moment floating down the current ; but all the men who were on the shore jumped into the water, without stopping to think if they could swim, and almost everything — even heavy articles, such as guns and lead — was recovered.

" Two of the men, who could not swim, came nigh being drowned, and all the sugar belonging to one of the messes wasted its sweets on the muddy waters ; but our heaviest loss was a bag of coffee, which contained nearly all our provision. It was a loss which none but a traveller in a strange and inhospitable country can appreciate ; and often afterward, when excessive toil and long marching had overcome us with fatigue and weariness, we remembered and mourned over our loss in the Kansas. Carson and Maxwell had been much in the water yesterday, and both, in consequence, were taken ill."

The various aspects and incidents of prairie scenery and life are presented with great felicity of description. The following passages will be read with interest. They had met a party of trappers belonging to the American Fur Company :—

" We laughed then at their forlorn and vagabond appearance, and in our turn, a month or two afterward, furnished the same occasion for merriment to others. Even their stock of tobac-

THE PRAIRIE. 29

co, that sine qua non of a voyageur, without which the night fire is gloomy, was entirely exhausted. However, we shortened their homeward journey by a small supply of our own provision. They gave us the welcome intelligence that the buffalo were abundant some two days' march in advance, and made us a present of some choice pieces, which were a very acceptable change from our salt pork. In the interchange of news, and the renewal of old acquaintanceships, we found wherewithal to fill a busy hour ; then we mounted our horses, and they shouldered their packs, and we shook hands and parted. Among them, I had found an old companion on the northern prairie, a hardened and hardly served veteran of the mountains, who had been as much hacked and scarred as an old moustache of Napoleon's " old guard." He flourished in the sobriquet of La Tulipe, and his real name I never knew. Finding that he was going to the States only because his company was bound in that direction, and that he was rather more willing to return with me, I took him again into my service."