CHAPTER TWO
NOTES
1. Biographies on Fremont are numerous. The most reliable is Allan Nevins, Fremont, Pathmarker of the West (New York: Longmens, Green and Co., 1955). Another biography that outlines his explorations in detail is Frederick S. Dellenbaugh, Fremont and '49 (New York: Knickerbocker Press, 1914) . Other biographies include Herbert Bashford and Harr Wagner, A Man Unafraid: The Story of John Charles Fremont (San Francisco: Harr Wagner Publishing Corp, 1927); Alice Eyer, The Famous Fremonts and Their America (n.p.: Fine Arts Press, 1948); Cardinal Goodwin, John Charles Fremont: An Explanation of His Career (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1930). Several biographies were published in 1856 at the time of his campaign for the presidency and are highly laudatory in nature: John Bigelow, Memoir of the Life and Public Service of John Charles Fremont (Boston: Ticknor and Fields, 1856). This work is valuable for the correspondence and orders included. All of the foregoing biographies are pro-Fremont; however, Nevins and Dellenbaugh's works do not hesitate to criticize Fremont. The Fremont papers have been published by Donald Jackson and Mary Lee Spence (eds.), The Expeditions of John Charles Fremont, 3 vols., by the University of Illinois Press. Fremont wrote Memoirs of My Life (Chicago: Belford, Clarke and Co., 1887). Portions of this work and his "Geographical Memoir" were published by Allan Nevins in Narratives of Exploration and Adventure (New York, 1956). Besides the biographies, the explorations are outlined in Goetzmann, Army Exploration, p. 117.
2. These orders can be found in Donald Jackson and Mary Lee Spence (eds.), The Expeditions of John Charles Fremont, I (Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press, 1970), pp. 395-97; National Archives, 77, Records of the OCE, Letters Sent by the Topographical Bureau, Abert to Fremont, 12 Feb 1845, LS 211, TE 77 (hereafter cited as LS, TE 77). See also Goetzmann, Army Exploration, p. 117.
3. "The Annual Report of the Chief of Topographical Engineers," Report of the Secretary of War, Sen. Doc. 1, 28th Cong., 2d sess., 1844, pp. 218, 221-22. Colonel Abert's words are "The general outline of Captain Fremont's duties are indicated in the annual report from this office."
4. Fremont, Narratives, p. 435. Background information on this subject is included in Goetzmann, Army Exploration, pp. 102-03; Nevins, Pathmarker, pp. 192-204; Bauer, The Mexican War, p. 165.
5. Fremont, Narratives, p. 435.
6. John Charles Fremont, "The Conquest of California," The Century Magazine, 41 (Apr 1891) : 920.
7. Quoted in Jackson and Spence (eds.), Fremont, I, pp. 407-08; Abert to Fremont, 12 Feb 1856, LS 211, TE 77.
8. Fremont, -the Conquest of California," The Century Magazine, 919.
9. Jackson and Spence (eds.), Fremont, I, pp. 407-08; Abert to Fremont, 10 Apr 1845, LS 118, TE 77.
10. Jackson and Spence (eds.), Fremont, I, p. 419; Abert to Fremont, 9 May 1845, LR 130, TE 77.
11. Jackson and Spence (eds.), Fremont, I, pp. 422-23; Abert to Fremont, 14 May 1845, LS 133, TE 77; Abert to Fremont, 26 May 1845, LS 136, TE 77
12. Washington Union News, May 1845, as quoted in Eyer, The Famous Fremonts and Their America, p. 137.
13. Goetzmann, Army Exploration, p. 118. Preuss stayed behind and prepared a map based on data from Fremont's second expedition, which was actually a series of large-scale maps carefully depicting all necessary information along the line of travel. For a detailed discussion and reproductions of these maps see Wheat, Mapping the Trans-Mississippi West, III, pp. 24-29. Some of the maps may also be seen reproduced in Goetzmann, Army Exploration, back cover in original edition; and in Jackson and Spence (eds.), Fremont, Map Portfolio and "Commentary" pp. 14-15. For more on Kern and Talbot see Robert V. Hine, Edward Kern and American Expansion (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1982); and Robert V. Hine and Savoie Lottinville (eds.), Soldier in the West: Letters of Theodore Talbot During His Services in California, Mexico and Oregon 1845-53 (Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press, 1972) .
14. Nevins, Pathmarker, p. 207; Dellenbaugh, Fremont and '49, p. 288; Bashford and Wagner, A Man Unafraid, p. 157.
15. Fremont, Narratives, p. 437; Goetzmann, Army Exploration, p. 118.
16. John C. Fremont, "Geographic Memoir upon Upper California, in Illustration of his Map of Oregon and California: Addressed to the Senate of the United States by John C. Fremont," Sen. Misc. Doc. 148, 30th Gong., 1st sess., 1848, p. 46; James W. Abert, "Journal of Lieutenant James A. [sic] Abert, from Bent's Fort to St. Louis in 1845," Sen. Exec. Doc. 438, 29th Gong., 1st sess., 1846, pp. 7-8. For a description of mapping techniques see Goetzmann, Army Exploration, pp. 438-39.
17. Fremont, Narratives, pp. 440-41.
18. Fremont, Narratives, pp. 441-43, 446-47; Dellenbaugh, Fremont and '49, pp.291-92; Goetzmann, Army Exploration, p. 119. Nevins noted that Fremont apparently did not know of jediah Smith's crossing in 1827. Walker and Peter S. Ogden crossed over north of the Great Salt Lake to the Humboldt, and the Bartleson Bidwell party crossed over in 1841. See Nevins, Pathmarker, pp. 472-73 fn.
19. Fremont, Narratives, pp. 448-54; Nevins, Pathmarker, p. 213. Kern's journal was published more than 20 years later. Edward M. Kern, "Journal of an Exploration of Mary's of Humbolt River, Carson Lake, and Owens River and Lakes in 1845," appendix to James H. Simpson, Report of Explorations across the Great Basin of the Territory of Utah . . . in 1859 (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1876), pp. 477-80.
20. Fremont, Narratives, pp. 454-57; Nevins, Pathmarker, pp. 215-16.
21. Fremont, Narratives, p. 458-64.
23. Fremont, Narratives, pp. 465-68; H.H. Bancroft outlines the details of the Californians' internal problems in History of California (San Francisco: A.L. Bancroft and Co., 1886), IV, pp. 518-45, V, pp. 30-53. See also Justin H. Smith, War With Mexico (New York: Macmillan Co., 1919) I, pp. 315-30; Nevins, Pathmarker, p. 218; Eisenhower, So Far From God, p. 211.
24. Fremont, Narratives, pp. 467-71; Eisenhower, So Far From God, p. 211.
25. Fremont, Narratives, pp. 467-71; Bancroft, History of California, V, pp. 7 and 102; Dellenbaugh, Fremont and '49, pp. 310-11; Nevins, Pathmarker, p. 227; Bernard De Voto, The Year of Decision 1846 (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1943), p. 42. The letters from the California officials are contained in Thomas O. Larkin, The Larkin Papers, IV (Berkeley CA: University of California Press, 1951), pp. 228-29.
26. Bigelow, Memoir of the Life and Public Service of, john Charles Fremont, p. 133; Bancroft, History of California, V, pp. 12-13; Rives, The United States and Mexico, 1821-48, p. 174; Bauer, The Mexican War, p. 166.
27. Fremont, Narratives, pp. 472, 477.
29. The letters were dated 17 October and 1 November 1845. Buchanan's instructions in the 17 October letter were committed to memory by Gillespie and destroyed because he was subject to search while passing through foreign territory. Larkin, The Larkin Papers, IV, pp. 44-47, 82. Also see Werner H. Marti, Messenger of Destiny: The California Adventures 1846-1847, of Archibald H. Gillespie, U.S. Marine Corps (San Francisco, CA: John Howell Books, 1960), pp. 8-9.
30. Fremont, Narratives, p. 497; Eisenhower, So Far From God, pp. 212-13.
31. Ibid., p. 498. For a detailed discussion of the cipher and dispatch from Buchanan see Josiah Royce, California from the Conquest in 1848 to the Second Vigilance Committee in San Francisco (Boston and New York: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1914), pp. 123-50. Senator Benton also gave his views on this subject in support of Fremont. Thomas Hart Benton, Thirty Years View (New York: D. Appleton and Co., 1854), II, pp. 689-91.
33. Ibid., pp. 499-507. Kit Carson gave his version in a later interview in the Washington Union Nexus, 16 June 1846; Kit Carson, Kit Carson's Autobiography, Milo M. Quaife (ed.) (Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press, 1935) , pp. 96-99. See also Edwin L. Sabin, Kit Carson Days 1809-1868, I (n.p.: Press of the Pioneers, Inc., 1935), pp. 443-44.
34. Nevins, Pathmarker, pp. 281-86.
35. Portions of letters in Bancroft, History of California, V, p. 26.
36. Ibid., pp. 85-109; Nevins, Pathmarker, pp. 259-61. Nevins noted that the revolution could well have started without Fremont's presence. Also see Billington, The Far Western Frontier, pp. 164-65; and K. Jack Bauer, The Mexican War, 1846-1848 (New York: Macmillan Co., 1974), p. 168.
37. Nevins, Pathmarker, pp. 264-66; Letter quoted in Goetzmann, Army Exploration, pp. 122-23; Simeon Ide, A Biographical Sketch of the Life of William B. Ide (Glorieta, NM: Rio Grande Press, 1967), pp. 114-15.
38. Fremont to Montgomery, 16 June 1846, as quoted in Nevins, Pathmarker, pp. 273-74. Also see Bancroft, History of California, V, pp. 101-31, 145-90.
39. Nevins, Pathmarker, pp. 275-79. Bauer states the battalion numbered 224, The Mexican War, p. 169.
40. Nevins, Pathmarker, pp. 279-80; Bauer, The Mexican War, p. 170.
41. Frederick Walpole, Four Years in the Pacific, as quoted in Dellenbaugh, Fremont and '49, pp. 351-52.
42. Smith, War With Mexico, I, p. 336; Dellenbaugh, Fremont and '49, pp. 353-54; Bauer, The Mexican War, pp. 172-73; Eisenhower, So Far From God, pp. 214-15.
43. Smith, War With Mexico, I, pp. 336-37; Dellenbaugh, Fremont and '49, pp. 356-57; Nevins, Pathmarker, pp. 291-93; Bancroft, History of California, V, pp. 255-87.
44. Bancroft, History of California, V, pp. 314-15; Nevins, Pathmarker, p. 294; Bauer, The Mexican War, pp. 183-84; Eisenhower, So FarFrom God, pp. 217-18.
45. Nevins, Pathmarker, pp. 295-96; Dellenbaugh, Fremont and '49, pp. 365-68.
46. Nevins, Pathmarker, p. 296; Dellenbaugh, Fremont and '49, pp. 369-71.
47. Nevins, Pathmarker, pp. 299-300; Bancroft, History of California, V, pp. 405-07; Smith, War With Mexico, I, p. 346; Bauer, The Mexican War, pp. 193-94.
48. Quoted in Fremont, "Conquest of California," The Century Magazine, 41 (April 1891): 927. There are many views on this controversy. Nearly all of Fremont's biographers, especially Upham and Bigelow, portray Fremont as an innocent and Kearny as the villain. Nevins and Dellenbaugh are more objective. Kearny is strongly supported by his biographer, Dwight L. Clarke, Stephen Watts Kearny, Soldier of the West (Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press, 1961), pp. 256-87. Another western historian wrote, "it was a rather stupid mistake because an army officer should have known it was wiser to obey a superior of his own branch of service." Edward S. Wallace, The Great Reconnaissance: Soldiers, Artists and the Scientists on the Frontier, 1848-1861 (Boston: Little, Brown and Co. 1955), p. 173. Justin Smith also commented that Fremont was a provokingly unprincipled and unsuccessful schemer, and that Kearny showed himself grasping, jealous, domineering and harsh," War With Mexico, II, p. 454. Also see Theodore Griva, Military Governments in California, 1846-1850 (Glendale, CA: Arthur H. Clark Co., 1963), pp. 56-103.
49. Correspondence between Fremont and Kearny regarding Fremont's request to join his regiment in Mexico, Kearny's refusal of the request, and a later request from Fremont to return separately are contained in Bigelow, Life and Public Service of John Charles Fremont, pp. 189-214; Nevins, Pathmarker, pp. 320-21; Dellenbaugh, Fremont and '49, pp. 375-77.
50. Bauer, The Mexican War, pp. 367-68; Nevins, Pathmarker, pp. 327-42; Clarke, Stephen Watts Kearny, Soldier of the West, pp. 338-73. Extracts of the trial are contained in Bigelow, Life and Public Service of John Charles Fremont, pp. 217-318. Benton's comments are contained in his Thirty Years View, II, pp. 715-19.
51. Goetzmann, Army Exploration, p. 122.
52. Fremont, "Geographic Memoir," Sen. Misc. Doc. 148, Goetzmann, Army Exploration, p. 106. A detailed discussion of the map may be found in Wheat, Mapping the Trans-Mississippi West, 1540-1861, III, pp. 55-62. Reproductions of two editions of this map are located opposite pages 56 and 57.
53. Fremont, "Geographic Memoir," Sen. Misc. Doc. 148, p. 44.
55. Jackson and Spence (eds.), Fremont, Map Portfolio and "Commentary," pp. 15-16; Wheat, Mapping the Trans-Mississippi West, 1540-1861, III, fn, p. 56.
56. Goetzmann, Army Exploration, p. 123. Robert Selph Henry also discusses Fremont's impulsiveness in The Story of the Mexican War (New York and Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill Co., 1950) , p. 113.
57. Col Abert to Fremont, 14 May 1845, LS 133, TE 77; Jackson and Spence (eds.), Fremont, I, pp. 422-23; Goetzmann, Army Exploration, pp. 117-18, 123; Lt Abert, "Journal," Sen. Exec. Doc. 438, p. 2. The following account is primarily based on Lt. Abert's journal.
58. Abert's 1846 expedition is discussed in the next chapter. Abert, Journal," Sen. Exec. Doc. 438, pp. 3-5.
59. Ibid., pp. 2, 7-8; Goetzmann, Army Exploration, p. 124.
60. Abert, "Journal," Sen. Exec. Doc. 438, pp. 3-5, 14-45.
61. Ibid., pp. 47-49, 55-58. Distance and latitude cited in Gouverneur K. Warren, "Memoir to Accompany the Map of the Territory of the United States from the Mississippi River to the Pacific Ocean (1858) . . . Exploring Expeditions since AD 1800," U.S. War Department, Reports of the Explorations and Surveys . . . for a Railroad from the Mississippi River to the Pacific Ocean, 1853-6, XI, House Exec. Doc. 91, 33d Cong., 2d sess., 1861, p. 52.
64. Wheat, Mapping the Trans-Mississippi West, II, pp. 192-93. A reproduction of this map is opposite page 193. Warren, "Memoir," House Exec. Doc. 91, p. 52.
65. Abert, "Journal," Sen. Exec. Doc. 438; Goetzmann, Army Exploration, p. 126.
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