on his journal when Jessie enters the room.... |
"It should be a military report, and that's all. Short, direct and nothing fancy". " Where I went, what I saw, what I did. Plain and simple". "Damn it, I can't!" |
Jessie reads several pages and says: "If you could tell it to me, the way you already have and well..... let me write it down for you." "What have we got to lose?" On Frémont's answering smile he nods his agreement. |
| At a party celebration the Frémont's
new house in Washington D.C.
Frémont's journal has proven to be a huge success. |
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During the party the secretary of the navy George Bancroft approaches Charles with a proposition: he explains that president Polk would like him to journey to California together with a civilion expedition to act as a presence there in the event that Mexico declares war on the United States - an act that could come about if Texas decided to join the Union. Bancroft also explains that he is sending word to Commodore Sloan of the Pacific squadron that in the event of war with Mexico, Sloanis to seize California. |
When Jessie asks if Charles will be receiving written orders from Presisent Polk for the expedition, Bancroft informs that there will be not written orders and that since it would take several months to get a message through to Frémont should war occur and he has to gauge the situation on his own even as his duties. Charles reluctantly agrees to honor the President's
request. Jessie drops her argument when
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| On his third expedition in 1845 - 47 Fremont,
now a Captain in the topographical Corps, got involved in the American
conquest of California and was elevated to the position of Lieutenant Colonel,
in charge of the California Battalion of mounted riflemen. The battalion
was mostly comprised of his mountain-man and Indian expeditionary force
together with Americans who had recently become California settlers.
In September 1846 Fremont visited the site where a city would be named after him 110 years later and camped near Mission San Jose. "This is a pretty place, this mission" he wrote in a letter to Thomas O. Larkin, US Consul to California when California belonged to Mexico. Larkin was in 1846 working as a Confidential Agent for the US Government. Fremont had appointed Larkin to be his private agent and turned over $4,000.00 to him to buy some land in the San Francisco Bay area. He went on in his letter to describe both the Mission San Jose area and another piece of property near Mount Diablo as desirable purchases. He even pointed out that Juan B. Alvarado, an ex-governor of California, owned an orchard near the mission. But in February, 1847 Larkin purchased for Fremont another piece of property that was also owned by Alvarado but many miles from Mission San Jose: the Las Mariposas rancho in the Sierra foothills south of the Merced River. |
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| In the Sacramento Valley Frémont and
his expedition meet with John Sutter at Sutter's fort. Sutter is surprised
by the size of Fremont's expedition force, cloth to sixty men. They are
all invited to a feast being hosted by John Sutter.
During the course of the feast Frémont learns from several American trappers that the Mexican government forces in California are not paid well, if at all and sustain themselves by robbing the local populace made up of Spanish-Mexican settlers who had settled the land over twenty years ago. The trappers also predict that the settlers
are prepared to rise up
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.
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| In December 1845, Captain Fremont, and a force
of sixty men, entered into the Mexican province of Alta California ostensibly
to map the west coast area. Although he officially made contact with Mexican
authorities, his movements around the province was a point of consternation
to Mexico's Northern Regional Commander, General Jose Castro. In particular,
the latter did not care for Fremont's contact and sympathy for American
settlers and emigrants.
The Fremont Party having traversed the territory as far north as Klamath on the California/Oregon border, turned south upon hearing that a proclamation had been issued by General Castro, aimed at driving out foreigners from the province. Fremont, though sympathetic could not commit U.S. Forces to aid the settlers. Nevertheless, he did decide to stay and advise those who chose to confront the Mexican authorities. Captain Fremont established his base camp at the base of four buttes (Sutter Buttes) in the Sacramento Valley a few miles north of John Sutter's Fort. Word of the camp reached a group of settlers who were most vociferous in their dislike of the province's government. Leader of this group calling themselves Osos (Spanish for Bears), was Ezekiel "Stuttering" Merritt. Merritt was well known in the territory, and the west, for having been a fur trapper in the Rocky Mountains. Captain Fremont gladly accepted the twenty Osos, and went so far as to appoint Zeke Merritt a lieutenant of the irregulars. Fremont remained in the background of events, not wishing to involve the United States in any altercations the Osos might be involved in; however, he and his force had already been branded "bandits" by General Castro, after an alleged horse stealing episode near Salinas during May 1846. Hence, in early June, Captain Fremont gave advice to capture the Northern Headquarters of General Mariano Vallejo at Sonoma. On June 14, the Osos took the town of Sonoma in the early dawn light without firing a shot. And with the acceptance of General Vallejo's surrender the Osos declared California a Republic, and raised the Bear Flag over the plaza.
Captain Fremont saluted the Bear Flaggers, whose force now numbered ninety, when both the flag of the United States and California Republic were raised on July 4, 1846, in celebration of United States and California Independence.
Following the celebration, Captain Fremont proposed that a unified force be organized, under his command. A discussion was held July 5, with William Brown Ide (Grigsby-Ide emigrant party of 1845), who the Bear Flaggers had elected as their Commander-in-Chief. A compact was drawn up for all volunteers to sign, which in part read: Not to violate the chastity of Women; conduct their revolution honorably; and pledge obedience to their officers. With the signatures or marks of the men, the California Battalion was formed. Fremont appointed a Marine Corps Officer, Captain Archibald H. Gillespie, his Adjutant. Captain Gillespie had joined Fremont when the latter was at the Oregon Border. Gillespie had crossed the Mexican nation and entered California about the time hostilities broke out with the opening of the Mexican War, May 1846. Fremont requested the Battalion's volunteers to elect their officers from the ranks. Chosen were: Richard Owens, John Grigsby, Granville P. Swift, and Henry L. Ford. The California Battalion was given further legitimacy when on July 23, it was recognized by the American military leader in California, Commodore Robert Field Stockton, Commander of U.S. Naval Forces in the Pacific. J.C. Fremont was promoted to Major by Commodore Stockton, and given command of all Volunteer Militia. Major Fremont and the California Battalion eventually came under the command of Brigadier General Stephen Watt Kearney. Following this command change the Battalion came into prominence when in January 1847 they accepted the surrender of the Californios, thereby ending the conflict in California. |
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his own counsel of the trial. |
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| Caught up in a political battle between army
and navy, Fremont took the side of Commodore Stockton who had appointed
him governor of California.
But Stockton soon capitulated to General Kearney and Kearny brought Fremont back to Washington toward the end of 1847 where he was tried and court-martialed for mutiny and insubordination. President Polk pardoned him.............. |
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Frémont acting his own counsel. He also questions General Kearny whose ordes Frémont had refused. When the orders from Washington sustained Kearny had Frémont court-martialed. |
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"I haven't spent the past twenty-five years in the service of this country, to have my son-in-law vilified by some ungrateful tin-soldier-despot." |
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