Frémont

Frémont, JOHN CHARLES, an American explorer, was born at Savannah, Georgia, January 21, 1813, the son of a Frenchman and a Virginian lady. In 1835 he was appointed professor of mathematics in the navy, but soon turned his attention to civil-engineering, and was employed in surveys under the topographical corps, in which he received a commission in 1838. In 1842 he explored the South Pass of the Rocky Mountains, under government authority, and demonstrated the feasibility of an overland route between the two sides of the continent. The highest peak of the Wind River Mountains (13,570 feet above the sea), which he ascended in August, is now called Frémont's Peak. His report of the expedition attracted much attention. In 1843 he again crossed the South Pass, explored the Great Salt Lake, and advanced as far as Fort Vancouver, near the mouth of the Columbia River. On his return, in the following winter, he encountered great sufferings from cold and hunger, and was compelled to force a passage over the snow-covered mountains into California, which he accomplished in forty days, reaching the Sacramento in March, with his men almost reduced to skeletons. He returned to Kansas in July, and the remainder of the year was taken up in preparing his report. He was brevetted captain in January 1845, and in the spring of the same year set out on a third expedition to explore the watershed between the Mississippi and Pacific. During the war with Mexico he cleared the northern part of California of Mexican troops, but became involved in a dispute between two of his superior officers in regard to the right of command in California, which led to his trial by court-martial, when he was sentenced to be dismissed from the service. The president remitted the penalty, but Frémont resigned his commission. In 1848 he started upon a fourth expedition, at his own expense, along the upper waters of the Rio Grande; but, the guide having lost his way among the snows of the great Sierra, the survivors—only two-thirds of the party—were compelled to return to Santa Fé, after unspeakable sufferings, in which they had been even driven to cannibalism to support life. In 1849, however, he succeeded in reaching California, where he settled, and in the following year took his seat as senator for the newly-admitted state. In 1850, also, he received a gold medal from the king of Prussia, and the 'founder's medal' of the Royal Geographical Society of London, while the Geographical Society of Berlin made him an honorary member. In 1853 he conducted a fifth expedition along the route of the fourth. In 1856 he was the Republican and anti-slavery candidate for the presidency, but was defeated by Buchanan; in 1864 he was again nominated by a section of the party, but withdrew in favour of Lincoln, 'to prevent the election of the Democratic candidate.' In 1861-62 he was employed in the regular army, with the commission of major-general, but he resigned rather than serve under General Pope. In 1873 the French government sentenced him by default to fine and imprisonment for fraud in connection with his scheme for a southern railway to the Pacific, although he appears free from any real responsibility for the misstatements on which the action was based. Frémont was governor of Arizona in 1878-82, and died 13th July 1890. He published, besides accounts of his explorations, Memoirs of my Life (1886). See also his wife's Souvenirs of my Times (1887).