John Charles Frémont

As a second lieutenant in the U.S. Army Corps of Topographical Engineers, John C. Frémont made many explorations of routes to the Pacific. In 1841, he married Jessie Benton, the daughter of Missouri Senator Thomas Hart Benton, forging a powerful alliance. With Jessie Benton Frémont often acting as an uncredited coauthor, Frémont published numerous popular accounts of his western expeditions.

In 1846, Frémont fought in the Bear Flag Revolt in Sacramento Valley against Mexican authorities, an act of insubordination that led to his dismissal. Yet in 1849, Frémont was elected California’s first senator. He made an unsuccessful bid for president as the Republican Party’s first candidate in 1856, running on an antislavery platform. During the Civil War, Abraham Lincoln appointed him major general in command of the Department of the West. After Frémont issued an unauthorized decree in August 1861 emancipating Missouri’s enslaved people, Lincoln relieved him of his command.