Fremont journal. [volume] (Fremont, Sandusky County [Ohio]) 1853-1866, 1856-07-04
TRIBUTE TO COL. FEREIONT.
Who Acquired CalifOrnia!--The Work Of
"NOtlaing bur SurVeYOr.s9

"NOthing but a Surveyors
The Pro Slavery organs throughout the
North are fond of Saying that Col FIRE.
MONT, is "a rash young man." "has done
nothing" "is nothing but a rambling sur
veyor." Read the following "official re-
port" of what the .'young surveyor" did,
and then try and think of anything equally
meritous ever done by Mr.. Buchanan.
From the annual report of the Secretary of War De-
cember s. 1916.
Secretary IIarey's Opinion of Col. Ere
mont.
CExtractJ
War Department. Dec l, '46.
+
In May, 1915, John C. Fremont, then a
brevet captain in the corpse of Topograph-
ical Engineers, and since appointed lieuten-
ant colonel, left here under orders from this
department to pursue his explorations in the
regions beyond the Rocky Mountains. The
objects of their service were, as those of
his previous explorations had been, of a
scientific character, without any view what
ever to military operations. Not an officer
or soldier of the United States army ac-
companied him; and his whole force col
sisted of sixty-two men employed by him
self for security against Indians, and for
procuring subsistence in the wilderness and
deserted country through which he was
to pass.
One of the objects he had in view was to
discover a new and shorter route from the
western base of the Rocky Mountains to
the mouth of the Columbia river. This
search, for part Of the distance, would
carry him through the unsettled, and af-
terwards through a corner of the settled
parts of California. He approached these
settlements in the winter of 1885,
Aware of the critical state of affairs be-
tween the United States and Mexico, de-
termined to give no cause of offence to the
authorities of tie province, with commend
able prudence, he halted his command on
the frontier, one hundred miles from Mon
terey, and proceeded along to that city to
explain the object OF his coming to
the commandant general Castro, and to OBJ
tain permission to 90 to the valley of the
San Joaquin, where there was game for his
men and grass for his horses, and no inhab-
itants be molested by his presence. The
leave was granted; but scarcely had he
reached the desired spot for refreshment
and repoSe, before he received information
from the American settlements, and bv ex-
press from our consul at Monterey, that
Gen. Castro was preparing to attack him
with comparatively large force of artillery,
cavalry, and infantry, upon the pretext that,
under the cover of a scientific mission, he
was exciting the American citizens to revolt.
In view of this danger, and to be in a con-
ditlon to repel an attack, he then took a
position on a mountain, at a distance Of
about thirty miles, entrenched it, raised the
flag Of the United States, and with his own
men, sixty-two in number, awaited the ap-
proach Of the eommandant general.
From the 7th to the 10th of March, Col.
Fremont and his little band maintained
this position. Gen Castro did not approach
within attacking distance, and Col. Ere
mont, adhering to his plan of avoiding all
collisions, and determined neither to CON-
promit his government nor the American
settlers ready to join him at all hazards, il
he had been attacked, abandoned his posi-
tion and commenced his march for Oregon.
intending by that route to return to the
United States. Deeming all danger from
the Mexicans to be passed, he yielded to
the wishes of some of his men who desired
to remain in the country and discharged
them from his service, and refused to re-
ceive Others in their stead, so cautious was
he to avoid doing anything to compromit
the American settlers or give even a color
of otfense to Mexican authorities. He pur-
sued his march slowly and leisurly, as the
state of his men and his horses required,
until the middle of May, and had reached
the northern shore of the great Klamath
lake, within the limits of the Oregon Ter
ritory, when he found his future progress in
that direction obstructed by impossible
snowy mountains and hostile Indians, who
had been excited against him by Gen. Cas-
tro, had killed and wounded four of his
men, and left him no repose either'in camp
or on his march. At the same time infor-
nation reached him that Gen. Castro, in ad-
dition to his Indian allies, was advancing
in person against him, with artillery and
cavalry at the head of four or five hundred
men; and that they were passing around
head of the Bay of San Francisco to a rez-
devious on the north side of it, and that
the American settlers in the valley of the
Sacramento were comprehended in the
schemes of destruction meditated against
his own party.
Under these circumstances, he determin-
ed to turn upon his Mexican pursuers, and
seek safety both for his own party and the
American settlers, not merely in the defeat
of Castro, but in the total overthrow of the
Mexican authority in California, and the
establishment of an Independent govern
ment in that extensive department. 1t was
on the 9th of June, and before the COM
mencement of the war between the United
States and Mexico could have been there
known, that this resolution was taken; and
by the 9th of July it was carried into eff
feet by a series of rapid attacks, by small
body of adventurous men, under the con-
duct of an intrepid leader, quick to pre-
ceive and able to direct the proper meas
urcs for accomplishing such daring enter
prise.
o. IL I'll r - p ooO