The Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1837-1867, 1862-03-14
THE CALIFORNIAN.


imputations OF when he has been the target
and which he has hitherto received in perfec
silence This defense was made in obedience
to requisition of joint committee of the
two Houses Of Congress on the Conduct Of
the War, and was originally submitted to
that committee. There Gen Fremont rested,
trusting that sense of justice would suggest
to the committee or to Congress the proprie-
ty of ordering It's publication. This hope
has thus far been disappointed; and he re-
mains to this day, in the eyes Of large pro-
portion of the community, major general
suddenly and peremptorily stripped of his
command, deprived Of all opportunity for
service, and officially accused Of the graves,
errors and blundsrs, yet who has not had a
word to say in his own vindication. And, so
long as the contest for National existence
seemed doubtful one, he felt it his duty to
suffer in silence, enduring reproaches that he
knew to be unjust, and loaded down with I'M
putations which mere exhibition of public
documents would dissipate. But the recent
glorious successes Of the Union arms would
seem to have dispelled all necessity for fur
Their reserve, especially since his vindication
is not based on the impeachment Of any one
else. He arraigns no other commander ;
blames no one; but is content with showing
that he did the best that the means at his
command would allow, and that the repulse
and death Of Gen Lyon near Springfield and
the capture of Mullisan at Lexington occur
red under circumstances that placed their re-
lief entirely beyond his power. He places
the official documents so fully and clearly be.
fore the reader that his adversaries, if such
there shall be after reading his statement,
will find in those documents all the data re-
quired for full calculation of the subject
Let us briefly illustrate:
The battle of Bull Run was fought July
2lst, and its results were known to seven
eighths of the American people before the
next sunset. The Unionists were profoundly
dismayed and depressed the secessionists
and their sympathizers were extravasantly
elated. The latter instinctively rushed to
arms in every quarter, confidently expecting
to drive the Cnionists out of the slave states
and federal district forthwith. In Missouri,
they numbered three-fourths OF the men &C.
customed to the use Of arms, with the gov
ernor at their head, and the full military
strength of Arkansas, under Ben McCulloch,
to their aid
Gen Fremont left New York to take COM
nand of his department the day after Bull
Run. He reached St Louis on the 25th.-
The three-months' men who formed the bul
IT his forces were just dispensing, their terms
If enlistment having expired or being about
. expire. Many if not most of them had
lever seen the face Of paymaster; few were
Inclined to re-enlist at that gloomy crisis
Heavy rebel forces We're threatening Cairo,
springfield and other important points, with
he confident expectation of soon capturing
lot only Jefferson City but St Louis, which
vas itself hotbed of barely depressed trea-
ION. There were not at that moment half so
many troops at his command as there were
'ebels pressing upon him. while arms, NUM-
ions, transportation, were not to be had on
any terms. Thousands of brave volunteers
ay for weeks in camp idle and useless for .
want Of arms and equipments, while positions
were abandoned and reverses sustained for |
the lack Of their services. The very arms
which Gen Fremont had purchased in Eu-
rope, and which arrived at this port after his
departure for the West, were diverted to
Washington by his superiors, leaving him
weaponless. TO have saved Lyon with the
force at his command, he must have risked
and probably sacrificed both Cairo and St
Louis. In the midst of his efforts to relieve
Col Mullgan and save Lexington, he was
ordered by telegraph to send five of his best
regiments to Washington, and had no choice
bat obedience, though that was like tearing
out his heartstrings. The forces which he
ordered from all directions to the relief of
Mulligan were unable to move or failed to
arrive in season; in some instances, his Or
ders were not received until long after they
should have been. And finally, when he
had created an effective army, and taken the
field against Price, who retreated before him,
and had, in defiance of the sanguine predic-
tons of his professional detrac:ols, crossed
the Usage and pursued the flying rebels to
Springfield, he was superseded just as he was
on the point of bringing Price to battle,
and ordered to report himself at St Louis
without delay. Thus ended his command
and his campaign.
BY the great body of our West-Point-
graduated officers, Gen Fremont was preiuds.
ed and toredoomed to fail; while a portion
of the press pursued him from the outset
with rancor which it seemed impossible to
augment; yet, after the publication of his
proclamation proffering freedom to the slaves
OF rebels in arms against the Unien, it mas
augmented. No other commander has been
pursued with such implacable malevolence
"A hostility which even his removal has no,
suificed to satiate.
The letters and dispatches appended tc
Gen fremonts defense are perfect maya
zine for the future historian. 1t seems i'm
possible even to US, whose experience is SC
recent and our recollection so vivid, to real