American explorer, soldier and political leader, was born in Savannah, Georgia, on the 21st of January 1813. His father, a native of France, died when the boy was in his sixth year, and his mother, a member of an aristocratic Virginia family, then removed to Charleston, South Carolina. In 1828, after a year's special preparation, young Fremont entered the junior class of the college of Charleston, and here displayed marked ability, especially in mathematics; but his irregular attendance and disregard of college discipline led to his expulsion from the institution, which, however, conferred upon him a degree in 1836. In 1833 he was appointed teacher of mathematics on board the sloop of war "Natchez", and was so engaged during a cruise along…show more content… In July 1838 he was appointed second lieutenant of Topographical Engineers in the United States Army, and for the next three years he was assistant to the French explorer, Jean Nicholas Nicollet (1786-1843), employed by the war department to survey and map a large part of the country lying between the upper waters of the Mississippi and Missouri rivers. In 1841 Fremont surveyed, for the government, the lower course of the Des Moines river. In the same year he married Jessie, the daughter of Senator Thomas Hart Benton of Missouri, and it was in no small measure through Benton's influence with the government that Fremont was enabled to accomplish within the next few years the exploration of much of the territory between the Mississippi Valley and the Pacific…show more content… In the spring of 1845 Fremont was despatched on a third expedition for the professed purposes of further exploring the Great Basin and the Pacific Coast, and of discovering the easiest lines of communication between them, as well as for the secret purpose of assisting the United States, in case of war with Mexico, to gain possession of California. He and his party of sixty-two arrived there in January 1846. Owing to the number of American immigrants who had settled in California, the Mexican authorities there became suspicious and hostile, and ordered Fremont out of the province. Instead of obeying he pitched his camp near the summit of a mountain overlooking Monterey, fortified his position, and raised the United States flag. A few days later he was proceeding toward the Oregon border when new instructions from Washington caused him to retrace his steps and, perhaps, to consider plans for provoking war. The extent of his responsibility for the events that ensued is not wholly clear, and has been the subject of much controversy; his defenders have asserted that he was not responsible for the seizure of Sonoma or for the so-called "Bear-Flag War"; and that he played a creditable part throughout. Commodore John D. Sloat, after
