Frémont hired hunters, mapmakers,
and camp hands. He also hired Christopher “Kit” Carson, an experienced scout,
as a guide. The expedition was successful, returning with more accurate maps
of the route.
In 1843 Frémont went west again,
this time to map the rest of the trail to Oregon. Again, Kit Carson was with
him. They followed the trail to Fort Vancouver on the Columbia River, then
turned south and made their way into California from Nevada. The pass they
used through the mountains is now called Kit Carson Pass. They were caught
by snowstorms in the Sierra Nevada, but pushed on into the Sacramento Valley
and to Sutter’s Fort.
After a visit to Washington,
D.C. to present the report of his journey, Frémont was on his way back to
California, this time with a group of 62 armed men. Their orders were to survey
parts of the Sierra Nevada, and to fight the Mexicans if war broke out in
California. On this trip Frémont named the Humboldt River in Nevada. He made
another winter crossing of the Sierra to Sutter’s Fort, and then went on to
Monterey where he met with Thomas Larkin, the American consul.
After that meeting Frémont was
met by Mexican forces under General José Castro, who ordered him to leave.
In a defiant move, Frémont raised the U.S.
flag at Gabilan Peak (now Fremont Peak), but seeing that his troops were outnumbered,
he then headed north to Oregon.
On May 8, 1846, Lt. Archibald
H. Gillespie arrived on horseback with a message for Frémont from Washington,
D.C. No one knows what that message said, but after reading it, Frémont headed
south again into California and camped near Sonoma.
Frémont was soon taking part
in events leading to the American conquest of California. Though he did not
participate in the 1846 Bear Flag Revolt, he was no doubt a leading force
behind it.
When American ships raised the
American flag at Monterey a few weeks later, Frémont was put in command of
a battalion. He led this battalion to southern California, where he accepted
the surrender of Mexican General Andrés Pico at Cahuenga on January 13, 1847,
ending the Mexican War in California.
