Word: war
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1920-1929
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...might have been U. S. President during the Civil War, or built a fortune as big as the Rockefellers' or outshone Sam Houston, Dewey and Lindbergh as heroes. But ask the man-on-the-street today who John Charles Frémont was, and the answer will probably be: "The name sounds familiar, but I can't quite place...
...emigré (Charles Frémon) who ran off with his mother. Reared in the best Charleston, S. C., society, Frémont was a quick Latin and Greek scholar. People thought he might make a teacher or a preacher, until Joel R. Poinsett (manifest destiny man, Secretary of War, giver of the poinsettia to botany) put him in the Army Topographical Corps. He explored in the upper Mississippi and Missouri Rivers, returned to Washington, D. C., with a reputation, was also pointed out as "the handsomest young man who ever walked the streets." He wooed and quickly won Jessie...
...settlers, made Suiter's fort his base, marched the length of California, put an end to Mexican domination, was made provisional governor and com-mander-in-chief of California. He paused only long enough to name San Francisco harbor the Golden Gate. Meanwhile, the U. S. had declared war on Mexico and a General Kearney arrived in California to take charge. Kearney and Frémont quarreled so violently that a lieutenant named William Tecumseh Sherman wondered: "Who the devil is the governor of California...
...supported by the leading newspapers and liberals of the North. Conservative northerners feared to have so impetuous a man in the White House when southern Democrats were shouting: "Tell me, if the hoisting of the Black Republican flag . . . by a Frenchman's bastard, while the arms of civil war are already clashing [in Kansas], is not to be deemed an overt act and declaration of war?" So, placid Fillmore of the Whig party took enough votes away from Frémont to give the election to portly, blundering Buchanan of the Democrats...
...mont went to California to look after his troublesome Mariposa properties, also made friends with Bret Harte who called Jessie a "fairy godmother." Then Lincoln was elected President and Civil War smouldered. Frémont became Commander of the Department of the West with headquarters in St. Louis. Missouri was a bed of sectional emotions; Frémont was a hot-headed commander; there were a "Hundred Days" of trouble. Lincoln removed him after he had declared martial law and prematurely emancipated the slaves in Missouri. He was given another chance as general in Virginia, but failed and fell...