LIEUTENANT-COLONEL FREMONT.

LIEUTENANT-COLONEL JOHN C. FREMONT is a native of South Carolina. He served as first assistant to the celebrated Nicollet, and was appointed to the United States' army as second lieutenant topographical engineers, July 7th, 1838, and in that capacity has several times conducted expeditions across the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific. By the instrumentality of his father-in-law, Hon. Thomas H. Benton, he has lately [May 27th, 1846] been appointed to his present station.

In May, 1845, Fremont received orders from the War Department at Washington, to pursue his explorations in the regions beyond the Rocky Mountains. His force amounted to sixty-two men. One of the objects contemplated, was the discovery of a new and shorter route from the western base of the Rocky Mountains to the mouth of the Columbia river. To accomplish this it was necessary to journey, for a part of the distance, through the unsettled portions of California, and a small tract of the inhabited region. He approached these settlements in the winter of 1845-6, and halting his command on the frontier, one hundred miles from Monterey, he proceeded alone to that city, to explain the object of his coming, and obtain permission to enter the valley of the San Joaquin. This was granted, but scarcely had he reached the desired spot, than he received authentic information, that the Mexican general, Castro, was preparing to attack him with a large force of artillery, cavalry and infantry, supposing that, under cover of a scientific mission, Fremont was exciting the American settlers to revolt. The captain did not retreat; but taking a position on a mountain overlooking Monterey at a distance of about thirty miles, he entrenched it, raised the

OPERATIONS IN CALIFORNIA.

205 flag of the United States, and with his men awaited the approach

of the enemy.

From the 7th to the 10th of March, Lieutenant-Colonel Fremont and his little band maintained this position. General Castro did not approach within attacking distance, and Captain Fremont, adhering to his plan of avoiding all collisions, and determined neither to compromit his government, nor the American settlers, ready to join him at all hazards if he had been attacked, abandoned his position, 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, discharged them from his service, and refused to receive others in their stead, so cautious was he to avoid doing any thing which would compromit the American settlers, or give even a colour of offence to the Mexican authorities. He pursued his march slowly and leisurely, as the state of his men and horses required, until the middle of May, and had reached the northern shore of the greater Tlamath lake, within the limits of the Oregon Territory, when he found his further progress in that direction obstructed by impassable snowy mountains and hostile Indians, who had been excited against him by General Castro, had killed and wounded four of his men, and left him no repose either in camp or on his march. At the same time, information reached him that General Castro, in addition to his Indian allies, was advancing in person against him, with artillery and cavalry, at the head of four or five hundred men; that they were passing around the head of the Bay of San Francisco to a rendezvous on the north side of it, and that the American settlers in the valley of the Sacramento were comprehended in the scheme of destruction meditated against his own party. Under these circumstances, he determined 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 government in that extensive department. It was on the 6th of June, and before the commencement of the war between the United States and Mexico could have been known, that this resolution was taken; and, by the 5th of July, it was carried into effect by a series of rapid attacks by a small body of adventurous men, under the conduct of an intrepid leader, quick

to perceive and able to direct the proper measures for accomplishing such a daring enterprise. On the 11th of June, a convoy of two hundred horses for Castro's camp, with an officer and fourteen men, were surprised and captured by twelve of Lieutenant-Colonel Fremont's party. On the 15th, at daybreak, the military post of Sonoma was surprised and taken, with nine brass cannon, two hundred and fifty stands of muskets, and several officers, and some men and munitions of war. Leaving a small garrison in Sonoma, Lieutenant-Colonel Fremont went to the Sacramento to arouse the American settlers but scarcely had he arrived there, when an express reached him from the garrison of Sonoma, with information that Castro's whole force was crossing the bay to attack that place. This intelligence was received in the afternoon of the 23d of June, while he was on the American fork of the Sacramento, eighty miles from the little garrison at Sonoma; and, at two o'clock on the morning of the 25th, he arrived at that place with ninety riflemen from the American settlers in that valley. The enemy had not yet appeared. Scouts were sent out to reconnoitre, and a party of twenty fell in with a squadron of seventy dragoons, (all of Castro's force which had crossed the bay,) attacked and defeated it, killing and wounding five, without harm to themselves; the Mexican commander, De la Torre, barely escaping with the loss of his transport boats, and nine pieces of brass artillery, spiked.

The country north of the Bay of San Francisco being cleared of the enemy, Lieutenant-Colonel Fremont returned to Sonoma on the evening of the 4th of July, and, on the morning of the 5th, called the people together, explained to them the condition of things in the province, and recommended an immediate declaration of independence. The declaration was made, and he was selected to take the chief direction of affairs. The attack on Castro was the next object. He was at Santa Clara, an intrenched post on the upper or south side of the Bay of San Francisco, with four hundred men and two pieces of field-artillery. A circuit of more than one hundred miles must be traversed to reach him. On the 6th of July the pursuit was commenced, by a body of one hundred and sixty mounted riflemen, commanded by Colonel Fremont in person, who, in three days, arrived at the American settlements on the Rio de los Americanos. Here he learnt that Castro had abandoned Santa Clara, and was retreating south, towards Ciudad de los Angelos, the seat