If I was to ask you where Charles C. Fremont was buried, you might answer “In the Rocky Mountains?” Makes sense. Fremont was the “Pathfinder of the West” whose Rocky Mountains maps made passage through to the West Coast possible. But, in my usual weekly quest for Civil War sites, I found out that he was buried about a half hour above New York City in Rockland Cemetery. The cemetery is just a short distance from the Hudson River in Sparkill, New York. It is southwest of the Tappan Zee. I found that if you type “Charles C. Fremont grave” into google maps you will be directed to the right place.
Frémont won 114 electoral votes to 174 votes for Buchanan in the first run for the presidency by a Republican. This was the most successful performance for any third party presidential candidate in the last 170 years. By 1860, Fremont was seen as an explorer of the unknown, anti-slavery activist, and a political power. That would change in just a few years.
The grave is in Rockland County. It is right off of King’s Highway. The cemetery is open 9 AM until 6 PM. You will know you have arrived when you see the following sign.
At the entrance to the grounds, there is a small marker commemorating John C. Fremont. It says:
“Atop Rockland Cemetery lies the grave of he whose exploration in the 1840s opened the way west for countless settlers, who issued the first Emancipation Proclamation and who saved the west for the Union in 1861.
From the ashes of his campfires have sprung cities.
Erected by the Friends of Frémont, May 1989, on the occasion of the restoration of the Frémont gravesite.”
The marker recounts Fremont’s role in mapping the Oregon Trail, fighting the Confederacy, and issuing the “First Emancipation Proclamation.” Please know that this is the thing you’ll see when entering the cemetery, but the grave is about a five minute drive up a rather steep hill. Unless you are in good shape, you should take your car.
When you enter the grounds, you will see a well cared for rural cemetery. The Fremont grave is can be reached by following the road all the way to the top.
While Fremont is known today for his exploration of the American West, in 1856 he was the first Republican nominee for president and the first major party nominee who ran a campaign opposed to the expansion of slavery. In 1861 after the attack on Fort Sumter, he was made a general by Abraham Lincoln and given a command in Missouri that consisted largely of German immigrants.
The Germans of St. Louis had been the shock troops of emancipation in the Mississippi Valley since April, 1861. When Union General John C. Fremont issued his own proclamation at the end of August, 1861, emancipating slaves owned by rebels the Germans felt their blood and sacrifice had finally earned its wage. Little did they suspect that their achievement would be undone by a man later called “The Great Emancipator”.
Abraham Lincoln was increasingly worried about the situation in Missouri. What had begun as a campaign by German immigrants to save the state for the Union had now turned into a revolution to overturn the existing property system that defined black men and women as chattel. At the same time Lincoln was assuring the Border states of Kentucky and Maryland that he was not waging a war on slavery, Fremont, the Germans’ champion, had taken a bold step to free tens of thousands of blacks.1
Lincoln wrote to Fremont, warning him that emancipation would “alarm our Southern Union friends , and turn them against us-perhaps ruin our rather fair prospects for Kentucky.” Lincoln “asked” Fremont to modify his proclamation.2 Lincoln viewed keeping Kentucky in the Union as a key to winning the war.
A trusted aide to Lincoln, Montgomery Meigs, visited Fremont in early Sept and wrote in his journal that Fremont’s command was in disorder-“the rebels are killing and ravaging the Unionmen throughout the state…great distress and alarm prevail.” Questions arose as to whether he was even competent to lead an army, let alone devise a policy on slavery.3
Fremont would suffer another blow to his reputation when his seeming neglect of military matters led “The Irish Brigade of the West” to suffer the same fate as General Lyon’s Germans at Wilson’s Creek.
James Mulligan was a handsome and well-liked Democratic politician in Chicago who commanded the allegiance of that city’s large Irish community. Mulligan organized one of the first Irish regiments of the war, the 23rd Illinois known as The Irish Brigade of the West.
At the same time Fremont’s proclamation was stirring up a national controversy, Colonel Mulligan was ordered to immediately move the Irish Brigade to the isolated Union outpost in Lexington Missouri. On Sept. 1, 1861 the Illinois Irish set out for Lexington with just forty rounds of ammunition and three days worth of food for each man. Mulligan had been told that it was vital that he travel light to reach Lexington before a Confederate force reportedly moving north could get there. He was assured that supplies and reinforcements would soon follow. The 23rd Illinois walked for nine days to reach the small city.4
Col. James Mulligan
When they arrived, the Irish found a small Union force there with little in the way of supplies. All told, there were fewer than 3,000 Union troops in the town. Col. Mulligan took command and began fortifying a small college nearby as his base. On September 11 the Confederates arrived, but Mulligan was able to drive them back. This small victory did not solve the Union supply problem. By Sunday, September 15, the troops had virtually run out of food. The Irish soldiers, now cut off from help, celebrated Sunday Mass with their chaplain under the eyes of the 10,000 Confederates who now surrounded them.5
That Sunday the soldiers realized that the wells they had used for water had run dry. They became so desperately thirsty that they guzzled the bloody water that the wounded had been bathed in. Mulligan later remembered the men’s “parched lips cracking, their tongues swollen, and the blood running down their chins” as they had to bite into their powder cartridges to fire their guns.6
By Sept. 20, the Confederates had created a sort of movable wall of hemp bales which they hid behind and fired from. They gradually moved closer and closer to the lines of the severely outnumbered Irish Brigade. A Confederate officer recounted the scene: “Two or three men would get behind a bale, roll it awhile, then stop and shoot…A line would be advanced in this way.”7 Confederate General Sterling Price wrote that Mulligan’s troops “made many daring attempts to drive us back”, but ultimately they were overwhelmed.8
Diorama from Lexington battlefield museum showing use of hemp bales by Confederates.[Source Anderson House]
With almost no ammunition left and with many of the men having had neither adequate food nor drink for days, Mulligan was forced to surrender.9
Fremont would later claim that “All possible efforts were made to relieve Colonel Mulligan” but many of his supporters soured on him following what they saw as the abandonment of the Irish Brigade.10
Powerful Missouri politician Frank Blair, who had become Fremont’s bitter enemy, turned his propaganda machine loose on the general. Blair’s newspaper wrote that Mulligan had assumed that “with forty thousand Federal troops within a few days march he would be saved” by Fremont, but that “the heroic officer calculated too largely on the cooperation of” Fremont. After this editorial was published, the army shut the paper down for a day and arrested its editor.11
Shortly after the capture of Col. Mulligan, an order from Lincoln rescinding Fremont’s emancipation proclamation was published in the national newspapers. The St. Louis German community was outraged by what they saw as a betrayal by Lincoln of the first principal of the Republican Party. When Fremont was removed from command a month later, some of them became so disillusioned that they vowed to try to deny Lincoln reelection.12
In 1861, Missouri’s Germans had organized the only effective resistance to the state’s pro-Confederate governor, they joined General Lyon in his coup deposing the secessionist state government, and they had driven the secessionists out of northern Missouri by July. Unfortunately, by allying with the emancipationist, but militarily incompetent, John C Fremont the Germans alienated many of the state’s native born and Irish Unionists and they became associated with the general’s dictatorial actions.
After driving through the main lower graveyard you will travel along a road through what looks like a forest. Continue on this road until it reaches the top and you will see a large monument at the top. That memorial erected by New York State is the largest memorial at the top of the hill.
The memorial shows Fremont’s face in its center portion. At the bottom left is the New York State Seal. While most of his career is associated with the West, in retirement he, like Ulysses S. Grant and other Western generals, went to live in New York, settling in Staten Island.
Fremont is generally pictured as a young man today, the memorial shows him as an elderly man in a military uniform. Fremont was commissioned a Major General in 1890, shortly before he died, to help relieve him of his debts. He was 77 when he passed away on July 13, 1890, from peritonitis at his residence at 49 West Twenty-fifth Street in Manhattan, New York
Fremont was initially buried in the famous cemetery at Trinity church in Manhattan where Alexander Hamilton is buried, but the following year, the body was moved to the receiving tomb at Sparkill, a temporary holding site while the permanent grave was being prepared. Two years later the permanent grave was dedicated.
The monument is flanked by two small cannons. On the back, there is a memorial placard recounting Fremont’s life.
Gen. Fremont lies beside his wife Jessie Fremont. She was born in 1824, the daughter of Senator Thomas Heart Benton of Missouri. She was raised in Washington where her father educated her like a son and introduced her to many political figures during her early youth and became quite famous as a thinker on women’s rights as well as for her anti-slavery positions. In 1840, Jessie met Fremont when she was only sixteen years old. They wanted to get married soon thereafter, but her parents objected because of her young age. They married a year later and Jessie formed a good partnership with John, advising him on political matters and speaking out on issues that were important to both of them.
After the Civil War started, she used her influence in Washington to have Lincoln not neglect the situation in Missouri. She helped start the Western Sanitary Commission and she was active in helping support soldiers’ families.
While her grave identifies her as “Jessie Benton Wife of General Fremont 1824-1902” she was as much known for her own accomplishments as for her marriage to the general.
On November 23, 1894 the New York Times carried a story on the burial at Sparkill four years after Fremont died.
“The remains of Gen. John C. Fremont, which have been in the receiving tomb of Rockland Cemetery, Sparkhill, for two years, were interred this afternoon in a grave on the third plateau of the cemetery. A delegation from the Associated Pioneers of the Territorial Days of California, with headquarters in New-York City, came up on an afternoon train to be present at the interment.”
The gravestone marks the general as “General Freemont The Pathfinder 1813-1890.” In his eulogy Rear Admiral Meade pointed out his championship of the Republican Party and his attempt to end slavery.
After Fremont’s winter passage through the Rocky Mountains in 1854, he became one of the most famous people in America. In 1856 he was nominated by the Republican Party as its first presidential candidate. Interestingly, that same year the governor of Virginia tried to recruit Fremont to be the Democratic candidate for the presidency. Fremont turned him down because he was a Free Soiler and opposed slavery and he opposed the enforcement of the Fugitive Slave Law. The Republicans made their slogan that year as “Free Soil, Free Men, and Frémont.” Know Nothings at that time created the false charge that Fremont was a Catholic.
While Fremont was unsuccessful in the campaign, the results did show him winning many Northern counties. He drew heavily from the old Whig Party and had many Northerners change their affiliation from the Democrats and the Know Nothing American Party to the Republicans.
Two small cannons are on either side of the memorial.
Fremont was born in Savannah, Georgia. Unlike the popular notion that in the 19th Century a “man’s state was his country,” Fremont was governor and senator for California, governor of Arizona, and lived in New York during his later years. Of course many people did this without thinking they were changing their countries. Abraham Lincoln was born in Kentucky, then moved to Indiana, and then finally to Illinois. Jefferson Davis was also born in Kentucky, then as a child he moved to Louisiana, and made his fortune as a slave owner in Mississippi. Ulysses S. Grant was similarly peripatetic. He was born in Ohio. He lived in Missouri and Illinois, and he eventually settled in New York.
Other descendants of Fremont lie here as well.
The road up the cemetery to Fremont’s grave. If you type into Google Maps “Jon Fremont’s Grave” you will find it there.
It is not that usual to see a wild turkey in a cemetery within an hour of Times Square.
Below is the lower cemetery. You need to continue uphill from here.
If you visit the cemetery, you might want to drive down to the Mario Cuomo Bridge spanning the Tappan Zee, the widest part of the Hudson River. The bridge was opened in 2018 and it is the largest bridge in the state. At either end there are parking lots and you can walk across the Hudson River here. I only made it halfway but it was a great walk. Make sure to bring sunscreen to protect yourself.
At the time of the Civil War, the Hudson was a very important line of communication. The Erie Canal brought the produce of Upstate New York to Albany where it was transferred to sloops to journey down river to New York City. There were also railroads carrying supplies.
Most importantly, the Cold Spring Foundry, the North’s most important manufacturer of cannon, is located less than 30 miles upriver. The armory is located just across from West Point. The river here was looked upon by all the Southern recruits who resigned from West Point at the start of the war.
The pathway is modern, with both fences and barricades to protect you from cars and from falling over the side into the river.
There are a half-dozen special observation areas which have QR Code explanations of what you are seeing as well as a place for you to sit and take in the view.
Up beyond this ridge the river narrows and further upstream is West Point.
If you decide you want to walk on the bridge, pick a nice day and bring your binoculars.
At either end there are small visitors centers which have restrooms. There are no restrooms on the bridge itself.
Notes
Source Notes-Generally for the battle of Lexington I used the ORR Series 1 Vol 3 pp. 173-193
Note on troops engaged: Col. Thomas Snead of the Confederate forces estimates 18,000 troops under Sterling Price in First Year of the War in Missouri in Battles and Leaders p. 273. Most other sources place the number of Price’s troops at 10,000 to 13,000. Because Price was receiving irregular volunteers as the siege progressed, it is impossible to ascertain an exact count.
1. Battle Cry of Freedom by James McPherson p 352
2. Lincoln to Fremont Sept. 2, 1861 in Lincoln Collected Works Vol. 4 p. 506
3. Team of Rivals by Doris Kearns Goodwin pp 393
4. The Siege of Lexington, Mo. By Col. James Mulligan in Battles and Leaders Vol. 1 p. 307. While Mulligan’s unit was called the “Irish Brigade”, in fact it was a regiment.
5. The Siege of Lexington, Mo. By Col. James Mulligan in Battles and Leaders Vol. 1 p 308-309; Civil War on the Western Border by Jay Monaghan pub. by Little Brown (1955)
6. The Siege of Lexington, Mo. By Col. James Mulligan in Battles and Leaders Vol. 1 p. 311.
7. From Recollections of the Battle by Capt. Joseph A. Wilson in The Battle of Lexington pub. by Lexington Historical Society (1903) p. 13.
8. ORR Series 1 vol. 3 p. 187 Report of Maj. Gen. Sterling Price Sept. 21, 1861.
9. The Siege of Lexington, Mo. By Col. James Mulligan in Battles and Leaders Vol. 1 p. 312.
10. In Command in Missouri by John C. Fremont in Battles and Leaders Vol. 1 p. 286.
11. Fremont: Pathfinder of the West by Allen Nevins published by Longman, Green (1955) pp. 523-525.
12. Harpers Weekly 1861-09-28
Note: All color photos of buildings in this post were taken by Patrick Young except as noted.
